‘Day of the Jackal’ Author Frederick Forsyth Dies at 86

Remembering Frederick Forsyth: my encounters with the spy who stayed out in the cold

One of the great British purveyors of the spy and cold-war genres, Frederick Forsyth, who has died at the age of 86, was best known for his novels The Day of the Jackal (1971), The Odessa File (1972) and The Dogs of War (1974). He wrote another 22 books, which together have sold 75 million copies worldwide, and spawned several successful films. In his 2015 memoirs, Forsyth revealed he had been a spy for the British government. My encounters with…

The Frederick Forsyth I knew

We writers generally live dull and boring lives, tied to our desks painfully wresting words out of mundane experiences: not so Frederick Forsyth, who has died aged 86. Freddie’s life was almost as exciting as the plots of one of his bestselling thrillers, embracing as it did the triple careers of novelist, foreign correspondent and spy. The other unusual thing about him compared to most other modern writers is that he was a convinced and outspok…

Frederick Forsyth, Man of Action

Frederick Forsyth, who died on June 9 at the age of 86, was a man of action—Royal Air Force fighter pilot, reporter in postcolonial Africa’s civil wars, even an MI6 spy—who became a novelist of action. Forsyth wrote thrillers—14 of them, as well as some short story collections, selling an estimated 75 million books. His first three novels are the classics: The Day of the Jackal (1971), The Odessa File (1972), and The Dogs of War (1974). If they …

'Day of the Jackal' author Frederick Forsyth dies at age 86

Anything by novelist Frederick Forsyth would be a go-to book for anyone who loves heart-pounding geopolitical intrigue, action-packed spy stories, and/or complex assassination thrillers. His works were powerful because he didn’t just conjure these stories out of thin air. Like many of the great storytellers who came before him, he wrote his real life into his stories. For a fighter pilot, war correspondent, and spy, that makes for some pretty gr…

Frederick Forsyth, author of The Day of the Jackal, The Shepherd, dead at 86

Frederick Forsyth, the British author of The Day of the Jackal and other bestselling thrillers, has died after a brief illness, his literary agent said Monday. He was 86.