Thriller writer Lee Child

Thriller writer Lee Child is best known for his Jack Reacher novels which have sold more than 100 million copies globally. 

The books have been ­adapted for cinema, with Tom Cruise in the title role, and turned into a hit Amazon Prime TV series starring Alan Ritchson. 

Coventry-born father-of-one Lee, 69, and his American wife Jane divide their time between their ­Wyoming ranch and New York townhouse.

What did your parents teach you about money?

My parents Audrey and John met in 1947, having known nothing in their young lives except economic hardship and war, and that defined their financial attitude.

Save for a rainy day, never borrow, focus on job ­security, think about pensions, never indulge, and turn the light off if you leave the room – even for a minute. 

I was one of four boys and grew up in Birmingham back when people were paid in cash on Friday – ­prompting the saying: ‘As rare as a pound note on a Thursday.’

My conclusion? If you want to escape being ruled by money, you always need slightly more than you think.

Have you ever struggled to make ends meet?

I was broke as a student, like everyone. I made pretty good money at Granada TV, where I was Transmission Controller, but even so we struggled when our daughter was born – we had a mortgage on our Manchester home, the house to fix and all the normal new-parent stuff. Like being nibbled to death by goldfish. We had overdrafts for a decade.

Have you ever been paid silly money?

The silliest was by a famous movie producer who asked me to turn a concept he had bought into a screenplay.

I didn’t really want to do it – I had decided to chill that summer – so asked for a ridiculous fee. 

That’s the polite thing to do – they then tell you it doesn’t fit the budget, nothing ­personal, everyone saves face. But the guy agreed! It was 11 days’ work and I bought a Renoir with the money. The movie was never made. Good screenplay, though.

What was the best year of your financial life?

My pay arrives in fits and starts, irregular and ­unpredictable, and in 2016 a whole bunch of things happened to come in together – old movie bonuses, a new movie payment, old book ­royalties, the front-loaded part of a new book deal, and so on.

Wow factor: Lee Child has a brownstone townhouse in New York City and a ranch in Wyoming

It was spectacular – easily the best ­numbers I ever had. But ­emotionally the best year was my first as a writer in 1996. We paid off the overdrafts, and could finally afford curtains for the ­dining room. 

The most expensive thing you bought for fun?

I’m prey to that old-guy thing where at last we can afford what we craved as teenagers. 

I love music and wanted to be a rock star. The words ‘electric ­guitar’ still give me goosebumps. So I bought a vintage Fender ­Telecaster made the year I was born. It cost $20,000. Stupid really – it doesn’t sound all that different, and I can’t really play anyway.

Big star: Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher

What is your biggest money mistake?

I have no concept of ­financial sophistication, my ­decisions are ignorant and ­random. I have no shares or bonds or investments.

If I could, I’d keep cash in a coffee tin buried in the back yard. I don’t really trust financial advisers. I wonder, if you’re such a market genius, why are you calling me on the phone? Why aren’t you lying on a beach in Barbados, rich, happy and retired?

Best money decision you have made?

I’ve made money on some houses, and lost money on others – but my best investment was the £3.99 I spent at WHSmith on pads of paper and a pencil, to write my first book. That paid off big time. 

But the decision I’m happiest with is to give a lot away, mostly for education: I support about 100 students around the world – 40 of whom are in Britain, mostly at Sheffield, my old ­university.

But I do some on-a-whim things, too. Once, I saw a woman in a ­wheelchair struggling to get up a kerb. I helped her, and then wheeled her to a medical supply store down the street, where I bought her an electric wheelchair there and then. I never even knew her name, but I hope she’s still buzzing around.

Do you have a pension?

I have half a career’s ­pension from ITV and half a lifetime’s old-age pension from the UK ­government. I paid for them, so I claimed them. 

In America everyone saves up for themselves, in an IRA – an Independent Retirement Account, not the other kind of IRA. There are tax advantages, so I max it out every year; I have to take it within four years from now.

Lastly, I’ll get the US old-age ­pension [which Lee’s been paying into since moving to the States in 1988], which you can take any time between 65 and 74, though I ­haven’t started claiming yet. So I’ll have four pensions. I guess I must have listened to my parents.

Do you own any property?

I have a brownstone townhouse in New York City and a ranch in Wyoming, which has a house – although you wouldn’t know that from the deed. Out west, you buy land. If it has a house on it, well, good for you. The legal ­process doesn’t care either way.

If you were Chancellor, what would you do?

My dad was a tax inspector and a tax history buff. It’s clear that our notion of ‘tax’ is essentially a 19th, or at best a 20th, century concept, from when money was slow to move and always visible. 

