Ken Follett was born in 1949 in Cardiff Wales and moved to London in his childhood. Like most families in post-war Britain, the Follett family didn’t have a lot of money to spare, so Ken grew up reading library books for entertainment and creating his own imaginary world.
At university, Ken Follett studied philosophy which he believes helped him with his writing as they both require and ‘off-the-wall’ imagination. He married very young and had his first child Emanuele at the age of 18.
After university, Follett worked as a journalist for several years, but became frustrated with his job and began to write as a hobby. He found his first big success with his third novel – ‘Eye of the Needle’ and was able to quit his job and write full-time. With further successful books, he is now able to lead a very comfortable life.
Although Follett’s writing takes priority, he and his second wife, Barbara, are actively involved in politics with the British Labour Party.
With 20 novels already published (and some others written under pen names), Ken Follett continues to write hugely successful novels at a rate of about one every 2 years. His novels to date are:
- The Modligiani Scandal (1976)
- Paper Money (1977)
- Eye of the Needle (1978)
- Triple (1979)
- The Key to Rebecca (1980)
- The Man from St Petersburg (1982)
- On Wings of Eagles (1983)
- Lie Down with Lions (1986)
- The Pillars of the Earth (Kingsbridge #1) (1989)
- Night Over Water (1991)
- A Dangerous Fortune (1993)
- A Place Called Freedom (1996)
- The Third Twin (1996)
- The Hammer of Eden (1998)
- Code to Zero (2000)
- Jackdaws (2001)
- Hornet Flight (2002)
- Whiteout (2004)
- World Without End (Kingsbridge #2) (2007)
- Fall of Giants (20th Century #1) (2010)
- Winter of the World (20th Century #2) (2012)
- The Edge of Eternity (20th Century #3) (2014)
- A Column of Fire (Kingsbridge #3) (2017)