Frederick Forsyth
{{Short description|English novelist (born 1938)}}
{{For|the Canadian politician|Frederick Forsyth Pardee}}
{{Use British English|date=May 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}
{{Infobox writer
| name = Frederick Forsyth
| image = Frederick Forsyth - 01.jpg
| image_size =
| caption = Forsyth in 2003
| pseudonym =
| birth_name = {{nowrap|Frederick McCarthy Forsyth}}
| honorific_suffix = {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100%|CBE}}
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1938|8|25|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Ashford, Kent, England
| education = Tonbridge School, Kent
| death_date =
| death_place =
| occupation = Novelist
| period = 1969–present
| genre = Crime fiction
Thriller
| notableworks = {{Plain list|
- The Day of the Jackal
- The Odessa File
- The Dogs of War
- The Fourth Protocol
- The Fist of God
- No Comebacks
}}
| subject =
| movement =
| influences =
| influenced =
| signature =
| website = {{URL|http://www.frederickforsyth.co.uk/}}
| module = {{Infobox military person|embed=yes
| allegiance = {{flag|United Kingdom}}
| branch = {{air force|United Kingdom}}
| serviceyears = 1956–1958
| rank = Pilot officer
| servicenumber = 5010968
}}
}}
Frederick McCarthy Forsyth{{Efn|Pronounced {{IPAc-en|ˈ|f|oʊ|r|s|aɪ|t}} {{Respell|FOHR|sait}}.{{Cite web |title=Frederick Forsyth, Thrilling in Real Life |url=https://www.npr.org/2015/10/17/449158992/frederick-forsyth-thrilling-in-real-life |work=Weekend Edition Saturday |publisher=NPR |date=17 October 2015 |access-date=10 December 2024}}}} {{Postnominals|country=GBR|CBE}} (born 25 August 1938) is an English novelist and journalist. He is 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 appear 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.{{cite news|last1=Leeman|first1=Sue|title=Forsyth Looks at World of Al-Qaida|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=2199&dat=20060903&id=XWxUAAAAIBAJ&pg=6521,848695&hl=en|access-date=26 June 2015|agency=Associated Press|date=3 September 2006}}
Education
Forsyth was educated at Tonbridge School, a private boarding and day school in the market town of Tonbridge in Kent.
Career
=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.{{London Gazette |issue=40902 |date=16 October 1956 |page=5846 |supp=y}}{{London Gazette |issue=41165 |date=3 September 1957 |page=5169 |supp=y}}{{Failed verification|date=August 2024|reason=aircraft type not mentioned in either reference}} He joined Reuters in 1961 and in 1965 the BBC, for which he served as an assistant diplomatic correspondent.
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.{{Cite AV media
|publisher=BBC
| title= Nigeria War Against Biafra, 1967–70, Part 3
| type = documentary
| url = https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7qQdZ9nzbI
| via=Njenje Media TV; YouTube
}}
He was there for the first six months of 1967, but few expected the war to last very long considering the poor weaponry and preparation of the Biafrans when compared to the British-armed Nigerians. 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:
{{Blockquote|I was told quite bluntly, then, "it is not our policy to cover this war". This was a period when the Vietnam 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.}}
He thus returned to Biafra as a freelance reporter, writing his first book, The Biafra Story, in 1969.
In August 2015, Forsyth revealed that in Biafra he was an informant for MI6,{{Cite news |last=Flood |first=Alison |date=2015-09-01 |title=Frederick Forsyth: I was an MI6 agent |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/sep/01/frederick-forsyth-i-was-an-mi6-agent |access-date=2025-01-11 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} a relationship that continued for 20 years. According to Forsyth, he was not paid.BBC News article [https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-34101822 "Frederick Forsyth reveals MI6 spying past"]
He is an occasional radio broadcaster on political issues and has also written for newspapers throughout his career, including a weekly page in the Daily Express. In 2003, he criticised "gay-bashers in the churches" in The Guardian newspaper. He has 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.
=Writing=
File:Frederick-Forsyth-1972.jpg during the promotional tour for The Day of the Jackal. He shows the bullet that grazed his head in the Biafra War.]]
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."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. 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 this story, the Organisation armée secrète hires an assassin to kill then–French President Charles de Gaulle. It was made into a film of the same name, and subsequently a television series.
