Frederick Forsyth

Frederick McCarthy Forsyth (Template:IPAc-en Template:Respell;<ref>Template:Cite tweet</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> 25 August 1938 – 9 June 2025) was an English novelist and journalist. He was best known for thrillers such as The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, The Fourth Protocol, The Dogs of War, The Devil's Alternative, The Fist of God, Icon, The Veteran, Avenger, The Afghan, The Cobra and The Kill List.

Forsyth's works frequently appeared on best-sellers lists, and more than a dozen of his titles have been adapted to film. By 2006, he had sold more than 70 million books in more than 30 languages.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He also worked as a journalist, first joining Reuters in 1961 before serving as an assistant diplomatic correspondent in 1965 for the BBC. He also frequently wrote a column for the newspaper Daily Express, often regarding political and social issues from Forsyth's politically conservative-leaning perspective.

Early life and career

Forsyth was born in Ashford, Kent, on 25 August 1938, and was educated at Tonbridge School, a private boarding and day school in the market town of Tonbridge, Kent.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Military and journalism

Before becoming a journalist, Forsyth completed his National Service in the Royal Air Force as a pilot, for which he flew the de Havilland Vampire.<ref name="Hollywood Reporter">Template:Cite web</ref> He was commissioned with the rank of acting pilot officer on 28 August 1956,<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> becoming substantive in that rank one year later.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> After completing his full-time national service, he was transferred to the Royal Auxiliary Air Force on 30 October 1958 with the rank of flying officer.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> He joined Reuters in 1961 and in 1965 the BBC, for which he served as an assistant diplomatic correspondent.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Forsyth reported on his early activities as a journalist. His early career was spent covering French affairs and the attempted assassination of Charles de Gaulle. He had never been to Africa until reporting on the Nigerian Civil War between Biafra and Nigeria as a BBC correspondent.<ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref> He was there for the first six months of 1967, but few expected the war to last long considering the poor weaponry and preparation of the Biafrans when compared to the British-armed Nigerians.<ref name=":6" /> After his six months were over, however, Forsyth—eager to carry on reporting—approached the BBC to ask if he could have more time there. He noted their response:

Forsyth thus returned to Biafra as a freelance reporter, writing his first book, The Biafra Story, in 1969.<ref name = "biblio"/>

In August 2015, Forsyth revealed that in Biafra he was an informant for MI6,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> a relationship that continued for 20 years. According to Forsyth, he was not paid.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Forsyth did occasional radio commentary on political issues. He also wrote for newspapers throughout his career, and up until August 2023 wrote a weekly column in the Daily Express.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2003, he criticised "gay-bashers in the churches" in The Guardian newspaper.<ref name = "Norman2003"/> He narrated several documentaries, including Jesus Christ Airlines, Soldiers: A History of Men in Battle and I Have Never Forgotten You: The Life & Legacy of Simon Wiesenthal.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Writing

Forsyth in 2003

According to Forsyth, his turn to writing fiction was born of financial need; he did not think himself cut out to be a novelist. As a boy, he said, he wanted to be "a fighter jock," and when he traded his career in the RAF for journalism, it was "to see the world" as a foreign and war correspondent. As for becoming a novelist, he confessed "I never wanted to be a writer," but wrote his first full-length novel, The Day of the Jackal, because he was "skint, stony broke."<ref>Frederick Forsyth, "Author's Note: A Rather Undeserving Scribe," introduction to New American Library re-issue of The Day of the Jackal (New York: Penguin, 2012), vi–vii.</ref> He applied similar research techniques to those used in journalism. Published in 1971, the book became an international bestseller and gained its author the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel in 1972.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref> In this story, the Organisation armée secrète hires an assassin to kill then–French President Charles de Gaulle.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite web</ref> It was made into a film of the same name, and subsequently a television series.<ref name=":0" />

