Lee Child - Killing Floor

With James Naughtie.

Lee Child discusses the first in his hugely successful Jack Reacher series, Killing Floor, and published in 1997. He's now gone on to write 18 books featuring his grizzled action hero, a former military policeman of no fixed abode.

Lee reflects on the genesis of Jack Reacher, who appeared when he decided to write fiction after being made redundant by Granada TV in 1995. Lee says that he and Jack were on a parallel journey in Killing Floor, as Jack has just left the military and is out in an unfamiliar world at the same time as Lee. As he looks back, he can see his own raw emotion in Jack, who in Killing Floor is a character full of fury. But by book seven, the frustration had abated and Jack's anger had calmed down.

The books have gone on to sell over 60 million copies worldwide.

As always on Bookclub, a group of invited readers join in the discussion.

January's Bookclub choice : The Secret History by Donna Tartt

Producer : Dymphna Flynn.