Author of The Day Of The Jackal Frederick Forsyth has died
Frederick Forsyth, the author of The Day Of The Jackal, has died at the age of 86 after a brief illness, his literary agents Curtis Brown said.
His book The Day Of The Jackal was turned into a 1973 film and last year a TV series on Sky Atlantic featuring Eddie Redmayne and Lashana Lynch.
The best-selling author was surrounded by his family when he died on Monday morning, Curtis Brown added.
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Pop music has never been sweeter and the rock 'n' roll life has never been darker. Brian Wilson, the genius of The Beach Boys whose soaring falsetto gave the world Good Vibrations, endured a life of horrific mental torment. From his brutal childhood – beaten so badly by his monstrous father that he was deaf in one ear – to his decades of paranoid, drug-addled seclusion, he fought a constant battle against the world. Yet few songwriters have created a greater catalogue of timeless music. Paul McCartney, who with The Beatles were the only group that could ever match The Beach Boys for melodic perfection, regarded him as an inspiration. It was Wilson's creative high point, the album Pet Sounds, that galvanised Macca into writing much of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Unlike McCartney, Wilson – who died yesterday aged 82 – was unable to keep hold of his talent and his sanity in the maelstrom of 1960s pop excess. He spiralled into a vortex of drug-induced mental illness and alcoholism that left him a suicidal wreck, and saw his weight bloat to 24st. His wealth was plundered by crooks, quacks and hangers-on, his band carried on without him, and he became a kind of living ghost. To the amazement of many fans, he rallied in middle age, returning to live performance and appearing at the Queen's Golden Jubilee concert at Buckingham Palace in 2002. He even reunited with the surviving Beach Boys for an album and a tour – though his bandmates and brothers Carl and Dennis did not live to see it. Original members of The Beach Boys, from left, David Marks, Bruce Johnston and Brian Wilson appear onstage during ABC's 'Good Morning America' summer concert series, June 15, 2012, in New York It was Dennis who came home from school in Los Angeles aged 16 and asked his music-mad brother Brian: 'Why don't you write a song about surfing? All the guys are doing it nowadays.' Brian obliged. 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