I write in the afternoon, from about 12 until 6 or 7. I use an upstairs room as my office. Once I get going I keep at it, and it usually takes about six months from the first blank screen until ‘The End.’

I write in the afternoon, from about 12 until 6 or 7. I use an upstairs room as my office. Once I get going I keep at it, and it usually takes about six months from the first blank screen until ‘The End.’

I had been coming to America very frequently for many, many years, so I had plenty of exposure – and maybe the best kind of exposure, because I think first impressions are very important. Maybe I notice stuff that is just subliminal to people who live here all the time.

The British regulatory system was revised, so that bigger profits were encouraged, which removed the option of big spending on programming. Quality just fell off a cliff, and all the old hands either left or were fired for being too expensive.

I do a little fact checking now and then. Other than that its impact is simply that email has revolutionized communication for me, and my website has built up a community of readers, which is a lot of fun.

I’m opposed to censorship of any kind, especially by government. But it’s plain common sense that producers should target their product with some kind of sensitivity.

I wanted readers to be genuinely unsure as to whether she’s telling the truth or lying. It meant making her partly sympathetic, and partly unsympathetic, which wasn’t easy.

I think my books come out very visual, which is an obvious consequence.

I have the ‘thing’ worked out – the trick or the surprise or the pivotal fact. Then I just start somewhere and let the story work itself out.

It’s a tough case and the first time Reacher needs to recruit somebody to help him out. He uses a woman he knew in the army she’s a fascinating character.

She’s a reflection of my fascination with the diversity of America she’s totally normal in New York, but a freak in Texas. There are dozens of such clashes in America.

I had a brief theater background and loved the backstage world there’s more backstage work in television, so I saw a job advertised and applied, and got it. That was back in 1977, when getting jobs was easy.

I was fired from my television job, simple as that. Well, downsized, really, a classic 1990s situation.

What do I miss about the UK? Sadly, almost nothing. Maybe the midnight sun, in June in the north. That’s all.

I felt alienated by the experience and decided to stay away from corporate employment.

So, how to stay inside the world of entertainment without actually getting another job? I felt the only logical answer was to become a novelist. So I wrote the first book – driven by some very real feelings of desperation – and it worked.