Frederick Forsyth RIP

One of the greatest thriller authors of all time has died. Frederick Forsyth was 86.

Among his many novels were The Odessa File, The Dogs of War, The Afghan, The Fist of God, and, most famous of all, The Day of the Jackal. (#commission earned) Whether he was writing about ex-Nazis, mercenaries, jihadis, or an assassin hired by the Organisation armée secrète (OAS), he always made it believable.

The Day of the Jackal was made into a movie starring Edward Fox as the Jackal. It is one of the rare movies where it was as good as the book.

According to The Telegraph, prior to becoming a best-selling author, Forsyth was a pilot in the RAF and a journalist. He also was a secret agent for MI-6. As a foreign correspondent Forsyth worked in places like Paris and East Berlin during the Cold War as well as Biafra in Africa. I assume his time in Biafra provided him the background for his novel on mercenaries in Africa – The Dogs of War. His books have sold 75 million copies. I know I have bought and read many of them over the years with some read multiple times. For his contributions to literature, Queen Elizabeth II made him a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).

For two decades, until his 85th birthday, Forsyth shared his views through a weekly column in the Daily Express. He retired from writing thrillers in 2018.

His wife of 30 years, Sandy, died last year after a four-year decline in her health. She was his second wife after Carrie, the mother of his two sons, Stuart and Shane, who are both now in their 40s.

In 2023, he said: “Among the sadnesses in my life is that my two sons emigrated. One lives in Sweden with his wife and three children, and the other in Ibiza with his wife and my fourth grandchild.”

The Independent writes of Forsyth and his early career:

Born August 25, 1938, in Ashford, Kent, Forsyth served as a pilot in the Royal Air Force before becoming a journalist. He was hired by Reuters in 1961 before moving over to the BBC in 1965, where he worked as an assistant diplomatic correspondent.

During much of his early career with Reuters, he reported on French affairs and the attempted assassination of President Charles de Gaulle. After transitioning to BBC, however, he was sent to Nigeria to report on the Biafran war.

With a background like that it was no wonder he could write such detailed thrillers. While Forsyth stopped writing novels around 2018, they are still worth going back to read again and again.