Historical Author – Ken Follett

Ken Follett – British author of thrillers and historical novels; many of which have reached the number-one position on the New York Times Best Seller list.

Who is Ken Follett?

Kenneth Martin Follett was born on 5 June 1949 in Cardiff, Wales. He was the first child of Martin Follett, a tax inspector, and Lavinia Follett. He has two siblings: Hannah and James.

Growing up, he was banned from watching films and television by his parents who belonged to the Christian church movement Plymouth Brethren. It was because of this upbringing he developed an early interest in reading. His family moved to London when he was ten years old. He began applying himself to his studies Poole Technical College.

In 1967, Follett was accepted into the University College London, where he studied philosophy and became involved in centre-left politics. A year later (1968) he married his first wife, Mary, and had a son named Emanuele. He graduated in 1970 with an Honours degree in Philosophy and later, in 1995 was made a Fellow of the College.

After graduation, Follett took a three-month post-graduate course in journalism. He returned to his place of birth as a trainee reporter in Cardiff on the South Wales Echo newspaper. His daughter Marie-Claire was born in 1973.

When did Ken Follett transition to publishing?

After three years in Cardiff, Follett returned to London as a general-assignment reporter for the Evening News (which no longer exists today). Finding the field of Journalism unchallenging, Follett made the decision to leave for publishing and became the deputy managing director of the small London publisher Everest Books. He began writing fiction during evenings and weekends as a hobby. Later, he said, he began writing books when he needed extra money to fix his car. The publisher’s advance was the exact sum of money he needed for the repairs.

Follett’s big break came in 1978 with the publication of Eye of the Needle – a World War II thriller set in England. Becoming an international bestseller, it sold over 10 million copies. He had landed on the international author’s list.

Subsequently, novels after this break achieved the same ‘best-seller’ status and were ranked high on the New York Times Best Seller list. The first five best-seller spy thrillers included:

Eye of the Needle (1978)

Triple (1979)

The Key to Rebecca (1980)

The Man from St. Petersburg (1982)

Lie Down with Lions (1986)

He later turned to historical writing and produced:

Night Over Water (1991)

A Dangerous Fortune (1993)

A Place Called Freedom (1995)

What is the Kingsbridge series?

In 1989, Follett surprised his readers with a novel about the building of a cathedral in a small English village (Kingsbridge) during the Anarchy in the 12th century. It was called Pillars of the Earth. It remained on the New York best-seller list for 8 weeks and topped the list everywhere. It remained on the German best-seller list for six years. It has sold 26 million copies so far and has even been adapted into a major television series.

The sequel to Pillers of the Earth was published in 2007 called World Without End. In this novel, we return to Kingsbridge 157 years later and features the descendants of the characters in The Pillars of the Earth.

Which books make up Ken Follett’s Century Trilogy?

Follett’s novels, Fall of Giants, Winter of the World and Edge of Eternity, make up the Century Trilogy.

Fall of Giants (2010) follows the fate of five interrelated families stemming from different countries (American, German, Russian, English and Welsh) as they moved through the world-shaking dramas of World War I, the Russian Revolution and the struggle for women’s suffrage.

Winter of the World (2012) picks up where the first book left off, as its five interrelated families enter a time of enormous social, political, and economic turmoil.

The final novel in the ‘Century Trilogy, Edge of Eternity, was published on 16 September 2014. It covers the events of the second half of the 20^th century by the decedents of the five families

Kenn Follett 1970’s – personal life

As previously mentioned, Follett became involved in centre-left politics during the 1970’s. He involved himself in activities of Britain’s Labour Party. During the course of his political activities, he met Barbara Broer, a Labour Party official, who became his second wife in 1984.

She was elected as a Member of Parliament in 1997, representing Stevenage. Follett himself remains a prominent Labour supporter and fundraiser.

Follett now lives in Hertfordshire, England