Lee Child (Credit: Empire via YouTube)
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You may recall last year's Tom Cruise flick, "Jack Reacher," about a former soldier who roams the land incognito, uncovers wrongs, doles out revenge-oriented justice, and then disappears again.
(Credit: Official trailer 2 via YouTube)
Well, if you're not a familiar with the fellow who writes the mega-selling Jack Reacher novels that the Cruise movie is based on, you'll likely never forget who Lee Child is after reading about him here.
Why? Because the author lives about as extremely as his world-famous character.
But Doesn't It Dull the Senses?
For starters, the Daily Mail reports that Child "keeps his writing razor-sharp by working while high on cannabis and even claims that it should be made compulsory."
"I’ve been smoking weed for 44 years, five nights a week," the author told the Daily Mail. "I’m the poster boy to prove it doesn’t do you much harm."
"I have a guy on speed dial in New York who comes over with a huge range of marijuana. I smoke it in a pipe because I’ve never been any good at rolling my own joints."
Lee Child (Credit: Empire via YouTube)
Child, 58, was brought up in England and moved to America in 1999 after he published the first of his Reacher novels, which have now sold 70 million copies, the DM says, adding that one is bought every two seconds.
His latest Reacher novel is "Never Go Back," which releases Sept. 3. It's Child's 18th Reacher novel.
Coffee and Cannabis
Also like Reacher—whose life is so streamlined and minimalist that he doesn’t own a change of clothes—Child leads a decidedly spartan lifestyle despite his quite full bank account.
The kitchen cupboards of his Manhattan apartment are bare, the DM reports: no food, no cooking equipment.
Why? Because he exists mostly on coffee and marijuana.
"I am indifferent to food," he said. "I have to eat, obviously, but I work better when I am hungry."
That would explain why Child, who stands 6 feet 5 inches tall, is thin as a rail.
"And the weed, well, that’s part of the diet."
Oddly (or maybe not) his wife Jane is the New Yorker...but she lives in Sussex, England, and visits several times a year.
Rags to Riches
When Child was out of work in his early 40s and flat broke, he penned his first Reacher novel...literally. He wrote it in long-hand because he couldn’t afford a computer, the DM says.
"It wasn’t a hobby," he said. "Frankly we were in the s***. I had to find a new profession. And fast."
Child's debut novel, "Killing Floor," was a hit. And more and more successful novels followed. Still Child says Reacher is the star, not him.
"When anyone walks into a bookshop, they ask for the new Reacher, not the new Lee Child."
Check out this interview with Child who discusses what it means to him that a Reacher novel made it to the silver screen:
And an official trailer for the "Jack Reacher" movie:
(H/T: Daily Mail)
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