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. 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. 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 disagree.{{cite book|author=Walters, Guy |title=Hunting Evil: The Nazi War Criminals Who Escaped and the Quest to Bring Them to Justice|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X5EgykND42kC&pg=PA443|year=2010|publisher=Crown Publishing Group|pages=139, 156|isbn=9780307592484}}
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. This book was also adapted into a 1980 film starring Christopher Walken and Tom Berenger.
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.
Following this came The Devil's Alternative in 1979, which was set in 1982. In this book, the Soviet Union faces a disastrous grain harvest. The US 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.
In 1982, No Comebacks, a collection of ten short stories, was published. 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, this time for best short story.
The Fourth Protocol was published in 1984 and involves renegade elements within the Soviet Union attempting to plant an atomic bomb near an American 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. The 1987 adaptation starred Pierce Brosnan and Michael Caine. Almost all of the political content was removed from the film.
Forsyth's tenth book came in 1989 with The Negotiator, in which the American President's son is kidnapped and one man's job is to negotiate his release.
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.
In 1994, Forsyth published The Fist of God, a novel which concerns the first Gulf War, Project Babylon and competition between intelligence agencies. Next, in 1996, he published Icon, about the rise of fascists to power in post-Soviet Russia.
In 1999, Forsyth published The Phantom of Manhattan, a sequel to The Phantom of the Opera. 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?" However, it did not achieve the same success as his other novels, and he subsequently returned to modern-day thrillers.
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 US. The novel was adapted into a film starring Sam Elliott and Timothy Hutton.
The Afghan, published in August 2006, is an indirect sequel to The Fist of God. 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 US 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.
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.
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.{{Citation | first = Angie | last = Han | url = http://www.slashfilm.com/rupert-sanders-to-direct-frederick-forsyth-adaptation-the-kill-list/ | title = Rupert Sanders to Direct Frederick Forsyth Adaptation 'The Kill List' | newspaper = Slash film | date = 20 June 2013}}.
On 10 September 2015, Forsyth's autobiography, The Outsider: My Life in Intrigue, was published.
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.Cowdrey, Katherine (9 January 2018): "[https://www.thebookseller.com/news/transworld-publish-new-forsyth-novel-autumn-704846 Forsyth to release hacking thriller this autumn]". The Bookseller.com. URL accessed 19 April 2018. The Fox was published in electronic format in October 2018, and released in hardcover in November. The Fox is an espionage thriller about a highly skilled autistic hacker.
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.{{cite web|title=Frederick Forsyth wins the CWA Diamond Dagger|url=http://www.thecwa.co.uk/daggers/2012/diamond.html|work=CWA Diamond Dagger Awards|publisher=Crime Writers Association (UK)|access-date=21 October 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121020210305/http://www.thecwa.co.uk/daggers/2012/diamond.html|archive-date=20 October 2012}}
Forsyth was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1997 New Year Honours list for services to literature.{{London Gazette |issue=54625 |date=31 December 1996 |page=8 |supp=y}}
Other appearances
In September 2005, Forsyth appeared on the ITV gameshow Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? and raised £250,000 for charity. He offered the answer to the £500,000 question but, despite being correct, he decided to take £250,000. On 8 February 2007, Forsyth appeared on BBC's political panel show Question Time; on it, he expressed scepticism on the subject of anthropogenic climate change. On 26 March 2008, he also appeared on BBC's The One Show. On 17 June 2008, Forsyth was interviewed on BBC Radio 5 Live Midday News in relation to the restoration of the Military Covenant. On 2 February 2015, he appeared on Eggheads as a member of Rewarding Talent.
Political views
Forsyth is a Eurosceptic Conservative. He has been Patron of The People's Book Prize since 2010. He is Patron of Better Off Out, an organisation calling for Britain's withdrawal from the European Union, and he supports Brexit.{{Cite web|url=https://www.express.co.uk/comment/columnists/frederick-forsyth/651377/Brexit-referendum-EU-never-meant-to-be-democracy-says-Frederick-Forsyth|title=The EU was never meant to be a democracy, says Frederick Forsyth|newspaper=Daily Express|author=Frederick Forsyth|date=10 March 2016 }} 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. He is also a patron of the Young Britons' Foundation.
