RICHARD Osman is in the middle of a mammoth round of press interviews when we talk. He's just got off the phone to Australia - the Aussies, needless to say, wanted to chat about the obsessive Fulham fan's love of sport and someone's been making him cups of tea between calls to keep him going.
If it all sounds a bit overwhelming, it's hardly a surprise. Since the 2020 publication of his debut novel The Thursday Murder Club, featuring a quartet of retired cold-case enthusiasts, the former host of hit BBC quiz show Pointless has become one of the world's biggest authors - selling a staggering ten million copies of the four-part series. Today he looms large quite literally, at 6ft 5in tall-over popular fiction.
His brilliant new novel, We Solve Murders, featuring a fresh cast of unforgettable characters, of whom more shortly, has unsurprisingly romped to number one in the book charts this weekend, despite taking a new tack. "If I was publishing a fifth Thursday Murder Club book, it would feel like a different vibe," he admits.
Earlier this year, Osman, 53, told the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, supported by the Daily Express, that he felt like he was "cheating" on his beloved Thursday Murder Club characters by writing his new thriller.
He's more sanguine today, telling me: "The first four books work as a quartet, so I thought I'd give them a bit of rest and recuperation and come into this new world and new characters and hopefully create something else readers will love."
And it's already clear he has - by taking the warmth of the original series global.
Esta historia es de la edición September 21, 2024 de Daily Express.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición September 21, 2024 de Daily Express.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
Arteta's boys go all Guns blazing
MARTINELLI SPARKS A FIVE-GOAL SPREE
IT'S DUTCH A DEBACLE FOR CITY
Chaotic defending wrecks night as troubles continue
THE REAL DEAL
Slot wary of side who never know when they are beaten
£2.2m Lottery syndicate winner caught in police child sex abuse sting
A CHARITY worker who won a share of a National Lottery windfall has been jailed for child sex abuse following a police sting.
Five found alive day after yacht capsizes
TWO Britons were last night understood to be among seven people missing after a tourist boat sank off Egypt's Red Sea coast.
Brit who was the world's oldest man dies aged 112
THE Briton who at 112 was the world’s oldest man has died peacefully in his care home.
Glastonbury-bound Rod: I don't want to talk about retiring
Rocker to play festival legends slot aged 80
Bath risks gaining new reputation as shoplifters' haven
ELEGANT Georgian Bath - home of Jane Austen costume dramas - is suffering a shoplifting epidemic, rising faster than anywhere else in Britain.
'I can't believe I've just won Bake off!'
Georgie's joy as she lifts competition trophy for Wales
Southport teacher: Use dead girls' memories as driving force for change
A DANCE teacher who was injured in the Southport knife attack that left three little girls dead has insisted that the victims’ memories should serve as a driving force for change.
