Lee Child was born in 1954 in Coventry, England. His family soon moved to Birmingham, where he went to the same high school that J. R. R. Tolkien once attended. He received a formal English education, learning Latin, Greek, and Old English, before he attended law school in Sheffield. After working in the theater, he began an eighteen-year career with Granada Television in Manchester. After company-wide restructuring, he left, embarking on a fiction-writing career.
Jack Reacher, who has been featured in all of Child's novels, made his first appearance in 1997 in Killing Floor, which was an immediate success, winning both the Anthony and Barry Awards for best first novel of the year. The series has increased in popularity each year, with foreign rights selling widely around the world, while making regular appearances on major bestseller lists everywhere. One Shot (2005), was made into the movie Jack Reacher, starring Tom Cruise.
The James Bond-like author drives a supercharged Jaguar and divides his time between the south of France and Manhattan, where he has become an enthusiastic fan of the New York Yankees. He is married and has a daughter.