In 2005, he opposed Kenneth Clarke's candidacy for the leadership of the Conservative Party, calling Clarke's record in government "unrivalled; a record of failure which at every level has never been matched". Instead, he endorsed and donated money to David Davis's campaign. 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. In 2016, Forsyth 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.{{Cite web |title=BBC One - Reg |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07g06ch |access-date=2024-08-09 |website=BBC |language=en-GB}}
Personal life
Forsyth has been married twice, first to former model Carole Cunningham between 1973 and 1988, with whom he had two sons Stuart and Shane, and then to Sandy Molloy, since 1994.{{Cite web|title=Forsyth, Frederick 1938- {{!}} Encyclopedia.com|url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/forsyth-frederick-1938|access-date=2021-02-25|website=www.encyclopedia.com}}{{Cite web |last=Ough |first=Tom |date=12 January 2019 |title=Frederick Forsyth: 80, Author and Journalist |url=https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-daily-telegraph-saturday/20190112/282016148484672 |work=The Daily Telegraph |location=London |access-date=10 December 2024 |via=PressReader}} He also had a relationship with actress Faye Dunaway.New York Daily News, 25 August 1987. Forsyth previously resided in a manor house in Hertfordshire with his family before moving to Buckinghamshire in 2010.{{Cite web|last=BBC|title=Hertfordshire Literary Map|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/threecounties/content/articles/2006/01/31/hertfordshire_literary_map_feature.shtml|access-date=2021-08-03|website=www.bbc.co.uk|language=en-gb}}{{Cite web|title=Frederick Forsyth|url=https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/100/1000661/frederick-forsyth.html?tab=penguin-biography|access-date=2021-08-03|website=www.penguin.co.uk}}{{Cite news|last=Redwood|first=Fred|date=2017-02-12|title=Take a peek inside spy-to-writer Frederick Forsyth's fortress|language=en-GB|work=The Telegraph|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/buy/take-peek-inside-spy-to-writer-frederick-forsyths-fortress/ |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220112/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/buy/take-peek-inside-spy-to-writer-frederick-forsyths-fortress/ |archive-date=12 January 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=2021-08-03|issn=0307-1235}}{{cbignore}}
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.{{cite web|title=Frederick Forsyth to stop writing thrillers|website=TheGuardian.com |date=14 September 2016 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/sep/14/frederick-forsyth-to-stop-writing-thrillers|access-date=16 September 2016}}
Bibliography
| class="wikitable plainrowheaders sortable"
|+ Works by Frederick Forsyth |
| scope="col" | Title
! scope="col" | Year ! scope="col" class="unsortable" | Notes |
|---|
| scope="row" | The Biafra Story
| 1969 | Non-fiction. 1977 edition titled The Biafra Story: The Making of an African Legend. |
| scope="row" | {{sortname|The|Day of the Jackal}}
| 1971 | Adapted into the 1973 film of the same name. |
| scope="row" | {{sortname|The|Odessa File}}
| 1972 | Adapted into the 1974 film of the same name. |
| scope="row" | {{sortname|The|Dogs of War|The Dogs of War (novel)}}
| 1974 | Adapted into the 1980 film of the same name. |
| scope="row" | {{sortname|The|Shepherd}}
| 1975 | Illustrated short story. Chris Foss illustrated the UK edition. American edition published in 1976: Lou Feck illustrated this edition. |
| scope="row" | {{sortname|The|Devil's Alternative}}
| 1979 | American edition published in 1980. |
| scope="row" | Emeka
| 1982 | Biography of C. Odumegwu Ojukwu, President of Biafra. Revised in 1991. |
| scope="row" | No Comebacks
| 1982 | Collection consisting of ten short stories. |
| scope="row" | {{sortname|The|Fourth Protocol}}
| 1984 | Adapted into the 1987 film of the same name. |
| scope="row" | {{sortname|The|Negotiator|The Negotiator (novel)}}
| 1989 | |
| scope="row" | {{sortname|The|Deceiver|The Deceiver (novel)}}
| 1991 | |
| scope="row" | Great Flying Stories
| 1991 | Compiled, edited and introduced by Forsyth. Features his 1975 story "The Shepherd" and "The Black Aeroplane" |