In Forsyth's second full-length novel, The Odessa File (1972), a reporter attempts to track down an ex–Nazi SS officer in contemporary Germany.<ref name=":4">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The reporter discovers him via the diary of a Jewish Holocaust survivor who died of suicide earlier, but he is being shielded by an organisation that protects ex-Nazis, called ODESSA.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> This book was later made into a movie with the same name, starring Jon Voight, but there were substantial alterations. Many of the novel's readers assumed that a centralized ODESSA organisation really existed, but historians asserted there was no centrally-organized network facilitating the escape of German Nazis.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In The Dogs of War (1974) a British mining executive hires a group of mercenaries to overthrow the government of an African country so that he can install a puppet regime that will allow him cheap access to a colossal platinum-ore reserve.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> This book was also adapted into a 1980 film starring Christopher Walken and Tom Berenger.<ref name=":1" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The Shepherd was an illustrated novella published in 1975. It tells of a nightmare journey by an RAF pilot while flying home for Christmas in the late 1950s. His attempts to find a rational explanation for his eventual rescue prove as troublesome as his experience.<ref name="The Shepherd">Template:Cite web</ref>

Following this came The Devil's Alternative in 1979, which is set in 1982.<ref name=":0" /><ref>Template:Cite book</ref> In this book, the Soviet Union faces a disastrous grain harvest. The U.S. is ready to help for some political and military concessions. A Politburo faction fight ensues. War is proposed as a solution. Ukrainian freedom fighters complicate the situation later. In the end, a Swedish oil tanker built in Japan, a Russian airliner hijacked to West Berlin and various governments find themselves involved.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 1982, No Comebacks, a collection of ten short stories, was published.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Some of these stories had been written earlier. Many were set in the Republic of Ireland where Forsyth was living at the time. One of them, There Are No Snakes in Ireland, won him a second Edgar Allan Poe Award.<ref name="Encyclopedia.com">Template:Cite web</ref>

The Fourth Protocol was published in 1984 and involves renegade elements within the Soviet Union attempting to plant an atomic bomb near a U.S airbase in the UK, intending to influence the upcoming British elections and lead to the election of an anti-NATO, anti-American, anti-nuclear, pro-Soviet Labour government.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The 1987 adaptation as a thriller film starred Pierce Brosnan and Michael Caine and was co-produced by Forsyth.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Forsyth's tenth book came in 1989 with The Negotiator, in which the United States President's son is kidnapped and one man's job is to negotiate his release.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Two years later, in 1991, The Deceiver was published. It includes four short stories reviewing the career of British secret agent Sam McCready. At the start of the novel, the Permanent Under-Secretary of State (PUSS) of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office requires the Chief of the SIS to push Sam into early retirement. The four stories are presented to a grievance committee in an attempt to allow Sam to stay on active duty with the SIS.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 1994, Forsyth published The Fist of God, a novel which concerns the first Gulf War, Project Babylon and competition between intelligence agencies.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Next, in 1996, he published Icon, about the rise of fascists to power in post-Soviet Russia.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Forsyth then published The Phantom of Manhattan, a sequel to The Phantom of the Opera.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite web</ref> It was intended as a departure from his usual genre; Forsyth's explanation was that "I had done mercenaries, assassins, Nazis, murderers, terrorists, special forces soldiers, fighter pilots, you name it, and I got to think, could I actually write about the human heart?"<ref name="King" /> However, it did not achieve the same success as his other novels, and he subsequently returned to modern-day thrillers.<ref name=":1" />

In 2001, The Veteran, another collection of short stories, was published, followed by Avenger, published in September 2003, about a Canadian billionaire who hires a Vietnam veteran to bring his grandson's killer to the United States.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The novel was adapted into a film starring Sam Elliott and Timothy Hutton.<ref name=":1" /> Another novel written by Forsyth, The Afghan, was published in August 2006. Set in the very near future, the threat of a catastrophic assault on the West, discovered on a senior al-Qaeda member's computer, compels the leaders of the U.S. and the UK to attempt a desperate gambit—to substitute a seasoned British operative, retired Col. Mike Martin (of The Fist of God), for an Afghan Taliban commander being held prisoner at Guantánamo Bay.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

