Thrillers should be on UK school curriculum to boost reading, says Lee Child

Bestselling author says focus on ‘masterpieces’ puts children off as he promotes prison literacy scheme

Too much of the literature taught in UK schools is putting children off reading and thrillers should become part of the curriculum, one of the world’s biggest selling authors has argued.

Lee Child, the British writer of Jack Reacher novels, which have sold more than 100m copies worldwide, said: “I can totally understand why, if you’re an English teacher and you’ve read all your life and you love this stuff and you’ve been to university, then you want to introduce the big, major masterpieces. But that’s too much for kids.”