If there is a literary terrain that Ken Follett can’t conquer, he hasn’t found it yet. His first taste of fame came in 1978 with his World War II thriller Eye of the Needle, which reads just as well today as back then, before we became engulfed by World War II thrillers. He dove into the medieval ages with The Pillars of the Earth in 1989, took on the 20th century with his trilogy focused on five families, and could not resist current times with Whiteout (2004), dealing with a deadly virus stolen from a lab. His latest work is Circle of Days, a deeply researched novel about how and why Stonehenge was built. Follett has sold more than 198 million copies of his books, and Circle of Days is so immersive and pleasurable that one should not be surprised if he soon passes the 200 million mark.
JIM KELLY: Stonehenge holds a powerful grip on our imagination, and has done so for hundreds of years. That said, given all the subjects you could write about, what drew you to write a novel centered around a circle of stones and set 2,500 years ago?