Now it’s hidden, hyper-mobile, and cheeky. Profits made in Britain show up as expenses owed to a shell company in Luxembourg. I would abandon corporate taxes altogether for big multinationals. I would tell them, if you want to do business here, you need to buy a billion-pound licence first.

What is your number one financial priority?

To cross my fingers and hope this crazy ride lasts to the end.

Safe Enough, a new collection of short stories by Lee Child, is published by Bantam, priced £22. 

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A travel insurer has given his five top tips to consider when going on an all-inclusive holiday.

Grant Winter, a compliance officer, has warned Brits to be vigilant of diseases and illnesses that can be common when eating and drinking at package resorts in popular holiday destinations.  

Illnesses including cholera, typhoid, and hepatitis A can all be picked up from eating at contaminated restaurants and bars.

But for anxious travellers scared of being struck down abroad, Mr Winter has shared what to look out for when tucking in at the hotel buffet.

A travel insurer has revealed what you need to avoid eating or drinking when dining at an all-inclusive resort on holiday (File image)

Always drink bottled water 

Firstly, Mr Winter recommended that people should drink bottled water as its purity and quality can always be guaranteed. 

When buying bottled water, he advised that you should always ensure that the lid of the bottle is tightly sealed before you drink it. 

Grant said: ‘If you can’t get access to bottled water for whatever reason, only drink tap water that has been boiled, use chlorine tablets or iodine to sterilise the water. 

‘Always be sure to avoid prolonged exposure to iodine though – this method isn’t best when doing it more than once or twice,’ he told The Express.  

Get to the buffet early 

Moving on to the importance of food safety, the travel insurer said that you should always avoid eating cooked food that has been left out for a lengthy period. 

With this in mind, he said you should always aim to get to the all-inclusive buffet earlier rather than later to avoid being left with food that has not been freshly cooked to your order. 

He added: ‘It’s also better to avoid food that has flies buzzing around it, and to only eat raw fruit and vegetables that you have peeled yourself to reduce the risk of contamination’.

Never have ice in your drinks 

With his previous tip about only drinking bottled water in mind, Grant says you should also be careful about having ice in your drinks. 

Elaborating, Grant said: ‘Don’t forget about the risk of ice cubes in your drinks. 

‘In many cases, these are probably made from untreated tap water (however, some large resorts do use bottled water, so it is best to check), which can cause you to get sick.’

Check that your food is hot 

Grant Winter, a compliance officer at the travel insurance company, warns that food and drink in some countries popular with Brits as holiday destinations (File image)

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Giving his penultimate tip, Grant said that, irrespective of where you are eating, you should always check to see if the food is piping hot before you take a bite. 

He adds that this is something you should be all the more watchful over when eating out abroad. 

Giving an example, he said:  ‘Eating tropical fish that haven’t been cooked properly can lead to ciguatera fish poisoning, and unpasteurised dairy such as ice cream from a street vendor, could harbour salmonella, e.coli, listeria, or campylobacter, leading to food poisoning.’

Practice good personal hygiene 

Sharing his fifth and final tip, the travel safety expert said that good hygiene is all the more important when abroad.   

Grant stated: ‘Whilst it may sound obvious, personal hygiene should be a number one priority abroad to help avoid food poisoning and contamination. 

‘Always wash your hands after the toilet and before eating or preparing food, and make sure you take an alcohol-based hand gel to use when you’re out and about before eating any food.’

Plastic surgeons are reporting a surge in women going under the knife for Brazilian butt lifts after weight-loss from Ozempic left them with deflated backsides. 

One plastic surgeon in New York City said BBL appointments have ‘doubled’ over the past year, while a second doctor in Las Vegas said his office has seen a ‘massive 50 percent spike’ in bookings.

Surgeons and med spas in Florida also said they are seeing a ‘noticeable uptick’ in enquiries of Ozempic users looking to restore their behinds.

Ozempic and similar weight loss drugs like Wegovy have surged in popularity, with 15.5million Americans now having tried them as a way to shed pounds.

But the rapid weight loss people experience has left them with sagging buttocks — termed ‘Ozempic butt’ — and led them to sign up for a cosmetic procedure to restore their plump behinds.

The above from Dr Christopher Costa shows before (left) and after (right) images of a BBL performed on a woman who had used a popular weight loss drug

These images, also from Dr Costa, show another woman’s backside when she came in after using a weight loss drug (left) and following her BBL (right)

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Dr Christopher Costa, who runs Platinum Plastic Surgery in Las Vegas, told DailyMail.com: ‘Many of these individuals are dealing with “Ozempic butt,” where the quick loss of weight and muscle leads to a sagging, flattened appearance [of the buttocks].

