Justine Mann, archivist at UEA, said: “For the first time, creative writers, researchers and scholars of literature will have access to material that allows them to trace Child’s writing process and, through textual analysis of initial and subsequent drafts, identify some of the secrets behind his incredible success.”Ĭhild’s success as a writer has enabled him to buy homes in New York, England and the south of France. There is so much material it will take more than a year to catalogue. He has sent more than 40 enormous boxes filled with papers spanning his career. But East Anglia does have a reputation as a great university for writers and they … were convinced that it would be useful.” The archive boasts the literary holdings of Doris Lessing, Malcolm Bradbury and JD Salinger, among others, while the university has an international reputation for creative writing through its MA, with Ian McEwan among its alumni.Ĭommenting on why he is giving the collection to the UEA, Child said: “It seems to me, from an author’s point of view, tremendously arrogant to imagine that anybody’s going to find it interesting … it wasn’t something I thought I would ever do. It will be announced this week that he is transferring everything to the British Archive for Contemporary Writing at the University of East Anglia (UEA). In one letter after Cruise’s portrayal in Jack Reacher (2012) and Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016), a fan wrote that most readers picture Reacher as “tall, rugged, etc (not that half-pint from the movies)”.įan letters are part of a vast archive of correspondence, notes and manuscripts that Child is making available to the public for the first time. The actor proved too diminutive for tens of thousands of fans of the novels. So it doesn’t need to be a so-called A-list guy.” It’s much less star-driven than feature films. Asked about the cast, he said: “That’s the great thing about television.

So the readers were cross from the beginning.”Ĭhild hopes that a deal will be signed by November for productions that will devote between 10 and 12 hours to each book. It was felt that, for all his virtues, Cruise didn’t represent that. Even without doing anything, if he walks into a room, people are a little bit uneasy. “Part of Reacher’s appeal is that he’s very intimidating. “I’ve got tens of thousands of letters saying they didn’t like Cruise because he’s too small, basically,” said Child. Cruise, however, is said to be only 5ft 7in. Reacher, a private investigator and drifter, is described in Child’s novels as physically towering, measuring in at 6ft 5in. Now Lee Child is planning major television adaptations of his Jack Reacher books after fans complained to him about Tom Cruise’s portrayal of the larger-than-life hero in two Hollywood movies. H e is one of the world’s most successful crime writers, selling more than 100 million copies of his novels and short stories worldwide.

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