When Lee Child was 40, he was made redundant from his job as the programme director at the British TV company Granada. Bruised but determined, he used his pay-off to buy the time to write a thriller - not to satisfy some long-held romantic ambition, but to make enough money to support his wife and young daughter.
"It had to work," he says. "It had to succeed or I would have lost my house. The fact that it wasn't a hobby made me more realistic. I had no cherished preconceptions. The project was to write a book and make it sell. People sniff about that a bit, as if it's overtly commercial. They think art should be art and that to approach it thinking it should sell is undignified. I feel the opposite. All art is a transaction between its creator and the public. It's like a philosophical proposition: if you put on a show and nobody comes, have you put on a show?"
Child's first novel, Killing Floor, was published in 1997 and sold respectably. His readership has grown exponentially with each annual book. His 14th, 61 Hours, is just out and seems set to repeat - perhaps even exceed - the achievement of last year's Nothing to Lose, which entered the UK hardback best-seller chart at No 1 in the same week that its predecessor, Bad Luck and Trouble, was at the top of the paperback chart.
Child's success is not limited to Britain. The books are best-sellers across the world: Child estimates that one is sold somewhere every second. One Shot was bought by Tom Cruise's production company in a deal said to be worth more than £20 million (Dh112m). Now, at 55, Child is a multimillionaire with two apartments in New York and two in St Tropez - one each to live and write in.
Some thriller writers cite a propulsive, twisty plot as the most important element. For Child, plot is crucial, but at the same time incidental, "like a rental car for getting you from A to B". Character matters more to him, and his novels star one of the most memorable in modern fiction: Jack Reacher.
Reacher is an elite military policeman-turned-drifter; a renegade with a rigid but fascinatingly liberal sense of justice. In Child's stories, Reacher typically shows up in a small community, sorts out whichever bad guys are plaguing it, then moves off, leaving no trace. He's a strapping fellow - 6 feet, 5 inches tall, with a 50-inch chest. He has no possessions apart from the clothes on his back, and when those need washing he throws them away and buys new ones. (He's sorely taxed on the clothes-buying front in 61 Hours; its freezing South Dakota setting necessitates a whole winter wardrobe.)
It's easy to see why men love Reacher: they want to be him. What's surprised Child is the blue-eyed loner's popularity with women. "I didn't see that coming," he admits. "I hoped women would like him well enough, but they've turned out to be the majority of his fans. I think one reason for it is that women get very upset by injustice and hate things that aren't fair. And Reacher puts things right. There's a slight fancying thing, too. Some of the older readers want to mother him."
PREMIER LEAGUE FIXTURES
Saturday (UAE kick-off times)
Watford v Leicester City (3.30pm)
Brighton v Arsenal (6pm)
West Ham v Wolves (8.30pm)
Bournemouth v Crystal Palace (10.45pm)
Sunday
Newcastle United v Sheffield United (5pm)
Aston Villa v Chelsea (7.15pm)
Everton v Liverpool (10pm)
Monday
Manchester City v Burnley (11pm)
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
THE SPECS
Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine
Power: 420kW
Torque: 780Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh1,350,000
On sale: Available for preorder now
How to donate
Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
2289 – Dh10
2252 – Dh 50
6025 – Dh20
6027 – Dh 100
6026 – Dh 200
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
Race results:
1. Thani Al Qemzi (UAE) Team Abu Dhabi: 46.44 min
2. Peter Morin (FRA) CTIC F1 Shenzhen China Team: 0.91sec
3. Sami Selio (FIN) Mad-Croc Baba Racing Team: 31.43sec
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Ruwais timeline
1971 Abu Dhabi National Oil Company established
1980 Ruwais Housing Complex built, located 10 kilometres away from industrial plants
1982 120,000 bpd capacity Ruwais refinery complex officially inaugurated by the founder of the UAE Sheikh Zayed
1984 Second phase of Ruwais Housing Complex built. Today the 7,000-unit complex houses some 24,000 people.
1985 The refinery is expanded with the commissioning of a 27,000 b/d hydro cracker complex
2009 Plans announced to build $1.2 billion fertilizer plant in Ruwais, producing urea
2010 Adnoc awards $10bn contracts for expansion of Ruwais refinery, to double capacity from 415,000 bpd
2014 Ruwais 261-outlet shopping mall opens
2014 Production starts at newly expanded Ruwais refinery, providing jet fuel and diesel and allowing the UAE to be self-sufficient for petrol supplies
2014 Etihad Rail begins transportation of sulphur from Shah and Habshan to Ruwais for export
2017 Aldar Academies to operate Adnoc’s schools including in Ruwais from September. Eight schools operate in total within the housing complex.
2018 Adnoc announces plans to invest $3.1 billion on upgrading its Ruwais refinery
2018 NMC Healthcare selected to manage operations of Ruwais Hospital
2018 Adnoc announces new downstream strategy at event in Abu Dhabi on May 13
Source: The National
ACL Elite (West) - fixtures
Monday, Sept 30
Al Sadd v Esteghlal (8pm)
Persepolis v Pakhtakor (8pm)
Al Wasl v Al Ahli (8pm)
Al Nassr v Al Rayyan (10pm)
Tuesday, Oct 1
Al Hilal v Al Shorta (10pm)
Al Gharafa v Al Ain (10pm)