‘They often lose significant volume in their buttocks and see less definition in their waist and hips, making the buttocks appear deflated, droopy and out of proportion with the rest of their body.’

He added: ‘I’m seeing a lot of patients who are ecstatic about their weight loss but discouraged by the impact it’s had on their buttocks, leaving them feeling less confident.’

In most cases, surgeons say their patients are range from 20 to 40 years old and have typically lost more than 20lbs using weight-loss drugs.

Mostly, their weight loss has not been proportional and the women coming in for a BBL seem to have lost most of the weight around their hips, buttocks and thighs, but are still carrying excess weight in their abdominal area.

The backside is one of the main areas where subcutaneous fat — or fat directly beneath the skin — accumulates, which is quickly lost during weight loss.

It also contains a group of three large muscles, called the glutes, which may shrink if someone takes weight-loss drugs without exercising and eating a high-protein diet.

Dr Derrick Antell, a plastic surgeon in New York City, also reported the surge in appointments, saying: ‘We are seeing a lot of these patients where they were on Ozempic but then they get a saggy, hangy, butt, so to speak. A BBL is like a facelift for a butt, and it’ll help to restore its appearance.’

He said his clinic was normally only doing 50 BBLs per year, but this year the number has doubled to a hundred. 

There are two main operations that plastic surgeons use to restore volume to weight-loss drug users’ backsides.

In cases where the patient still has abdominal fat, the fat cells from this area are removed and placed into the buttocks to restore its volume.

In the second procedure, known as a butt lift, surgeons make an incision along the bottom of the buttocks, remove a ‘croissant shaped’ area of excess skin and then pull it up to lift and tighten the area.

This procedure may also involve fat transfers to the buttocks from other areas of the body to help restore its shape.

BBLs typically cost between $8,000 and $15,000, the surgeons said. 

In a number of cases, Ozempic users are also opting to have filler injected into their backsides to restore its shape.

Filler is a liquid injected under the skin to add volume. It is often used in the face to minimize wrinkles and give patients a younger look.

It costs about $6,500 for 20 syringes, with medical spas saying patients tend to be in their 40s and 50s and have already lost at least 50lbs.

However, patients who get filler into their buttocks will need to get more injections every six months to two years because the body naturally absorbs filler over time, whereas a BBL is considered a permanent fix.

Marlee Bruno, who owns the medical spa Mind Body & Soul Medical in Pensacola, Florida, told DailyMail.com the number of patients coming in for filler have doubled over the past year and a half at her med spa.

BBLs hit a record high in 2023 while butt lift surgeries also appear to be rising

Popularized by celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Iggy Azalea, BBLs rose to fame in the mid-2010s.

And surgeons are now suggesting the procedure may be receiving a new fanbase thanks to the Ozempic boom.

About 1.7 percent of Americans — or 5.6million people — were prescribed a weight loss drug in 2023, according to a data analysis by healthcare company Epic Research.

This was up 40-fold from five years before, when they estimated only a few hundred thousand Americans were on the drug.

Surveys from this year suggest that six percent of US adults — or 15.5million people — have now tried a weight loss drug.

Dr Michael Jones, from Lexington Plastic Surgeons in New York City, added: ‘The assumption was that as patients lost weight on their own through Ozempic, they might not need treatments like liposuction.

‘However, what we are actually seeing is a new trend: Patients who were previously too obese to qualify for surgery are now using Ozempic to lose enough weight to bring their BMI into a safe range for cosmetic procedures.’

Last year, a record 29,400 people got a BBL in the United States — up three percent from the year before and 20 percent from 2018, when weight loss drugs first became available.

There was a dip in 2020, with 21,000 BBLs being carried out, although surgeons said this was linked to the Covid pandemic and people being reluctant to leave their homes.

Surgeons are also reporting uplifts in other procedures related to loose skin caused by weight loss, including tummy tucks and arm lifts.

Dr Smita Ramanadham, a plastic surgeon in New Jersey, told this website: ‘BBLs have remained relatively stable for me, but I am seeing an uptick in arm lifts and tummy tucks, as well as breast lifts due to weight loss.’

In addition to losing weight in undesirable locations, Ozempic and similar weight loss drugs have been linked to a whole host of bad side-effects.

As well as nausea and vomiting while using the shots, patients have also reported the medication had caused their hair to ‘fall out in clumps’ and there have been reports of users suffering from poor mental health and suicidal ideations.  

By Lewis Browning

Published: 15:01 BST, 7 September 2024 | Updated: 19:27 BST, 7 September 2024

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Billie Shepherd and her husband Greg have quit their ITV show The Family Diaries after six series, according to new reports.

