Ken Follett was born in Wales, "in a little terrace house in Cardiff in 1949. It was very much a petit-bourgeois background. My dad was a clerk in the Inland Revenue [English equivalent of the IRS], and I went to state schools.

"At that time I wanted to be a captain of industry, then later I thought I'd be a great reporter."¹

Even so, Follett was fascinated with thrillers and spy novels from an early age. Before reaching adolescence, he had devoured all of H. G. Wells' science-fiction work and Ian Fleming's entire James Bond oeuvre.

In 1967, while a student at the University of London, the eighteen-year-old Follett married twenty-one-year-old Mary Emma Ruth Elson. Their son Emanuele was born later that year. While her husband continued his schooling and watched after their son, Mary Follett supported the family by working as a bookkeeper.

In 1968, Follett graduated with an honours...