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Frederick Forsyth, Day of the Jackal author and former MI6 agent, dies aged 86

Frederick Forsyth, Day of the Jackal author and former MI6 agent, dies aged 86

Irish Timesa day ago

Frederick Forsyth, the author who turned his adventures as a journalist and work with MI6 into bestselling thrillers, has died after a brief illness aged 86.
Forsyth brought a reporter's eye to his fiction, transforming the thriller genre with a series of novels including The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File and The Dogs of War.
Combining meticulous research with firecracker plots, he published more than 25 books that sold over 75 million copies around the world.
Born in Ashford, Kent in 1938, Forsyth flew fighter jets during his national service, before going to Paris to work for Reuters as a journalist.
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After spending time in East Germany, he moved to the BBC and in 1967 he was sent to Nigeria to cover the Biafran war.
Despairing of the BBC's reluctance to challenge the British government's support of the Nigerian regime, Forsyth quit and returned to Biafra as a freelance reporter in 1968.
There he helped to break the story of the famine which shocked the world, and began working for MI6.
Although Forsyth always denied he was a spy, in his
2015 autobiography, The Outsider,
the author admitted he was an intelligence 'asset' for more than 20 years.
'There was nothing weird about it,' he told a Guardian Live audience. 'It was the cold war. An awful lot of the strength of British intelligence came from the number of volunteers. A businessman might be going to a trade fair in a difficult-to-enter city and he'd be approached, quite gently, with a courteous, 'If you would be so kind as to accept an envelope under your hotel door and bring it home …' so that was what I did. I ran errands.'
Forsyth returned to the UK as the war came to an end in December 1969, finding himself with 'no job, no prospects, no flat, no car, no savings'.
Desperate to make money, he 'hit on the most no-hope-in-hell way of making some: write a novel. I just sat down and wrote about the invisible assassin with no name. I knew my material; I had walked every inch of it.'
The Day of the Jackal returned to Forsyth's days in Paris, following an investigation to foil an assassin's plot to kill De Gaulle. Packed full of operational details and putting fictional characters cheek by jowl with public figures, the novel brought a new realism to the thriller genre. It rapidly became a word-of-mouth hit and a global bestseller, with a film adaptation released two years later.
Over the next five decades the bestsellers continued, with plots including nuclear weapons, the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the cocaine trade and Islamic terrorism. An outspoken critic of Tony Blair, Forsyth was a staunch supporter of Brexit, becoming a patron of Brexit campaign group Better Off Out, and wrote of his scepticism of climate change in his Daily Express column.
Forsyth was never romantic about the art of fiction, repeatedly announcing his retirement and complaining that he had to force himself to write. 'I am slightly mercenary,' he said. 'I write for money.'
Forsyth moved to Enniskerry, Co Wicklow, in 1975 and lived in Ireland for a number of years, availing of the tax exemption introduced by former taoiseach Charles Haughey.
The writer
said Haughey offered to make him a Senator
if he agreed to stay in Ireland. Forsyth said his wife grew worried about their family's safety during the Troubles and decided she wanted to move back to the United Kingdom.
Forsyth went to the taoiseach and said, 'look, I'm sorry, but we wish to leave and go back'.
The writer said Haughey tried to persuade him to stay in Ireland.
'He even offered me a senatorship,' Forsyth told the Sean O'Rourke show on RTÉ 1. 'He said, 'I can't offer you citizenship because your grandfather came from Youghal so you're entitled to citizenship but I can offer you a senatorship will you stay?''

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Bombshell new Madeleine McCann evidence from images to 80GB hard drive
Bombshell new Madeleine McCann evidence from images to 80GB hard drive

Irish Daily Mirror

time14 hours ago

  • Irish Daily Mirror

Bombshell new Madeleine McCann evidence from images to 80GB hard drive

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He spoke after German and Portuguese officers concluded their latest seemingly fruitless search near Praia da Luz, where she disappeared in May 2007. Thomas, 51, told the Sunday Mirror: 'I am sad. The parents deserve that Maddie is found. I didn't think they would find anything in Portugal, but I do think they might find something if they dig more in Germany. 'I would like to see them search everything in all the places where Christian lived. Brueckner doesn't say the truth, so it's really important that they find some proof so they know what really happened.' 'I lived with Maddie McCann prime suspect – I'm sure he left evidence somewhere' While Portuguese police had mostly been leading the charge into the investigation of little Madeleine's disappearance, a parallel taskforce has continued on British soil. The Metropolitan Police's investigation, dubbed Operation Grange, was dramatically downsized last year to just one detective chief inspector, two detective constables and a single member of police staff. At the time, the Met said the investigative team is under constant review, with resources being allocated in line with updated information about the case. DCI Mark Cranwell, who oversees the British investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann told The Mirror: 'We continue to support Madeleine's family to understand what happened on the evening of 3 May, 2007 in Praia da Luz. Our thoughts remain with the family. ' The Metropolitan Police confirmed British officers had not been present in the latest German and Portuguese searches. Investigators used chainsaws, diggers and shovels in a bid to find any clue tat could shed light on the fate of Madeleine. A devastating new theory into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann emerged as officers called off a new search in southern Portugal. Portuguese authorities demanded an investigation into a British man and his German wife who might have killed the toddler in a drink-drive accident. The claim emerged after his sister tipped off police in 2018, claiming he could be covering up a dark secret. German and Portuguese investigators, who led the latest search for Madeleine McCann have yet to comment on any potential discoveries that were made. Crews took few soil samples and some animal bones after three days of searches but found little other information that they have made public.

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