Editing Ken Follett (section)

== Career ==

After three years in Cardiff, he returned to London as a general-assignment reporter for the ''[[Evening News (London)|Evening News]]''. Finding the work unchallenging, he eventually left journalism for publishing and became, by the late 1970s, deputy managing director of the small London publisher Everest Books.<ref name="wnyc"/> He initially wrote fiction in his free time as a hobby. Later, he stated that he began writing books out of financial necessity, noting that he needed £200 to repair his car. He was influenced by a fellow journalist who had received a £200 advance for a thriller.<ref name="New York Times">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/arts/television/22follett.html?ref=arts |work=The New York Times |title=No Money to Fix Your Car? Write a Best Seller |date=21 July 2010 |access-date=2010-07-22 |first=Dave |last=Itzkoff}}</ref>

=== Further successes ===

Success came slowly at first, but the 1978 release of ''Eye of the Needle'' changed everything. The novel became an international bestseller, selling over 10 million copies worldwide, which brought him both wealth and global recognition..<ref>{{cite web |title=Follett, Ken {{!}} List of Writers |url=http://www.literaturewales.org/writers-of-wales/i/130139/desc/follett-ken/ |website=literaturewales.org |access-date=2016-01-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160413154558/http://www.literaturewales.org/writers-of-wales/i/130139/desc/follett-ken/ |archive-date=13 April 2016 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

Each of Follett's subsequent novels has become a best-seller, ranking high on the [[New York Times Best Seller list|''New York Times'' Best Seller list]]; a number have been adapted for the screen. As of January 2018, he had published 44 books.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Fantastic |first1=Fiction |title=Ken Follett |url=https://www.fantasticfiction.com/f/ken-follett/ |publisher=Fantastic Fiction |access-date=2 February 2018}}</ref> The first five best sellers were spy thrillers: ''Eye of the Needle'' (1978), ''[[Triple (novel)|Triple]]'' (1979), ''[[The Key to Rebecca ]]''(1980), ''[[The Man from St. Petersburg]]'' (1982) and ''[[Lie Down with Lions]]'' (1986). ''[[On Wings of Eagles]]'' (1983) was the true story of how two of [[Ross Perot]]'s employees were rescued from Iran during the revolution of 1979.
The next three novels, ''[[Night Over Water]]'' (1991), ''[[A Dangerous Fortune]]'' (1993) and ''[[A Place Called Freedom]]'' (1995) were more historical than thriller, but he returned to the thriller genre with ''[[The Third Twin]]'' (1996) which in the ''Publishing Trends'' annual survey of international fiction best-sellers for 1997 was ranked no. 2 worldwide, after [[John Grisham]]'s ''[[The Partner (Grisham novel)|The Partner]]''. His next work, ''[[The Hammer of Eden]]'' (1998), was another contemporary suspense story followed by a [[Cold War]] thriller, ''[[Code to Zero]]'' (2000).

[[File:Ken Follett with his book Eisfieber (English-'Whiteout').jpg|thumb|right|Follett with the German edition of his book ''Whiteout'' in October 2005]]

Follett returned to the [[Second World War]] era with his next two novels, ''[[Jackdaws (novel)|Jackdaws]]'' (2001), a thriller about a group of women parachuted into France to destroy a vital telephone exchange – which won the [[Corine Literature Prize]] for 2003 – and ''[[Hornet Flight]]'' (2002), about a daring young [[Denmark|Danish]] couple who escape to Britain from occupied Denmark in a rebuilt [[de Havilland Hornet Moth|Hornet Moth]] biplane with vital information about German radar. ''[[Whiteout (Follett novel)|Whiteout]]'' (2004) is a contemporary thriller about the theft of a deadly virus from a research lab.
[[File:Ken Follett.jpg|thumb|Follett in [[Helsinki]], [[Finland]] on [[World Book Day]] in 2005.]]

=== Kingsbridge series ===
Follett surprised his readers with his first non-spy thriller, ''[[The Pillars of the Earth]]'' (1989), a novel about building a [[cathedral]] in a small English village during [[the Anarchy]] in the 12th century. The novel was highly successful, received positive reviews and was on ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list for eighteen weeks. It topped best-seller lists in Canada, Britain and Italy, and was on the German best-seller list for six years. As of 2017 it has sold 26 million copies.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://boingboing.net/2017/08/18/interview-with-ken-follet-abou.html | title = Interview with Ken Follett about forthcoming 3rd book in Kingsbridge series: A Column of Fire | first = Mark | last = Frauenfelder | date = 18 August 2017 | work = [[Boing Boing]] | access-date = 4 September 2017}}</ref> On 16 August 2017, [[The Pillars of the Earth (video game)|a computer game adaptation]] by German developer and publisher [[Daedalic Entertainment]] was released.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://ken-follett.com/news/ | title = The Pillars of the Earth video game is out now | date = September 2017 | publisher = Ken Follett | access-date = 4 September 2017 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170904104536/https://ken-follett.com/news/ | archive-date = 4 September 2017}}</ref>

Its much-later sequel,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ken-follett.com/news/140508_us_penguin_rights.html | title = Ken to pen sequel to The Pillars of the Earth | date = 5 May 2014 | publisher = Ken Follett | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170904070130/http://ken-follett.com/news/140508_us_penguin_rights.html | archive-date = 4 September 2017}}</ref> ''[[World Without End (Follett novel)|World Without End]]'' (2007), returns to Kingsbridge 157 years later, and features the descendants of the characters in ''Pillars''. It focuses on the destinies of a handful of people as their lives are devastated by the [[Black Death]], the plague that swept Europe from the middle of the 14th century.

