Very sad news relayed to me by one of our own Outposters last night. Thriller writer Frederick Forsyth has died at the age of 86.
Why are we doing an obituary on a movie website for a thriller writer? Some of his books were adapted into touchstone movies
Others… not so well adapted.
However well, or not, some of his books were adapted one thing is true. He was a thriller writer like no other, known for his meticulous research, so much so that governments got nervous when he had a new book coming out.
He had a habit of including things that cut a bit too close to reality for the kind of people who would rather that normal folks did not have access to such knowledge.
He was known, through his writing, to often embarrass the authorities, who were forced to admit that some of the shady tactics he revealed were used in real-life espionage.
Whereas other writers in this genre sometimes get bogged down with either jingoistic flag-waving and almost fetishising the technology, Forsyth managed to weave in these intricate technical details without them being a distraction.
Frederick McCarthy Forsyth was born on 25 August 1938 in Ashford, Kent where, as an only child, he dealt with loneliness by immersing himself in adventure stories.
As a young man, he travelled to Spain and spent five months at the University of Granada before returning to do his national service with the RAF.
Having spent years dreaming of becoming a pilot, Forsyth lied about his age so he could fly de Havilland Vampire jets.
After his National service, he joined the Eastern Daily Press as a local journalist then moved to the Reuters news agency.
He excelled in foreign languages, speaking fluent French, German, Spanish, and Russian, so he became a foreign correspondent.
During a posting in Paris, he covered a number of stories relating to assassination attempts on the life of France’s President Charles de Gaulle, by members of the Organisation de l’Armee Secrete (OAS).
He decided that, if they really wanted to kill de Gaulle, they would have to hire a professional assassin, an idea he would return to later.
After joking in the BBC in 1965, he went to Nigeria to cover the Biafra rebellion.
He was so disgusted by the Western coverage of the war that he quit, and went freelance.
During this time he was appproached by MI6. He also spent time with mercenaries who taught him how to obtain a false passport and obtain an untraceable gun.
Following his stint in Africa, he returned to London penniless and used his experiences to write The Day Of The Jackal.
A short print run of the book went massive, and caused national embarrassment when it turned out his description of the Jackal’s obtaining a false passport was achievable.
The award-winning film adaption soon followed in 1973, staring Edward Fox as the Jackal.
Next came The Odessa File, the story of a reporter attempting to track down a notorious Nazi protected by a secret society of former SS men. Once again, authorities were forced to admit that his story was a bit too close to the truth for comfort.
Ths was adapted into a 1974 thriller starring Jon Voight and Maximilian Schell.
His third novel, The Dogs of War, drew on his experience of organising a coup in Africa when it was alleged he had paid $200,000 dollars to recruit mercenaries to oust the President of Equatorial Guinea.
A terrible adaption starring Christopher Walken would follow, and sour Forsyth’s views on making movies based on his novels.
The Devil’s Alternative covered marine piracy and terrorism, before he wrote The Fourth Protocol, telling of a Soviet plot to influence the British general election and install a hard-left Labour government.
The book so impressed Michael Caine that he persuaded Forsyth to allow a film version, in he starred alongside a pre-007 Pierce Brosnan.
The film adaption is an Outpost favorite.
Alongside a quick detour into horror for The Phantom of Manhattan, a sequel to The Phantom of the Opera, he started writing up to the minute thrillers with plots ripped from the headlines of the time.
He tackled the IRA, Russian politics, the Gulf War, the drug trade, the Bosnian conflict, and Islamic terrorism.
He embarrassed the government yet again with a plot line that exposed how information on Irish Republican terrorists was gathered.
His most modern novels covered drone warfare and cyber warfare, proving his mind was a keen as ever even when in his late 1970s.
He was also a political pundit and newspaper columnist. He once famously destroyed UK Prime Minister Ted Heath on television by proving that Heath had lied about transferring UK gold reserves to Frankfurt.
He announced that he had written his final novel in 2018 and looked forward to his retirement. His second wife passed away last year.
We may never see another thriller writer with his attention to detail and ability to seamlessly weave it into the story again.
If you decide to pick up his books, some of them need to be read in order as they feature returning characters. For instance Fist Of God precedes The Afghan, and Avenger is followed by Cobra.
If you like the genre, then his books simply cannot be recommended enough.
