Lee Child - 2009 National Book Festival

Author Lee Child known for his Jack Reacher adventures appears at the National Book Festival. Speaker Biography: Lee Child is the pen name of British thriller writer Jim Grant. Each of Child's novels follows the adventures of a former American military policeman named Jack Reacher, who is wandering the United States. In 1997 his first novel, "Killing Floor," was published, and Child moved to the United States from his native England. "Gone Tomorrow" is his 13th Jack Reacher adventure. He has said that he chose the name "Reacher" for the central character in his novels because he is himself tall and, in a supermarket, his wife, Jane, told him: "Hey, if this writing thing doesn't pan out, you could always be a reacher in a supermarket." Child lives in France and New York.