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'Genre writers have a greater responsibility'

30 September 2019

‘I first thought Reacher would appeal mostly to men. But the majority of my readers are women, which is really interesting. Even in the 21st century, women struggle to express themselves, they have to shout that much louder. It is usually women who are busier at work, holding families together, making the tough decisions. So I think they strongly identify with the fantasy of walking away from commitments. And being able to kick the crap out of other people...

I only really care about my readers. But I've always been irritated by the lazy assumption among critics that what I do is somehow easier than what ‘literary' novelists do. It's actually quite the reverse - to write something to please millions is obviously harder than doing something that only has to please thousands. I also think that genre writers have a greater responsibility. A literary reader has no expectation that everything they read is going to be great. If you pick up the latest Julian Barnes and it doesn't work, you go on to the next one. Many genre readers read one or two books a year - give them a bad book and they may stop reading altogether.'

Lee Child, author of the 23 Jack Reacher novels, most recently Past Tense, in Books magazine https://www.leechild.com/