Lee Child, the best-selling author of the Jack Reacher book series, paid a visit to Welshpool High School on Friday. During a question and answer session with pupils, the author discussed which adaptation of his work he prefers, his forms of inspiration and his history with Tom Cruise. He told pupils: “I was fired from my job as a TV director in Manchester.
In the 90s it seemed as if industries turned against the idea of experts, so it was in fashion to fire people throughout those industries. “I was 39 years old, and I thought about what I could do when the main thing I was skilled at is what I’d just been fired from. “I’ve been a reader all my life, I think I’ve read around 10,000 in my life, so thought I’d try writing.
I thought the properties were the same as my work in TV. “I took a step back and thought about the big picture. I realised what I did in TV was gave an audience what they wanted, so I put two and two together.
I was an entertainer, the same as any other entertainer. “The attitude around writing is that it’s a fancy thing for people who smoke French cigarettes and wear leather jackets. But to be a writer the only thing you need is to be a reader.
” One pupil asked him about his experiences working on the Tom Cruise film adaptations of Jack Reacher and whether he preferred the ongoing television series based on the books. He said: “The films were fun to do, I enjoyed working with those people and I enjoyed working with Tom Cruise as a fr.
