Novelista británico Frederick Forsyth ha muerto: BBC News
LONDRES, 9 jun (Reuters) - El novelista británico Frederick Forsyth, autor de best-sellers como "The Day of the Jackal" y "The Dogs of War", ha muerto a los 86 años, informó el lunes la BBC.
Forsyth, excorresponsal de Reuters y la BBC e informante de la agencia británica de espionaje exterior MI6, se dio a conocer gracias a su experiencia como reportero en París, donde escribió la historia de un atentado fallido contra Charles de Gaulle.
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Boston Globe
2 hours ago
- Boston Globe
‘Day of the Jackal' author Frederick Forsyth dies at 86
For a half-century, Mr. Forsyth was one of the most successful authors of the cloak-and-dagger circuit. He wrote more than 20 novels, short stories and other works, reportedly selling more than 75 million copies in more than a dozen languages. Many of his books, featuring high-stakes action and protagonists pitted against seemingly impossible odds, were made into movies or TV dramas. Unlike John le Carré, a contemporary who delved into the moral ambiguities of Cold War espionage, Mr. Forsyth never pretended to be anything other than, by his own description, 'just a storyteller.' Book critics were generally kind, often praising his blistering plot pace and meticulous attention to detail. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Born in Kent, in southern England, in 1938, Mr. Forsyth served as a Royal Air Force pilot before becoming a foreign correspondent. He covered the attempted assassination of French President Charles de Gaulle in 1962, which provided inspiration for 'The Day of the Jackal,' his political thriller about a professional assassin. Advertisement Published in 1971, the book propelled him into global fame. It was made into a film in 1973 starring Edward Fox as the Jackal and more recently a television series starring In 2015, Mr. Forsyth told the BBC that he had also worked for the Advertisement Although Mr. Forsyth said he did other jobs for the agency, he said he was not paid for his services and 'it was hard to say no' to officials seeking information. 'The zeitgeist was different,' he told the BBC. 'The Cold War was very much on.' He wrote more than 25 books including 'The Afghan,' 'The Kill List,' 'The Dogs of War,' and 'The Fist of God' that have sold over 75 million copies, Lloyd said. His publisher, Bill Scott-Kerr, said that 'Revenge of Odessa,' a sequel to the 1974 book 'The Odessa File' that Mr. Forsyth worked on with fellow thriller author Tony Kent, will be published in August. 'Still read by millions across the world, Freddie's thrillers define the genre and are still the benchmark to which contemporary writers aspire,' Scott-Kerr said. Material from The Washington Post was used in this obituary.
2 hours ago
'Day of the Jackal' author Frederick Forsyth dies at 86
LONDON -- Frederick Forsyth, the British author of 'The Day of the Jackal" and other bestselling thrillers, has died after a brief illness, his literary agent said Monday. He was 86. Jonathan Lloyd, his agent, said Forsyth died at home early Monday surrounded by his family. 'We mourn the passing of one of the world's greatest thriller writers," Lloyd said. Forsyth served as a Royal Air Force pilot before becoming a foreign correspondent and a novelist. In 2015, he told the BBC that he had also worked for the British intelligence agency MI6 for many years, starting from when he covered a civil war in Nigeria in the 1960s. 'The Day of the Jackal,' published in 1971, propelled him into global fame. The political thriller about a professional assassin was made into a film in 1973 and more recently a television series starring Eddie Redmayne and Lashana Lynch. He wrote more than 25 books including 'The Afghan,' 'The Kill List,' 'The Dogs of War" and 'The Fist of God" that have sold over 75 million copies, Lloyd said. His publisher, Bill Scott-Kerr, said that 'Revenge of Odessa,' a sequel to the 1974 book 'The Odessa File" that Forsyth worked on with fellow thriller author Tony Kent, will be published in August.
New York Times
2 hours ago
- New York Times
Frederick Forsyth, Master of the Geopolitical Thriller, Dies at 86
Frederick Forsyth, who used his early experience as a British foreign correspondent as fodder for a series of swashbuckling, best-selling thrillers in the 1970s, including 'The Day of the Jackal,' 'The Odessa File' and 'The Dogs of War,' died on Monday at his home in Jordans, a village north of London. He was 86. His literary representative, Jonathan Lloyd, did not specify a cause, saying only that the death followed a short illness. Mr. Forsyth was a master of the geopolitical nail-biter, writing novels embedded in an international demimonde populated by spies, mercenaries and political extremists. He wrote 24 books, including 14 novels, and sold more than 75 million copies. Though he set many of his best works during the Cold War of the 1960s and '70s, Mr. Forsyth often chose stories and characters operating apart from the U.S.-Soviet rivalry, in post-colonial conflicts in Africa, for example, or involving Nazi hunters in Europe. His novel 'The Fourth Protocol' (1984), which many critics considered his best, offered a twisting tale of nuclear espionage and radical-left politics in Britain. His books regularly topped the best-seller lists, and many were turned into movies within a few years of their debut. A film version of 'The Day of the Jackal,' starring Michael Lonsdale, appeared in 1973, just two years after the novel's publication; a second movie version, with Bruce Willis and Sidney Poitier, was released in 1997 as 'The Jackal.' (A television series based on the novel, starring Eddie Redmayne, aired last year.) Mr. Forsyth came by his subjects through firsthand experience. Eschewing college after high school, he joined the Royal Air Force, where he flew fighter jets. He then worked as a reporter for Reuters; at one point, he covered the attempted assassination of President Charles de Gaulle of France by far-right militants angry over the country's withdrawal from Algeria. It was an event that he fictionalized to great effect in 'The Day of the Jackal,' which followed, in minute detail, the preparations of an elusive assassin and the French government's efforts to stop him. In 1965, Mr. Forsyth moved to the BBC, where he covered a civil war in Nigeria between the central, dictatorial government and the breakaway state of Biafra. In 2015, he revealed that while in Africa he also worked as an informant for British intelligence. His reporting on Biafra led to two books, the nonfiction 'The Biafran Story' (1969) and 'The Dogs of War' (1974), about a group of mercenaries hired by a shady international consortium to stage a coup against a resources-rich African country. Mr. Forsyth was politically conservative, and supported the Brexit campaign to leave the European Union in 2016. This is a developing story. A complete obituary will follow. Sopan Deb contributed reporting.
