Jack Reacher wouldn’t exist without Birmingham’s libraries, says writer | Lee Child

It is said that heroes are made, not born.

In the case of fictional ex-soldier Jack Reacher, it has emerged that he was created in a library in Birmingham.

With many libraries in the city facing closure, Reacher’s creator, bestselling author Lee Child, is speaking out.

The author, who grew up in Birmingham, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that his 6ft 3in, 250lb protagonist would never have existed without the Second City libraries he visited as a child.

He said, “If you talk to any writer, he will always tell you the same thing: those first years of reading, reading, reading, reading, for decades, that’s what makes you a writer.

“So no book would ever get published if you didn’t read it early in life, and the way it was, you know, my parents were lovely people, and they bought us books when they could afford them. But that was twice a year, on your birthday and at Christmas. And if you ever wanted to read anything else, you had to go to the library.”

Birmingham City Council, which is trying to plug a multi-million pound hole in its finances, has proposed allowing 10 libraries to remain open full-time and operate as “community centres”, while 14 others could only open part-time.

Child, 69, told the BBC he started using a library in Handsworth Wood, a suburb of Birmingham, adding: “Someone had put it in a wooden shed, and there weren’t that many books in there, and by the time I was six I’d read them all.”

He then found another library in Perry Barr and “went there at least once a week before I went to college.”

Child added: “I’m so sentimental and emotional about it, because that building saved my life at that moment, it made it possible. It largely created it. I read and read and read and got lost in every subject, everywhere in the world, at every moment in history. I just loved it, and now it’s under threat.”

Child said he understood the council was struggling financially and that his experience was more than 60 years ago when the world was “completely different”.

But he added: “I think if you have to cut costs somewhere, that’s very sad, but don’t cut them in libraries because you’re cutting a huge future for a lot of people.”

Birmingham City Council has been contacted for comment.