Later Bloomer

Lee Child: Fired at 40 and World Famous by 50. Is His Legend Real?

According to Lee Child's official biography, he was downsized at age 40, spent six bucks on a pencil and pad, and wrote an international bestseller in a year. Was it really that easy?
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No doubt, the best thing about becoming a legendary author is writing your own legend.

According to Lee Child’s official biography, he was “fired in 1995 at the age of 40 as a result of corporate restructuring.” He then spent $6.00 on paper and pencils and wrote an international bestseller.

He supposedly commutes between homes Manhattan and St. Tropez. He drives a turbocharged Jaguar, “built in Jaguar’s Browns Lane plant, thirty yards from the hospital in which he was born.”

Sacked at 40, millionaire author at 50. Does Lee Child have anything to teach Later Bloomers? And how much of his legend is true?

Becoming Lee Child

Lee Child was born Jim Grant in 1954. He grew up in Birmingham, England. Bookbrowse describes it as “the heart of the industrial badlands.”

It was the sort of place where if you fell in the river, you had to go to the hospital for a mandatory stomach pump. The sort of place where minor disputes were settled with box cutters and bicycle chains. He’s got the scars to prove it.

Despite his rough start, Lee finished law school at the University of Sheffield, though he had no intention of practicing. He wanted to tell stories.

At age 23, he joined Granada Television as a Presentation Director, responsible for trailers, commercials, and press releases. During his tenure, Granada produced the British TV classics Brideshead Revisited, The Jewel in the Crown, and Prime Suspect.

At first, Granada ran their outfit like a family business. But as time passed, they became more corporate. The new management lined their own pockets by cutting costs.

Those cuts included loyal employees and their pensions.

At age 38, Lee made a questionable career move. He became the shop steward for the Association of Cinematograph, Television, and Allied Technicians union, an unpaid job on top of his regular one.

Granada had fired two previous stewards on trumped-up grounds and wanted to destroy the union (they eventually succeeded). Why did Lee do it?

Because,

In the years ’78 through about ’91, thirteen years, [Granada] won probably four hundred Emmys. It was a factory that produced the most marvelous product—and they were vandalizing it, just trashing it from top to bottom. So initially, I was trying to protect the legacy, I guess. And then it was about protecting the actual people who were being just appallingly treated.

But in 1995, right before Lee’s fortieth birthday, Granada’s new management “restructured” him and hundreds of his coworkers out of their jobs. They gave him notice while he was on holiday with his family.

Lee had car payments, a mortgage, and a daughter just two years from college. He needed an income but didn’t want another boss. How could he keep himself immersed in entertainment?

He decided to throw all those years of television experience behind writing a thriller. Lee created “Jack Reacher,” an ex-military cop who got downsized from the Army. Reacher is 6’5″ with steely blue eyes and a 50-inch chest. He’s a loner and drifter who wanders into town, dispatches the bad guys, hits the road again. You want him on your side in a fight. He’s a man’s man and ladies’ man.

Lee needed to get the book done before his severance check ran out. His family supported him. Wife Jane (who’s American) got a job, and daughter Ruth waitressed on weekends.

His gamble paid off. The first Jack Reacher novel, Killing Floor, hit the international bestseller lists and won the Barry Award for Best First Novel.

Did Lee really just walk out and buy $6 worth of writing supplies? Actually, it was £3.99, and he’s still got the pencil:

It was a yellow shorthand pencil, and it started out the regular length, and now it’s this long [spreads fingers a tiny distance]. I’ve still got it.

Lee Child's first novel
Where it all started in 1997—Lee Child's first Jack Reacher novel (aff link to Amazon).

Fast Forward: Lee Child Today

Lee often teaches writing at his alma mater, University of Sheffield, where he has funded 52 Jack Reacher scholarships, worth £2,000 each:

I was very happy to help out. My generation went to university for free, and I believe in paying things forward.

Since 2017, Lee and Jane spend three months of the year in Laramie, Wyoming, a place that grew on him while researching Jack Reach No. 22, The Midnight Line. Their home is surrounded by thirty-five acres of forest, lakes, and ranch lands. They still have properties in St. Tropez and Manhattan, but Jane’s done with the bustle. It’s remote, and they love it.

After writing Jack Reacher No. 24, Lee was ready to kill off his creation and retire. But his fan base is wildly loyal. Instead, in January 2020, he announced that his younger brother Andrew (also a successful writer) would take over the franchise.

But Lee’s not done with Reacher. He sold Paramount the film rights to his first two books, which starred Tom Cruise, and kept his rights to the rest. Now he’s working with Amazon on a streaming series. He’ll supervise the scripts but not write them.

Not surprisingly, Lee Child, formerly known as the union boss Jim Grant, negotiated for complete control of his hero’s legend.

Late-Blooming Wisdom from Lee Child

If you’re fired at 40, it’s not all about hurt and betrayal and fear. It’s about opportunity.

Here’s an excellent short interview with Lee on Starting Writing After 40. “You should start late,” he maintains. “People who start writing too young haven’t lived enough.”

Notice how the interviewer uses the term “wannabe writers” and Lee gently corrects him with “aspiring writers.”

If you could write your own legend, what would it say? What have you overcome? What magic tool (like the yellow pencil) could take you there?

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