Frederick Forsyth | |
|---|---|
 Forsyth in 1972, showing the bullet that grazed his head in theBiafra War | |
| Born | Frederick McCarthy Forsyth (1938-08-25)25 August 1938 Ashford, Kent, England |
| Died | 9 June 2025(2025-06-09) (aged 86) Jordans, Buckinghamshire, England |
| Occupation | Novelist |
| Education | Tonbridge School, Kent |
| Period | 1969–2025 |
| Genre | |
| Notable works | |
| Spouse | |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Branch | Royal Air Force |
| Years of service | 1956–1958 |
| Rank | Pilot officer |
| Service number | 5010968 |
| Website | |
| www | |
Frederick McCarthy Forsyth (/fɔːˈsaɪθ/for-SYTH;[1][2] 25 August 1938 – 9 June 2025) was an English novelist and journalist. He was best known for thrillers such asThe 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 andThe 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.[3] He also worked as a journalist, first joiningReuters in 1961 before serving as an assistant diplomatic correspondent in 1965 for theBBC. He also frequently wrote a column for the newspaperDaily Express, often regarding political and social issues from Forsyth's politically conservative-leaning perspective.
Forsyth was born inAshford, Kent, on 25 August 1938, and was educated atTonbridge School, a privateboarding and day school in the market town ofTonbridge, Kent.[4]
Before becoming a journalist, Forsyth completed hisNational Service in theRoyal Air Force as a pilot, for which he flew thede Havilland Vampire.[5] He was commissioned with the rank ofacting pilot officer on 28 August 1956,[6] becoming substantive in that rank one year later.[7] After completing his full-time national service, he was transferred to theRoyal Auxiliary Air Force on 30 October 1958 with the rank offlying officer.[8] He joinedReuters in 1961 and in 1965 theBBC, for which he served as an assistant diplomatic correspondent.[9]
Forsyth reported on his early activities as a journalist. His early career was spent covering French affairs and the attempted assassination ofCharles de Gaulle. He had never been to Africa until reporting on theNigerian Civil War betweenBiafra andNigeria as aBBC correspondent.[10] 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.[11] 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:
I was told quite bluntly, then, "it is not our policy to cover this war". This was a period when theVietnam War was front-page headlines almost every day, regarded broadly as an American cock-up, and this particularly British cock-up in Nigeria was not going to be covered. I smelt news management. I don't like news management. So I made a private vow to myself: "you may, gentlemen, not be covering it, but I'm going to cover it". So I quit and flew out there, and stayed there for most of the next two years.
Forsyth thus returned to Biafra as a freelance reporter, writing his first book,The Biafra Story, in 1969.[12]
In August 2015, Forsyth revealed that in Biafra he was an informant forMI6,[13] a relationship that continued for 20 years. According to Forsyth, he was not paid.[14]
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 theDaily Express.[15] In 2003, he criticised "gay-bashers in the churches" inThe Guardian newspaper.[16] He narrated several documentaries, includingJesus Christ Airlines,Soldiers: A History of Men in Battle andI Have Never Forgotten You: The Life & Legacy of Simon Wiesenthal.[17][18][19]
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."[20] He applied similar research techniques to those used in journalism. Published in 1971, the book became an international bestseller and gained its author theEdgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel in 1972.[21] In this story, theOrganisation armée secrète hires an assassin to kill then–French PresidentCharles de Gaulle.[22] It was made into afilm of the same name, and subsequently atelevision series.[21]
In Forsyth's second full-length novel,The Odessa File (1972), a reporter attempts to track down an ex–NaziSS officer in contemporary Germany.[23][24] The reporter discovers him via the diary of a JewishHolocaust survivor who died of suicide earlier, but he is being shielded by an organisation that protects ex-Nazis, calledODESSA.[25] This book was later made into amovie with the same name, starringJon 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.[26]
InThe Dogs of War (1974) a British mining executive hires a group ofmercenaries 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.[27][28] This book was also adapted into a1980 film starringChristopher Walken andTom Berenger.[22][29]The Shepherd was an illustrated novella published in 1975. It tells of a nightmare journey by anRAF 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.[30]
