John Lee

• Biography

  John Lee is the winner of numerous Earphones Awards and the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration. He has twice won acclaim as AudioFile’s Best Voice in Fiction & Classics. He also narrates video games, does voice-over work, and writes plays. He is an accomplished stage actor and has written and coproduced the feature films Breathing Hard and Forfeit. He played Alydon in the 1963–64 Doctor Who serial The Daleks.

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• Praise for Books

  “A remarkable collection of interviews with some of the most important writers working in the world today. I loved this book.” —Don Winslow, #1 internationally bestselling author of The Force and The Cartel

  “Engrossing…entertaining…the broad portrait is accurate and as colorful as an ancient Kabuki play.” —People

  “[A] fresh compendium…Particularly revelatory are the authors’ anecdotes about their previous jobs—as reporters, psychiatrists, veterinarians, and lawyers—and the range of perspectives makes for a breezy introduction to the writing game. Thriller writers—and fans curious about the process—are in for a treat.” —Publishers Weekly

  “Exhilarating…a rich, enveloping novel.” —Cosmopolitan

  “Just look at this lineup: Lee Child, Patricia Cornwell, David Mamet, Meg Gardiner, Scott Turow, Kathy Reichs, James Rollins—and that’s only a small fraction of them…A nice companion piece to the slew of more traditional how-to-be-a-writer books on the market.” —Booklist

  “Unceasingly satisfying…Clavell is in top-notch form…He again melds plot-driven storytelling and colorful characterization in vibrant collaboration with an exotic, dynamic setting.” —Publishers Weekly

  “A brilliant book…Mark Rubinstein has fashioned a book that offers the final word on all things related to the craft of telling tales that are impossible to put down…Rubinstein has penned one of the best author-centric studies of writers and writing ever created, and one of the few ever attempted for popular fiction. This book is destined to stand the test of time, with great storytelling in its own right that for this thriller writer was impossible to put down.” —Jon Land, Providence Journal

  “Once you’re into it, you…are swept along by spirited storytelling…Clavell writes at full throttle as if infused by the soul of Alexandre Dumas…You get your money’s worth if you want to spend it here.” —Kirkus Reviews

  “Engaging and honest interviews populate the book…Rubinstein’s who’s who of thriller and suspense authors is astonishing and the interviews are sober and sound, as if rubbing elbows with the world’s elite storytellers is an everyday occurrence…Part advice, part tell-all, Rubinstein’s collection encases a treasury of truths from writers whose stories we’ve enjoyed for years. Thrilling indeed.” —Mountain Times

  “A well-told story…few eras of Japanese history were more violent, turbulent, and politically exasperating than the 1860s…Mr. Clavell revels in the turbulence of political death and rebirth.” —New York Times Book Review

  “The Storytellers is a gift to aspiring writers of mysteries and thrillers, readers and fans, and academics alike. An instant classic.” —New York Journal of Books

  “A grand historical perspective that makes us feel we’re understanding how today’s Japan came into being…Absorbing…Full of rich characters and complicated action.” —New York Times

  “The Storytellers is the most interesting and engaging work of nonfiction I have read in ages, literally filled with golden nuggets of history, background influences and revelations on every page. I envy the reader who goes on this great adventure and inhales the book as I did.”" —BookReporter

  "Gai-Jin is Shōgun plus!…Great entertainment.” —New York Daily News

  "Gai-Jin is major reading. If you like Clavell’s other novels, you’ll surely sink your teeth into this one. He is a master at capturing the Japanese persona…He dives deep into the complexitites of a monarchic society and the early attempts at cross-cultural negotiations. The result is nothing less than a saga.” —Chicago Sun-Times

  “With great skill and intelligence…Gai-Jin is just the ticket. It has it all: murders, battles, rapes, earthquakes, sword fights, insanely convoluted political intrigues, and innumerable accounts of ‘pillowing’ with beautiful women.” —San Francisco Chronicle

  “Interesting, exciting…James Clavell fans will love it!” —Milwaukee Journal

  “Clavell keeps you turning the pages.” —Los Angeles Daily News

  “Compelling…The Japanese love fine jubako—lacquered boxes that fit within boxes that are in boxes. In Gai-Jin, James Clavell has written a jubako of a novel.” —Christian Science Monitor

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  • The Storytellers

  • Edited by Mark Rubinstein

    Read by various narrators

  • Release Date: 9/29/20

  • Formats: Digital Audiobook, eBook, MP3 CD, Retail CD Audiobook, Trade Paperback, Hardcover

  Have you ever read a suspense novel so good you had to stop and think to yourself, “How did the author come up with this idea? Their characters? Is some of this story real?” For over five years, Mark Rubinstein, physician, psychiatrist, and mystery and thriller writer, had the chance to ask the most well-known authors in the field just these kinds of questions in interviews for the Huffington Post.

  Collected here are interviews with forty-seven accomplished authors, including Michael Connelly, Ken Follett, Meg Gardiner, Dennis Lehane, Laura Lippman, and Don Winslow. These are their personal stories in their own words, much of the material never before published. How do these writers’ life experiences color their art? Find out their thoughts, their inspirations, their candid opinions. Learn more about your favorite authors, how they work and who they truly are.

  • The Storytellers

  • Edited by Mark Rubinstein

    Read by various narrators

  • Release Date: 7/20/21

  • Formats: Digital Audiobook, eBook, MP3 CD, Retail CD Audiobook, Trade Paperback, Hardcover

  Learn More
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  • Gai-Jin

  • By James Clavell

    Read by John Lee

  • Release Date: 12/06/22

  • Formats: Digital Audiobook, eBook, MP3 CD, Retail CD Audiobook, Trade Paperback, Hardcover

  The dynamic epic novel of political upheaval and societal change in late 1800s Japan, by the #1 New York Times bestselling author and unparalleled master of historical fiction, James Clavell

  This epic novel by master writer James Clavell, loosely based on the Namamugi Incident and Anglo-Satsuma War that took place in the late 1800s, is a richly researched, panoramic view of Japan’s budding relationship with the Western powers, its sweeping societal changes, and the political upheaval that followed.

  As Malcolm Struan, the son of Culum and Tess Struan, and a small band of Westerners travel down the Tōkaidō road, they are attacked by two Satsuma samurai, who mortally wound John Canterbury and seriously injure Malcolm, who then finds reprieve in the merchant village of Yokohama after a narrow escape facilitated by the unscathed Angelique.

  Angelique Richaud, Malcolm’s penniless but beautiful French companion, is thrown into a world of political intrigue, fierce devotion, unstable family dynamics, blackmail, and secrets as the trading houses battle for supremacy.

  With a cast of dynamic and fully recognized characters, Gai-Jin spins a tale of passionate love affairs, devastating loss, intense power struggles, and the fight to survive and thrive in a hostile new land that will leave readers longing for another foray into Clavell’s extraordinary Asian Saga.

  • Gai-Jin

  • By James Clavell

    Read by John Lee

  • Release Date: 5/26/15

  • Formats: Digital Audiobook, eBook, MP3 CD, Retail CD Audiobook, Trade Paperback, Hardcover

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