READER’S DIGEST
May• 2019 | 97fulfilling what I’ve always wanted to
do, which is making other people
happy,” he says. “I’m not earning
money out of misery, which I think
a lot of people do, and I don’t know
how that would feel. If you’re a
lawyer and making a living dealing
with people who are getting divorced,
that must be a miserable experience.”
The opportunity for Child to
pursue writing for a living arose in
1995, after he was made redundant
from his job as a presentation di-
rector at Granada Television. But
the decision to become an author
wasn’t taken lightly. He was 40,
unemployed, and had wife Jane,
who he married in 1975, and young
daughter, Ruth, to provide for – it
was a stressful time.
“I had to take it seriously,” Child
explains. “It had to work because
I was broke. I’m not falsely mod-
est about it – I can write. But apart
from that I’m a completely ordinary
person. I’m just a normal guy. So
whatever I want, lots of other people
want, too. I can communicate with
huge numbers of people because I
am them. It’s that simple.”
Child believes the single most im-
portant factor that enables him to
write with such ease and clarity is
life experience. Being older means
he has something interesting to
write about.
“Writing is not only something
that you can do later in life,” he
explains. “It is something that you
should wait until later in life to do,
until the gas tank is full, until you’ve
seen things and know things. Until
you have something to say.”
Turning 40 so soon after leaving
Granada Television meant Child felt
confident that he had enough lifeexperience behind him to launch
into the next phase of his life.
“At 40, you can use what you’ve
learnt to move forwards,” he says.
“In a way it’s a great opportunity and
the last time you can make a radi-
cal change to your life. The chances
of actually succeeding as a popu-
lar writer are very small but I just
thought,Well, obviously it will work.”
And so, on Thursday, September 1,
1994, the voracious reader famously
bought six dollars’ worth of paper
and pencils, and then sat down to“Writing is something you should wait
until laterin life to do... until you’ve seen
things. Until you have something to say”