Following this cameThe Devil's Alternative in 1979, which is set in 1982.[21][31] In this book, theSoviet Union faces a disastrous grain harvest. The U.S. is ready to help for some political and military concessions. APolitburo 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 toWest Berlin and various governments find themselves involved.[32] In 1982,No Comebacks, a collection of ten short stories, was published.[33] Some of these stories had been written earlier. Many were set in theRepublic 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.[34]
The Fourth Protocol was published in 1984 and involves renegade elements within theSoviet Union attempting to plant anatomic bomb near a U.S airbase in the UK, intending to influence the upcomingBritish elections and lead to the election of an anti-NATO, anti-American, anti-nuclear, pro-SovietLabour government.[35][36] The1987 adaptation as a thriller film starredPierce Brosnan andMichael Caine and was co-produced by Forsyth.[37][38][39]
Forsyth's tenth book came in 1989 withThe Negotiator, in which the United States President's son is kidnapped and one man's job is to negotiate his release.[40][41] 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.[42][43]
In 1994, Forsyth publishedThe Fist of God, a novel which concerns the firstGulf War,Project Babylon and competition betweenintelligence agencies.[44] Next, in 1996, he publishedIcon, about the rise of fascists to power inpost-Soviet Russia.[45] Forsyth then publishedThe Phantom of Manhattan, a sequel toThe Phantom of the Opera.[46] 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?"[47] However, it did not achieve the same success as his other novels, and he subsequently returned to modern-daythrillers.[22]
In 2001,The Veteran, another collection of short stories, was published, followed byAvenger, published in September 2003, about a Canadian billionaire who hires aVietnam veteran to bring his grandson's killer to the United States.[48][49][50] The novel was adapted into afilm starringSam Elliott andTimothy Hutton.[22] 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 senioral-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 (ofThe Fist of God), for an Afghan Taliban commander being held prisoner atGuantánamo Bay.[51]
The Cobra, published in 2010, features some of the characters previously featured inAvenger, and has as its subject an attempt to destroy the world trade incocaine.[52] On 20 August 2013, his novelThe Kill List was published. It was announced earlier in June that year thatRupert Sanders would be directing a film version of the story.[53] In September 2015, Forsyth's autobiography,The Outsider: My Life in Intrigue, was published.[22][54]
In January 2018, it was announced that Forsyth would publish his eighteenth novel, a thriller about computer hackers, inspired by theLauri Love andGary McKinnon stories.[55]The Fox was published in the same year as anespionage thriller regarding a highly skilled autistic hacker.[56][57]
On 16 February 2012 theCrime Writers' Association announced that Forsyth had won itsCartier Diamond Dagger award in recognition of his body of work.[58]
Forsyth was appointed a Commander of theOrder of the British Empire (CBE) in the1997 New Year Honours list for services to literature.[59]
Forsyth held politicallyconservative beliefs throughout his career and often shared his views on British and world affairs in newspaper columns and on television.[60] In a 2013 interview, Forsyth summarised his beliefs astraditionalist 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."[61]
He was also aEurosceptic, and tended to support theConservative Party in elections, although Forsyth also maintained that he had no direct interest in British party politics.[62][63] He was Patron ofBetter Off Out, an organisation calling for Britain's withdrawal from theEuropean Union, and he supportedBrexit.[62] In 2003, he was awarded the One of Us Award from theConservative Way Forward group for his services to the Conservative movement in Britain.[64] He was also a personal friend of Conservative Party politicianDavid Davis.[65]
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."[66]
In the run-up to the2005 general election, Forsyth called for the impeachment ofTony Blair over the2003 invasion of Iraq and lent his support to anti-war campaignerReg Keys who stood in Blair's constituency ofSedgefield.[67][68] In 2016, Forsyth was featured as a character inReg, a one-off BBC real-life drama about Reg Keys' campaign. In the programme, Forsyth was portrayed byTim Bentinck.[69] Forsyth was also critical of the termWar on Terror used by theGeorge W. Bush administration, but argued "certain elements of Islam are at war, which they callJihad, with the Christian-Jewish world."[70]