The Cobra, published in 2010, features some of the characters previously featured in Avenger, and has as its subject an attempt to destroy the world trade in cocaine.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On 20 August 2013, his novel The Kill List was published. It was announced earlier in June that year that Rupert Sanders would be directing a film version of the story.<ref>Template:Citation.</ref> In September 2015, Forsyth's autobiography, The Outsider: My Life in Intrigue, was published.<ref name=":1" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In January 2018, it was announced that Forsyth would publish his eighteenth novel, a thriller about computer hackers, inspired by the Lauri Love and Gary McKinnon stories.<ref>Cowdrey, Katherine (9 January 2018): "Forsyth to release hacking thriller this autumn Template:Webarchive". The Bookseller.com. URL accessed 19 April 2018.</ref> The Fox was published in the same year as an espionage thriller regarding a highly skilled autistic hacker.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Other awards

On 16 February 2012 the Crime Writers' Association announced that Forsyth had won its Cartier Diamond Dagger award in recognition of his body of work.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Forsyth was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1997 New Year Honours list for services to literature.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref>

Political views

Template:Conservatism UK Forsyth held politically conservative beliefs throughout his career and often shared his views on British and world affairs in newspaper columns and on television.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In a 2013 interview, Forsyth summarised his beliefs as traditionalist and "conservative with a small c" and argued "I’ve never seen why anyone should be ashamed of loving one’s own country. It seems modish now not to, and I rebel against that. And for it, I’m called right wing."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

He was also a Eurosceptic, and tended to support the Conservative Party in elections, although Forsyth also maintained that he had no direct interest in British party politics.<ref name=":5">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He was Patron of Better Off Out, an organisation calling for Britain's withdrawal from the European Union, and he supported Brexit.<ref name=":5" /> In 2003, he was awarded the One of Us Award from the Conservative Way Forward group for his services to the Conservative movement in Britain.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He was also a personal friend of Conservative Party politician David Davis.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Forsyth maintained that journalism should be conducted with objectivity, writing in his 2010 memoir that "a journalist should never join the establishment, no matter how tempting the blandishments. It is our job to hold power to account, not join it. In a world that increasingly obsesses over the gods of power, money, and fame, a journalist and a writer must remain detached, like a bird on a watching, noting, probing, commenting, but never joining."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In the run-up to the 2005 general election, Forsyth called for the impeachment of Tony Blair over the 2003 invasion of Iraq and lent his support to anti-war campaigner Reg Keys who stood in Blair's constituency of Sedgefield.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In 2016, Forsyth was featured as a character in Reg, a one-off BBC real-life drama about Reg Keys' campaign. In the programme, Forsyth was portrayed by Tim Bentinck.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Forsyth was also critical of the term War on Terror used by the George W. Bush administration, but argued "certain elements of Islam are at war, which they call Jihad, with the Christian-Jewish world."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Despite his conservative beliefs, Forsyth expressed criticism of christian right attitudes towards homosexuals in a 2003 opinion column for The Daily Express.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Forsyth often appeared on BBC's political panel show Question Time as a guest; he also expressed scepticism on the subject of anthropogenic climate change in a Daily Express column he wrote often.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":6">Template:Cite news</ref>

Personal life and death

Forsyth married former model Carole Cunningham in 1973. The marriage, which produced two children, ended in divorce in 1988. He married Sandy Molloy in 1994. Molloy died in October 2024.<ref name="Encyclopedia.com" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He also had a relationship with actress Faye Dunaway.<ref>New York Daily News, 25 August 1987.</ref> Forsyth previously resided in a 26-room manor house in East End Green, Hertfordshire, with his family before moving to Buckinghamshire in 2010.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref>

In 2016, he said he was giving up writing thrillers because his wife had told him he was too old to travel to dangerous places.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Forsyth died aged 86, at his home in Jordans, Buckinghamshire, on 9 June 2025, following a brief illness.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name=":4"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Bibliography

