Famous folk having a shot at writing fiction isn’t necessarily a bad thing – but it is not necessarily good, either. Charlie Higson counts, too, because although he began writing fiction before he became famous in BBC’s The Fast Show, he was previously a minor-league rock star. Before writing, Francis had a successful career in horse racing, becoming champion jockey in 1954. In the broad field of people famous for other things who have written respectable-to-good fiction, you could list: Dirk Bogarde, Ethan Hawke, Molly Ringwald and James Franco. Assuming you embrace this appalling fate, you’ll want to put your name to a memoir; you might even write it yourself.

Source: The Guardian July 14, 2016 14:30 UTC