By Jacqueline SchneiderFeatures correspondent
BBCBest-selling author Ken Follett joins the BBC's Katty Kay on Influential (Credit: BBC)After selling nearly 200 million books about the past, the Pillars of the Earth author has a singular perspective on the historical themes that repeat – and what this means about modern times.
Before becoming one of the world's best-selling fiction authors, Ken Follett was a newspaper reporter in London. He began writing as a side job after work during weekends, while raising two children.
His determination paid off: Follett quickly became a prolific storyteller. In 1978, he found immense success with his eleventh book, a World War Two-era spy thriller called Eye of the Needle. Since its release, the book has sold more than 10 million copies, and landed on BBC's list of the 100 Novels That Shaped Our World in 2019.
Now, Follett is the author of 37 novels: thrillers and historical tales that have been translated into 40 languages, and sold 191 million copies to date.
At his home in the English countryside, the 74-year-old joins BBC special correspondent and author Katty Kay on Influential to discuss his path as an author. Follett's conversation is the fourth in Kay's unscripted interview series about leading changemakers' careers, including America's top doctor, Anthony Fauci; pop culture culinary icon, Ina Garten; and actor Wendell Pierce, of Suits and The Wire fame.
Where to find Influential with Katty Kay
Follett was raised in Cardiff, and fell in love with reading at age four, while growing up in an "extremely puritanical religious" family. He was not permitted to watch television, listen to the radio or see films. As friends went to the cinema at the weekends, he found himself in the public library, discovering literature: "one of life's greatest pleasures".
His years in the library set the groundwork for his career as an author to write novels that cover centuries of history. Yet although his books look backwards, Kay notes that many of his plots cover political conflicts and social struggles that "feel like very modern themes".
"There certainly are parallels," says Follett, "and the most important one is a technical revolution." The rapid development of artificial intelligence and its subsequent effects – particularly the uncertainty it brings to the future of humans in the workforce – is a historical theme he's explored that feels particularly resonant today.
Watch: Ken Follett on why today is like the 18th Century"The same thing was going on in the 18th Century," he says. Yet he also points out conditions at the time were not unlike the state of the current world. "There was also a terrible European war, and it went on for 23 years … finally, there was a cost of living crisis, with the price of bread doubling. New technology, a terrible war and inflation – that's exactly what we're looking at today."
Follett's novels cover centuries of history, including the Dark Ages, the Napoleonic Wars, the beginning of the Industrial Revolution and 1960s London. Kay points out "there's a kind of universality [in themes], whether in the Middle Ages, or in the Second World War. People's concerns are basically the same – your character's concerns are the concerns we all have".
The author agrees. "Everybody is worried about and thinks about making a living, feeding their family, raising their children. People are worried about violence and crime, and they're worried about war." But although patterns may seem familiar, "I don't know if it's true that history repeats itself," he adds.
Still, regardless of how events play out, the relatable themes of the past set the stage for compelling storytelling that resonate with modern life. "The things that strike us as interesting and dramatic and telling about another period of history are actually the things that are on our minds, because we're living through them now," says Follett. "So, it's almost automatic that a historical novel will in some ways reflect the present."
Watch: Ken Follett on what makes a compelling characterAs a prolific author with a global audience, Follett always has stories to tell, and will continue to do so. He can write anywhere, he says, and is confident in his process. Follett doesn't suffer from "writer's block", he tells Kay, but throughout the course of his drafting and editing process – which often takes more than a year – he may suffer an occasional moment of doubt.
"I think you're the least angsty writer I've ever met," says Kay.
Follett laughs. "Early in my career, I had an agent. And he said to me, 'Your only problem as a writer is that you're not a tortured soul'."
Watch: Ken Follett on his long writing processKay's conversation with Follett is the fourth in her revealing, nine-part interview series. New episodes premiere every Thursday at 10:30 p.m. ET on the BBC News channel, and will be available the following day on the BBC News YouTube channel. An audio version will be available wherever you get your podcasts.
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