The couple, who regularly share intimate details of their family life on their hit show, have packed up the series to ‘let their children grow up away from cameras’.

Billie, 34, and Greg, 39, who share three children Nelly, 10, Arthur, seven, and Margot, 21 months, have grown up on reality TV since birth.

Their oldest daughter Nelly made her television debut on The Only Way Is Essex in 2014 when she was weeks old.

Similarly to Nelly, Arthur first appeared on screens shortly after he was born when Billie and sister Sam had their joint series The Mummy Diaries.

Billie Shepherd, 34, and her husband Greg, 39, have quit their ITV show The Family Diaries after six series, according to new reports

Billie and Greg, who share three children Nelly, 10, Arthur, seven, and Margot, 21 months, have grown up on reality TV since birth 

Since Sam quit the series in 2021, Billie and Greg have continued to showcased their glamorous lives on their own show – where baby daughter Margot was introduced.

A source told The Sun, ‘Billie has loved her time on the show and had loads of fun, but thinks it’s time she let her kids grow up away from the cameras for a bit.

‘She adores the memories she has made and will treasure them forever, she’s so grateful to the production company, but is excited about exploring new options with ITV.

‘There is no bad blood and the sky is the limit.’

MailOnline have contacted Billie’s representatives for a comment. 

An ITV spokesman said: ‘We are currently in production with a new series of The Family Diaries to air on ITVX and ITVBe later this year and are in conversations with Billie about projects for 2025.’

In an exclusive interview with MailOnline in May, Billie and Greg shared how they manage to keep their children ‘grounded’ after growing up in the limelight.

Billie said: ‘Obviously for us, you know, we always film and the kids have always filmed. They don’t really know much different.

‘I think unless there’s like something like a concern, like, you know, if Nelly comes to me and said anything she was worried about.

The couple, who regularly share intimate details of their family life on their hit show, have packed up the series to ‘let their children grow up away from cameras’

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Their oldest daughter Nelly made her television debut on The Only Way Is Essex in 2014 when she was weeks old

Similarly to Nelly, Arthur first appeared on screens shortly after he was born when Billie and sister Sam had their joint series The Mummy Diaries

Since Sam quit the series in 2021, Billie and Greg have continued to showcased their glamorous lives on their own show – where baby daughter Margot was introduced

‘Obviously, the children are always our number one priority in their happiness. But I think we’re very good at keeping them grounded.’

Billie added: ‘They are kids at the end of the day, I think, you know, Nelly is such a funny, happy little character, so like, personable.

‘She’s always been used to having like, lots of people around her. And I think that it will only be like, positive for her and her future.

‘That was always something I I’ve always thought about like, “Oh, would she be treated differently? Or would she, you know, comes to face with anything” but honestly, like we’ve had none of that.

‘We’ve had no dramas at school or nothing. We would know it straight away, because Nelly tells us everything. She’s very open with us. And we’ve luckily, like, we’ve been lucky not to experience anything like that.’

Boeing’s faulty Starliner spacecraft will finally begin its journey home today after three months spent docked to the International Space Station (ISS).

But experts have raised concerns over a small chance that Starliner could malfunction again, and potentially send it careening into the ISS. 

‘There is an extremely small probability that if all of the thrusters fail, the Starliner could impact the ISS,’ former US military Space System Commander Rudy Ridolfi told DailyMail.com.

‘This will be like NASCAR for NASA, some watch just for the crash,’ Ridolfi added. 

Starliner’s technical issues – including thruster failures – have lefts its crew stranded on the ISS for the last three months. 

Starliner will attempt to autonomously undock from the ISS today. Experts say there’s a small chance that thruster issues could cause it to crash into the space station. 

NASA officials decided it was too risky to bring astronauts Sunita Williams and Barry Wilmore home on the faulty spacecraft. They will remain on the ISS until next year, which is why Starliner will return to Earth unmanned today. 

Shortly after 6pm ET today, Starliner will autonomously undock from the ISS and then begin a six-hour flight back to Earth.

The spacecraft launched June 5, carrying Williams and Wilmore to the ISS.

By the time the spacecraft reached the ISS, five of its 28 reaction control system thrusters had failed. 

As a result, Starliner’s first attempt to dock to the space station was waived off. But ultimately, the spacecraft successfully docked and Williams and Wilmore safely boarded the ISS.

As for whether these propulsion issues have been resolved, ‘I would say no,’ Harvard University astronomer and astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell told DailyMail.com. 

Although NASA and Boeing have identified overheating as a likely source of the issues, ‘they still don’t really fully understand why the thrusters are behaving the way they are, and so that means that they can’t say for sure that they’re not going to act up again,’ he said.