The next novel in the series is ''[[A Column of Fire]]'' (2017).<ref name=Follet-ACoF>{{cite web | url = https://ken-follett.com/books/a-column-of-fire/ | title = A Column of Fire | date = n.d. | publisher = Ken Follett | access-date = 3 November 2020}}</ref> Beginning in 1558, the story follows the romance between Ned Willard and Margery Fitzgerald over half a century. It commences at a time when Europe turns against [[Elizabethan England]], and the queen finds herself beset by plots to dethrone her.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/ken-follett/the-kingsbridge-novels-series | title = The Kingsbridge Novels | access-date = 4 September 2017 | publisher = Pan Macmillan | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20181216032445/https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/ken-follett/series/the-kingsbridge-novels/2839a3b6-13a6-468e-ec24-08d5ec285051 | archive-date = 16 December 2018}}</ref>

A fourth novel, ''[[The Evening and the Morning]]'' (2020), is a prequel to ''The Pillars of the Earth''. Set in the decade around 1000 AD – in the so-called [[Dark Ages (historiography)|Dark Ages]] – the story "concerns the gradual creation of the town of Kingsbridge and of the many people – priests, nobles, peasants, the enslaved – who played significant roles".<ref name=WaPo-Sheehan>{{cite news | url = https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/ken-folletts-pillars-of-the-earth-prequel-is-just-as-transporting--and-lengthy--as-his-famous-epic/2020/09/21/0a0a18d8-f6c2-11ea-a275-1a2c2d36e1f1_story.html | title = Ken Follett's 'Pillars of the Earth' prequel is just as transporting – and lengthy – as his famous epic | first = Bill | last = Sheehan | date = 21 September 2020 | newspaper = The Washington Post| access-date = 3 November 2020}}</ref> As such, the book provides "a solid underpinning to the later installments of the Kingsbridge series".<ref name=WaPo-Sheehan />

A fifth novel, ''[[The Armour of Light]]'' (2023), is set in 1792, around the beginning of the [[Industrial Revolution]].<ref name=Follet-TAoL>{{cite web | url = https://ken-follett.com/books/the-armour-of-light/ | title = The Armour of Light | date = n.d. | publisher = Ken Follett | access-date = 19 January 2023}}</ref> The book explores the societal upheaval following the invention of the [[Spinning jenny| Spinning Jenny]] in 1770. Set against the backdrop of Napoleonic wars and economic transformation, it follows interconnected characters: a widow coping with her husband’s death in a factory accident, a young woman funding a school for impoverished children, a man inheriting a failing business, and a wealthy industrialist protecting his fortune at all costs. Amid war and social change, the story examines the human cost of progress and the struggle to rebuild a fractured world.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Kingsbridge |url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/series/KGS/kingsbridge/ |access-date=2025-01-05 |website=PenguinRandomhouse.com |language=en-US}}</ref>

The series has been described as being "as comprehensive an account of the building of a civilization – with its laws, structures, customs and beliefs – as you are likely to encounter anywhere in popular fiction".<ref name=WaPo-Sheehan />

=== Century trilogy ===

Follett's novels, ''[[Fall of Giants]]'', ''[[Winter of the World]]'' and ''[[Edge of Eternity (novel)|Edge of Eternity]]'', make up the Century Trilogy. ''Fall of Giants'' (2010) followed the fates of five interrelated families – Welsh, American, German, Russian and English – as they moved through the world-shaking dramas of the [[First World War]], the [[Russian Revolution]] and the struggle for women's [[suffrage]]. ''Fall of Giants'', published simultaneously in 14 countries, was internationally popular and topped several best-seller lists.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ken-follett.com/downloads/biography/Ken_Follett_biography_en_1209.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2013-12-04 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130202174553/http://ken-follett.com/downloads/biography/Ken_Follett_biography_en_1209.pdf |archive-date=2 February 2013}}</ref>

''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, beginning with the rise of [[Nazi Germany]], through the [[Spanish Civil War]] and the great dramas of World War II, to the explosions of the American and Soviet atom bombs and the beginning of the long Cold War.

The final novel in the 'Century' trilogy, ''Edge of Eternity'', which follows those families through the events of the second half of the 20th century, was published on 16 September 2014. Like the previous two books, it chronicles the lives of five families through the Cold War and civil-rights movements.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://svetlanalasrado.wordpress.com/2014/09/23/follett-tweaks-beststeller-formula/ |title=Follett tweaks beststeller formula |last=svetlanalasrado |date=23 September 2014 }}</ref>

A major element of the first two volumes, ''Fall of Giants'' and ''Winter of the World'', is the increasing political assertiveness of the British working class and the rise of the [[British Labour Party]] – exemplified by the Williams Family, Welsh coal miners, of which several viewpoint characters end up as Members of the British Parliament and one of them becomes a cabinet minister in [[Clement Attlee]]'s post-WWII Labour government. However, the theme of British politics is nearly absent from the third part ''Edge of Eternity'', which concentrates on the Cold War on the one hand and the US Civil Rights Movement on the other; for example, though the novel continues until 1989, it makes no reference at all to the rise of [[Margaret Thatcher]] in 1979.