Ken Follett

Ken Follett was born on June 5, 1949, in Cardiff, Wales. He received his degree in philosophy in 1970 from University College in London. His first job was as a trainee journalist and rock music columnist at the South Wales Echo from 1970-73. He started writing fiction when he needed money for car repairs. He told the Chicago Tribune: “It was a hobby for me. You know, some men go home and grow vegetables. I used to go home and write novels.” He became a full-time writer in 1977 and had written his first bestseller before he turned thirty.

Many of his early novels, published under various pseudonyms, were murder mysteries or crime fiction based on cases he covered as a reporter. It was his 11th book, Eye of the Needle, that was described as “quite simply the best spy novel to come out of England in years.” Follett’s heroines are so realistically portrayed that the author has been able to lure female readers to his novels that traditionally appeal to men. In 1989, Ken Follett took a break from his highly successful thrillers and penned The Pillars of the Earth, his first of three historical novels. Critics were skeptical but Pillars became his most popular book.

Follett has taken readers from the resistance underground of World War II Paris, to the brutality of the Scottish mines of the 18th Century, to 1958 and the height of the Cold War in the U.S. and beyond. He enjoys the label of “popular writer” and says, “I’m not under the illusion that the world is waiting for my thoughts to appear in print. People want to be told a story, and that’s what I’m up to.”