Although I’ve met Lee Child once before, eight years ago, and have subsequently watched several videos of him being interviewed on YouTube, even so, when we get together in the Times office, I’m still struck, indeed borderline shocked, by how slim he is. Not just slim, in fact, but properly thin.
It’s not as if Child hasn’t previously advertised or explained his body shape. Just as he thinks smoking cigarettes (a pack of Camels a day, more when he’s writing) stimulates creativity, he is also on record saying hunger has a similarly beneficial effect. “It helps to stay hungry. I don’t eat much at all.”
How much does he weigh? “You wouldn’t believe it if I told you.”
Tell me anyway. “Nine stone something.”
And