First Certificate Masterclass: Teacher's Book

His first name came from conclusion number two-donБЂ™t do what the others are doing. There was a miniature rash at the time of characters with cute or complex first names. So I looked for the simplest and plainest name I could find. I chose Jack, and not as a diminutive for John, either. ItБЂ™s just Jack. (One of my grandfathers was called Harry, which most people assumed was a diminutive for Henry, but it wasnБЂ™t. Harry was on his birth certificate.) In my third book, Tripwire, thereБЂ™s a passage that starts: БЂњReacher had been named Jack by his father, who was a plain New Hampshire Yankee with an implacable horror of anything fancy.БЂ«I wanted to underpin ReacherБЂ™s blunt and straightforward manner with a blunt and straightforward name. I didnБЂ™t think the character would have worked with, say, MacNaughten Lawrence for a name. Still donБЂ™t. Even though the first name could have been abbreviated to БЂњMacБЂ«on nearly all occasions, the hidden truth on his official papers would have implied something that I didnБЂ™t want implied ...»