‘Having said that, I fully expect tonight to go fine,’ he continued. But in a highly unlikely worst-case-scenario, thruster issues during the undocking could cause Starliner to collide with the ISS. 

If one of the thrusters fails to stop firing when directed, for example, ‘it could push the Starliner into a collision with some other part of the space station,’ he said. 

A full timeline of Boeing’s Starliner program, from the singing of their massive contact to the incident that left two astronauts stranded aboard the ISS. 

Crashes like this have happened before. In 1997, a Russian space station was damaged when a cargo spacecraft missed its docking port and smashed into one of the station’s modules.

The collision punched a hole in the space station ‘and the astronauts had to rush to  close the hatches to that module before all the air ran out of the whole space station,’ McDowell said. 

‘That was a very, very scary thing. So that’s the thing you want to avoid,’ he added.

Additionally, if more than a certain number of the thrusters fail, there’s a chance that Starliner might be stuck drifting toward the ISS and ultimately crash, McDowell previously told Business Insider. 

‘That could happen, but it would have to be very specific ones that fail,’ Ridolfi wrote in a statement sent to DailyMail.com. 

‘There are five ‘sets’ of thrusters and if they can still rotate the spacecraft, sets of thrusters can take over for ones that are out,’ he continued.

If thruster failures do send Starliner on a collision-course with the ISS, a crash won’t happen right away, Ridolfi said.

That’s because although the two objects will be close to each other, they will be in slightly different orbits, he explained.

‘US Space Forces (USSF) will conduct what is called ‘conjunction analysis’ to show when the two objects could collide,’ he said, adding that it could become an issue about every 90 minutes as each object completes an orbit.

But the ISS also has its own thrusters that it can use to avoid a collision, which it does several times a year, Ridolfi said. 

Although, ‘it’s a pain to move the ISS mainly because it’s a pig and moves very slowly,’ he added. 

The ISS is equipped with its own thrusters that it can use to maneuver away from a collision, and does so several times a year. 

Plus, mission control will be ‘watching like a hawk, so the minute that any one of the thrusters starts to misbehave, they’re going to shut it down and take over with a backup thruster,’ McDowell said. 

But even if Starliner manages to successfully undock from the ISS, it won’t be out of the woods quite yet. After the undocking, the spacecraft will have to re-enter Earth’s atmosphere. 

‘At that point, you’ve really got to have the thrusters working right, because they’re steering the ship as it’s firing its main engines, and it’s important that the main engines fire in the right direction,’ McDowell said.

‘The worst case scenario there is that you lose the thruster system completely, for example, and you can’t steer the spacecraft while it’s making the de-orbit burn,’ he added.

In that case, the Starliner capsule would re-enter at the wrong angle and speed, either causing it to burn up or remain temporarily stranded in orbit before re-entering uncontrolledly some time later, he explained. 

The issue with an uncontrolled de-orbit burn is that Starliner has heat shielding to help it survive re-entry. Therefore, ‘you could imagine chunks of this thing surviving to the surface,’ McDowell said.

 Starliner’s thruster issues likely played a role in NASA’s decision not to bring astronauts Sunita Williams (front left) and Barry Wilmore (front right) home on the spacecraft. 

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‘And if you were very unlucky, that could happen over somewhere populated. And you could have a repeat of the incident we had earlier this year when some poor guy had pieces of spacecraft go through the roof of his house,’ he continued. 

But this scenario is highly unlikely. McDowell thinks it’s more probable that thruster issues could cause Starliner to burn up over the Pacific Ocean instead of landing in White Sands Space Harbor, New Mexico as intended.

In the event that Starliner’s thrusters misfire during re-entry, there’s little that mission control can do to resolve the issue, McDowell said.

If problems arise right from the start, mission control could shut everything down, keep Starliner in orbit for another day and try again tomorrow, he explained.

‘But once you’re well into the burn, if things go start going wrong there, you’re already on a trajectory where you’re going to hit the atmosphere in some form anyway. So you’ve just got to hope that everything stays right,’ he said. 

The risks associated with possible thruster mishaps both during Starliner’s undocking and its re-entry likely played into NASA’s decision not to bring Williams and Wilmore home on the spacecraft.

The space agency announced their decision at an August 24 press conference. 

Instead, Williams and Wilmore will remain on the ISS until at least February 2025, when SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft will shepherd them back to Earth. 

At another press conference on Wednesday, NASA officials stated that they have been working to mitigate any risk to the ISS during Starliner’s undocking, and that tests of the spacecraft’s thrusters showed that they were working well.