Works by Frederick Forsyth

Title	Year	Notes	Ref.
The Biafra Story	1969	Non-fiction. 1977 edition titled The Biafra Story: The Making of an African Legend.	<ref name="Hollywood Reporter"/><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Template:Sortname	1971	Adapted into the 1973 film of the same name.	<ref name="Hollywood Reporter"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Template:Sortname	1972	Adapted into the 1974 film of the same name.	<ref name="Hollywood Reporter"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Template:Sortname	1974	Adapted into the 1980 film of the same name.	<ref name="Hollywood Reporter"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Template:Sortname	1975	Illustrated short story.	<ref name="The Shepherd"/>
Template:Sortname	1979		<ref name="Hollywood Reporter"/>
Emeka	1982	Biography of C. Odumegwu Ojukwu, President of Biafra.	<ref name=":2" />
No Comebacks	1982	Collection consisting of ten short stories.	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Template:Sortname	1984	Adapted into the 1987 film of the same name.	<ref name="Hollywood Reporter"/>
Template:Sortname	1989		<ref name="Hollywood Reporter"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
Template:Sortname	1991		<ref name=":2" />
Great Flying Stories	1991	Compiled, edited and introduced by Forsyth. Features his 1975 story "The Shepherd" and "The Black Aeroplane"	<ref name=":3">Template:Cite book</ref>
Sharp Practice	1992	An audiobook of three short stories from No Comebacks, read by Edward de Souza	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Template:Sortname	1994		<ref name="Hollywood Reporter"/>
Icon	1996	Adapted into 2005 television film.	<ref name="Hollywood Reporter"/><ref name=":1"/>
Template:Sortname	1999	Partly adapted into the 2010 romantic musical Love Never Dies.	<ref name=":0"/><ref name=":1"/>
Template:Sortname	2001	Collection consisting of five short stories: "The Veteran", "The Art of the Matter", "The Miracle", "The Citizen", and "Whispering Wind".	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Avenger	2003	Adapted into 2006 television film.	<ref name="Hollywood Reporter"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Template:Sortname	2006	Characters from The Fist of God reappear.	<ref name=":0"/><ref name="Encyclopedia.com"/>
Template:Sortname	2010		<ref name="Hollywood Reporter"/>
Template:Sortname	2013		<ref name=":2" />
The Outsider: My Life in Intrigue	2015	Autobiography. Published in September 2015.	<ref name="Hollywood Reporter"/>
Template:Sortname	2018		<ref name="Hollywood Reporter"/><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Revenge of Odessa	2025	Sequel to The Odessa File. Written with Tony Kent. Scheduled to be released on 2 September 2025.	<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

The following four works listed above are not fictional novels or novellas: The Biafra Story (1969), Emeka (1982), Great Flying Stories (1991) and The Outsider (2015).<ref name="Encyclopedia.com" /><ref name=":3" />

Filmography

As writer only.

Film

Year	Title	Notes	Ref.
1973	The Day of the Jackal	Adapted from The Day of the Jackal	<ref name="Hollywood Reporter"/>
1974	The Odessa File	Adapted from The Odessa File	<ref name="Hollywood Reporter"/>
1980	The Dogs of War	Adapted from The Dogs of War	<ref name="Hollywood Reporter"/>
1987	The Fourth Protocol	Adapted from The Fourth Protocol	<ref name="Hollywood Reporter"/>
1997	The Jackal	Based on the 1973 film	<ref name=":1"/>
2023	The Shepherd	Adapted from The Shepherd	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Television

Year	Title	Notes	Ref.
1973	Money with Menaces	TV play; one of 10 short stories in No Comebacks	<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1980	Cry of the Innocent	TV film	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1984	Two by Forsyth	2 episodes: "Privilege" and "A Careful Man"	<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
1989–90	Frederick Forsyth Presents	6 episodes; as writer and presenter	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
1996	Code Name: Wolverine	TV film	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2005	Icon	TV film; adapted from Icon	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2006	Avenger	TV film; adapted from Avenger	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
2024	The Day of the Jackal	Adapted from The Day of the Jackal	<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Theatre

Year	Title	Notes
2010	Love Never Dies	West End; partially adapted from The Phantom of Manhattan<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Video

Year	Title	Notes
2012	Love Never Dies	Direct-to-video<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Video games

Year	Title	Notes
1985	The Fourth Protocol	Adapted from The Fourth Protocol<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Music videos

Year	Title	Artist
2016	"Fallen Soldier"	Melissa Alder<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Music

Forsyth wrote lyrics to a lament titled "Fallen Soldier", with music by Gareth Ellis Williams, which was released as a single by Royal Opera House soprano Melissa Alder in 2016.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

See also

• List of bestselling novels in the United States

External links

• Frederick Forsyth official website
• Template:IMDb name
• Template:Discogs artist
• Template:Citation
• Template:NPG name