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From urgently scribbling out his debut Killing Floor in pencil (the stub of which he still owns), to taking a step back with Blue Moon, and everything in between, here are 24 honest, witty and wise personal reflections on his life and work, crafted across decades. Whether it is through Lee's moving account of meeting a fan years after her mother brought her to a book signing; facing his first computer and the coming of the internet; writing about New York just before - and just after - 9/11, to later seeing his novels adapted for the big screen, each riveting piece deftly evokes where he was psychologically and physically when he wrote each novel. Lee has clearly felt unwavering gratitude for his readers since 1997. And these stories were originally designed for fans of Reacher who may be interested in a 'behind-the-scenes' - or, in Lee's words: 'why the books turned out the way they did'. But this collection is also so much more. It is the story of a man who once put pencil to paper in an attempt to turn his luck around . . . and who made every word count.

*A <em>Sunday Times</em>, <em>Irish Times</em>, <em>Financial Times</em>, <em>Independent,</em> <em>Daily Mail</em>, <em>TLS, Economist, Prospect,</em> <em>Evening Standard</em> and <em>New Statesman</em> Book of the Year 2024* <br/><br/><strong>Can you remember the first time you fell in love with a book?</strong> <br/><br/>The stories we read as children matter. The best ones are indelible in our memories; reaching far beyond our childhoods, they are a window into our deepest hopes, joys and anxieties. They reveal our past - collective and individual, remembered and imagined - and invite us to dream up different futures. <br/><br/>In a pioneering history of the children's literary canon, <em>The Haunted Wood</em> reveals the magic of childhood reading, from the ancient tales of Aesop, through the Victorian and Edwardian golden age to new classics. Excavating the complex lives of our most beloved writers, Sam Leith offers a humane portrait of a genre and celebrates the power of books to inspire and console entire generations. <br/><br/>*** <br/><br/><strong>'A MARVEL' PHILIP PULLMAN</strong> <br/><br/><strong>'A DELIGHT'</strong> <strong>JULIA DONALDSON</strong> <br/><br/><strong>'GLORIOUSLY ENTERTAINING' TOM HOLLAND</strong>

'Indeed, the history of the Nobel Prize in Literature appears to be a series of attempts to interpret an unclear will.'<br/><br/><br/><br/>How does one appraise literary quality and just what did Alfred Nobel have in mind when he wrote in his will that his Literature Prize be awarded to a person who had 'produced the most outstanding work in an ideal direction'? Why was the very first recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature Sully Prudhomme, while Lev Tolstoy was overlooked? How have the winners been chosen? In this volume, Kjell Espmark (1930-2022) adeptly surveys the first 120 years of the prize and presents the Nobel Committee's reasoning. His deep knowledge of the Nobel Prize in Literature and personal experience of deciding the winners give unprecedented insight into the workings of the prize. The final chapters focus on the Committee's broadened horizons and revised modus operandi, as well as the most propitious choice of Nobel laureate of all time.<br/><br/><br/><br/>The book consists of translations of Kjell Espmarks two works <em>Litteraturpriset - hundra år med Nobels uppdrag </em>(2001) and <em>Nobelpriset i litteratur - ett nytt sekel </em>(2021).