Despite his conservative beliefs, Forsyth expressed criticism ofchristian right attitudes towards homosexuals in a 2003 opinion column forThe Daily Express.[71]
Forsyth often appeared on BBC's political panel showQuestion Time as a guest; he also expressedscepticism on the subject of anthropogenic climate change in aDaily Express column he wrote often.[46][11]
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.[34][72][73] He also had a relationship with actressFaye Dunaway.[74] Forsyth previously resided in a 26-room manor house in East End Green,Hertfordshire, with his family before moving toBuckinghamshire in 2010.[75][76][77]
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.[78]
Forsyth died aged 86, at his home inJordans, Buckinghamshire, on 9 June 2025, following a brief illness.[79][23][80]
| Title | Year | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Biafra Story | 1969 | Non-fiction. 1977 edition titledThe Biafra Story: The Making of an African Legend. | [5][81] |
| The Day of the Jackal | 1971 | Adapted into the1973 film of the same name. | [5][82] |
| The Odessa File | 1972 | Adapted into the1974 film of the same name. | [5][83] |
| The Dogs of War | 1974 | Adapted into the1980 film of the same name. | [5][84] |
| The Shepherd | 1975 | Illustrated short story. | [30] |
| The Devil's Alternative | 1979 | [5] | |
| Emeka | 1982 | Biography ofC. Odumegwu Ojukwu, President ofBiafra. | [46] |
| No Comebacks | 1982 | Collection consisting of ten short stories. | [85] |
| The Fourth Protocol | 1984 | Adapted into the1987 film of the same name. | [5] |
| The Negotiator | 1989 | [5][86] | |
| The Deceiver | 1991 | [46] | |
| Great Flying Stories | 1991 | Compiled, edited and introduced by Forsyth. Features his 1975 story "The Shepherd" and "The Black Aeroplane" | [87] |
| Sharp Practice | 1992 | An audiobook of three short stories fromNo Comebacks, read byEdward de Souza | [88] |
| The Fist of God | 1994 | [5] | |
| Icon | 1996 | Adapted into2005 television film. | [5][22] |
| The Phantom of Manhattan | 1999 | Partly adapted into the 2010 romantic musicalLove Never Dies. | [21][22] |
| The Veteran | 2001 | Collection consisting of five short stories: "The Veteran", "The Art of the Matter", "The Miracle", "The Citizen", and "Whispering Wind". | [89][90] |
| Avenger | 2003 | Adapted into2006 television film. | [5][91] |
| The Afghan | 2006 | Characters from The Fist of God reappear. | [21][34] |
| The Cobra | 2010 | [5] | |
| The Kill List | 2013 | [46] | |
| The Outsider: My Life in Intrigue | 2015 | Autobiography. Published in September 2015. | [5] |
| The Fox | 2018 | [5][92] | |
| Revenge of Odessa | 2025 | Sequel toThe Odessa File. Written with Tony Kent. Scheduled to be released on 2 September 2025. | [93] |
The following four works listed above are not fictional novels or novellas:The Biafra Story (1969),Emeka (1982),Great Flying Stories (1991) andThe Outsider (2015).[34][87]
As writer only.
| Year | Title | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | The Day of the Jackal | Adapted fromThe Day of the Jackal | [5] |
| 1974 | The Odessa File | Adapted fromThe Odessa File | [5] |
| 1980 | The Dogs of War | Adapted fromThe Dogs of War | [5] |
| 1987 | The Fourth Protocol | Adapted fromThe Fourth Protocol | [5] |
| 1997 | The Jackal | Based on the 1973 film | [22] |
| 2023 | The Shepherd | Adapted fromThe Shepherd | [94] |
| Year | Title | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1973 | Money with Menaces | TV play; one of 10 short stories inNo Comebacks | [95][96] |
| 1980 | Cry of the Innocent | TV film | [97] |
| 1984 | Two by Forsyth | 2 episodes: "Privilege" and "A Careful Man" | [98] |
| 1989–90 | Frederick Forsyth Presents | 6 episodes; as writer and presenter | [99] |
| 1996 | Code Name: Wolverine | TV film | [100] |
| 2005 | Icon | TV film; adapted fromIcon | [101] |
| 2006 | Avenger | TV film; adapted fromAvenger | [102] |
| 2024 | The Day of the Jackal | Adapted from The Day of the Jackal | [103] |
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Love Never Dies | West End; partially adapted fromThe Phantom of Manhattan[104] |
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Love Never Dies | Direct-to-video[105] |
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1985 | The Fourth Protocol | Adapted fromThe Fourth Protocol[106] |
| Year | Title | Artist |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | "Fallen Soldier" | Melissa Alder[107] |
Forsyth wrote lyrics to a lament titled "Fallen Soldier", with music by Gareth Ellis Williams, which was released as a single byRoyal Opera House soprano Melissa Alder in 2016.[108]
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