Richard Osman would rather be an author than a TV presenter.
The 48-year-old TV star is most known for his work on BBC quiz show ‘Pointless’, which he created and co-presents, but after signing a mammoth £1.1 million book deal for his debut novel ‘The Thursday Murder Club’, he’s said writing is where his passions lie.
He said: "I want to do loads of these books because there’s a million things that can happen.
"I’d like to be an author, not a TV presenter, in ten years’ time. But it’s up to whether the public read my work and like it – and hopefully they will.
"I’m very aware that I’ve had a very good run – I’ve been lucky with the TV shows I’ve done – but you’ve got to prepare for the future as well."
Richard worked on his upcoming novel in secret for 18 months before finally sharing it to the world a month ago when he let his agent Juliet Mushens read a first draft before she took it to publishers.
He added: "I was writing it completely by myself. I hadn’t told anyone. I was thinking, like anyone who’s ever written anything, ‘This might be terrible – but if it’s no good, at least I wrote a book. I didn’t have any expectations.
"Now I’m over the moon that everyone likes it so much and people will read it."
And although he loves knowing people around the country are interested in his writing, he says he’s even more thrilled about the attention his book has gotten overseas, where people "don’t know" who he is.
He told The Sun newspaper: "I’m weirdly more excited that the Americans and the Germans and the French have bought it – because they don’t know who I am. For them, it’s not some boring celebrity who’s written a novel, they just read the book and really loved it."
‘The Thursday Murder Club’ is set to be released in 2020 as part of a classic crime series, with a second book planned for the following year.
Richard Osman wants to be a full time author