| scope="row" | Sharp Practice
| 1992 |An audiobook of three short stories from No Comebacks, read by Edward de Souza |
| scope="row" | {{sortname|The|Fist of God}}
| 1994 | |
| scope="row" | Icon
| 1996 | Adapted into 2005 television film. |
| scope="row" | {{sortname|The|Phantom of Manhattan}}
| 1999 | Partly adapted into the 2010 romantic musical Love Never Dies. |
| scope="row" | {{sortname|The|Veteran|The Veteran (short story collection)}}
| 2001 | Collection consisting of five short stories: "The Veteran", "The Art of the Matter", "The Miracle", "The Citizen", and "Whispering Wind". |
| scope="row" | Avenger
| 2003 |Adapted into 2006 television film. |
| scope="row" | {{sortname|The|Afghan}}
| 2006 | Characters from The Fist of God reappear. |
| scope="row" | {{sortname|The|Cobra|The Cobra (novel)}}
| 2010 | |
| scope="row" | {{sortname|The|Kill List|The Kill List}}
| 2013 | |
| scope="row" | The Outsider: My Life in Intrigue
| 2015 | Autobiography. Published in September 2015. |
| scope="row" | {{sortname|The|Fox|The Fox (Forsyth novel)}}
| 2018 | |
| scope="row" | Revenge of Odessa
| 2025 | Sequel to The Odessa File. Written with Tony Kent. Scheduled to be released on September 2, 2025.{{Cite web |last= |first= |date= |title=Revenge of Odessa By Frederick Forsyth, Tony Kent: 9798217044658 |url=https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/777155/revenge-of-odessa-by-frederick-forsyth-with-tony-kent/ |access-date=March 26, 2025 |publisher=Penguin Random House |website=penguinrandomhouse.com}} |
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).
Filmography
As writer only (except for Soldiers, as presenter)
=Film=
| class="wikitable sortable"
! Year ! Title ! class="unsortable" | Notes |
| 1973
| Adapted from The Day of the Jackal |
| 1974
| Adapted from The Odessa File |
| 1980
| Adapted from The Dogs of War |
| 1987
| Adapted from The Fourth Protocol |
| 1997
| Based on the 1973 film |
| 2023
| Adapted from The Shepherd |
=Television=
| class="wikitable sortable"
! Year ! Title ! class="unsortable" | Notes |
| 1973
| TV play; one of 10 short stories in No Comebacks |
| 1980
| TV film |
| 1984
| Two by Forsyth | 2 episodes: "Privilege" and "A Careful Man" |
| 1985
| Soldiers | 13 episodes; as presenter |
| 1989–90
| 6 episodes; as writer and presenter |
| 1996
| Code Name: Wolverine | TV film |
| 2005
| Icon | TV film; adapted from Icon |
| 2006
| Avenger | TV film; adapted from Avenger |
| 2024
| Adapted from The Day of the Jackal |
=Theatre=
| class="wikitable"
! Year ! Title ! Notes |
| 2010
| West End; partially adapted from The Phantom of Manhattan |
=Video=
| class="wikitable"
! Year ! Title ! Notes |
| 2012 |
=Video games=
| class="wikitable"
! Year ! Title ! Notes |
| 1985
| Adapted from The Fourth Protocol |
=Music videos=
| class="wikitable"
! Year ! Title ! Artist |
| 2016
| "Fallen Soldier" | Melissa Alder |
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.[https://www.fallen-soldier.comFrederick Forsyth's Fallen soldier]{{Dead link|date=December 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}
See also
Explanatory notes
{{Notelist}}
References
External links
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Commons category}}
{{Library resources box|by=yes|about= no}}
- [http://www.frederickforsyth.co.uk/ Frederick Forsyth official website]
- {{IMDb name|0287046|Frederick Forsyth}}
- {{Citation | url = http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,457074,00.html | title = They Take The Mind, and What Emerges is Just Tapioca Pudding | newspaper = Der Spiegel | date = 29 December 2006 | type = interview | place = DE}}.
{{Frederick Forsyth}}
{{The Day of the Jackal}}
{{Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Forsyth, Frederick}}
Category:20th-century English novelists
Category:20th-century Royal Air Force personnel
Category:21st-century English novelists
Category:British expatriates in Nigeria
Category:Cartier Diamond Dagger winners
Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Category:Conservative Party (UK) people
Category:English spy fiction writers
Category:English thriller writers
Category:People educated at Tonbridge School
Category:People from Ashford, Kent
Category:Royal Air Force officers