Frederick Forsyth, adventurer and bestselling spy novelist, dies aged 86

RNZ - AFP ^ | 6/9/25 | Emilie Bickerton

[Borges]

A pilot who turned to writing to clear his debts, British author Frederick Forsyth, who died on Monday aged 86, penned some 20 spy novels, often drawing on real-life experiences and selling 70 million copies worldwide.

In such bestsellers as The Day of the Jackal and The Odessa File, Forsyth honed a distinctive style of deeply researched and precise espionage thrillers involving power games between mercenaries, spies and scoundrels.

For inspiration he drew on his own globe-trotting life, including an early stint as a foreign correspondent and assisting Britain's spy service on missions in Nigeria, South Africa, and the former East Germany and Rhodesia.

[laconic]

Fredrik Forsyth led an amazing life; the UK’s youngest fighter jet pilot; a foreign correspondent who was an active MI5 asset when that meant something; a strong advocate of Brexit and against the RINO faction of the UK Conservative Party; and a phenomenal author (Day of the Jackal and The Odessa File, among many other fine reads). I always enjoyed reading his weekly column in the London Daily Express; he never minced words and could spot a disaster long before it metasticized, like the second Iraq War. Godspeed!

[Captain Peter Blood]

I probably have read all of his novels, some more than once.

Day of the Jackal was one the first one I read when it came and then they made a great film out of it. The subsequent remakes were fine and the recent mini-series on Peacock was very well done and reimagined.

Between Forsythe, Len Deighton, and John Le Carre I had great spy novels to read.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

A reading of "The Shephard" is a Christmas tradition in this house.

RIP to a fine Storyteller.

[Borges]

Len Deighton is still alive too! 96 years old!

[Tymesup]

Read Jackal twice, Odessa File once and I think Dogs of War once, although the summary doesn’t sound familiar. Jackal film clips have been showing up in my feed. Didn’t know his background.

Compare the precautions took to protect de Gaulle to the incompetence of the Secret Service in Butler for Trump.

[desertsolitaire]

Wish Deighton well. Also wish he was still writing. I miss his Bernard Samson spy novel series and even liked the British TV series adaptation with Ian Holmes, though Deighton reportedly did not.