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Features

Why I write: Frederick Forsyth

The legendary assassination thriller

The Day of the Jackal

**Soon to be a major TV series directed by Brian Kirk** 
 
**The 50th Anniversary Edition with a new introduction by Lee Child** 
 
'As gripping now as it was 50 years ago' THE TIMES 
'Masterful suspense . . . The Day of the Jackal changed the shape of popular fiction from the moment it was finished' BEN MACINTYRE 
________________ 
 
One of the most celebrated thrillers ever written, The Day of the Jackal is the exhilarating story of the struggle to catch a killer before it's too late. 
 
1963. An anonymous Englishman is hired by the Operations Chief of French terrorist organisation O.A.S. to murder the French president, General Charles de Gaulle. A failed attempt in the previous year means the target will be nearly impossible to reach. 
 
Only one man could do the job: an assassin of legendary talent known only as The Jackal. 
 
This remorseless and deadly killer must be stopped. But he is a man without a name, without an identity; a lethal spectre. 
 
How can you stop an assassin nobody can identify? The task falls to the best detective in France - and the price of failure is unthinkable . . . 
________________ 
 
'In a class by itself. Unputdownable' SUNDAY TIMES 
 
'Very clever and immensely entertaining' DAILY TELEGRAPH 
 
'A perfect example of the adventure story . . . well written, entirely believable, with this intriguing, enigmatic character at its centre' ROBERT HARRIS 
 
'A year-zero, game-changing thriller, one of the most significant of all time' LEE CHILD 
 
'Wonderful and way ahead of its time' JAMES PATTERSON 
 
'An extraordinary book' NICK ROBINSON, BBC RADIO 4 TODAY PROGRAMME 
 
'A masterpiece' MARCUS SCRIVEN, MAIL ON SUNDAY 
 
'I was spellbound . . . riveted by this chilling story' GUARDIAN

Former RAF pilot and investigative journalist, Frederick Forsyth defined the modern thriller when he wrote The Day of The Jackal, described by Lee Child as ‘the book that broke the mould’, with its lightning-paced storytelling, effortlessly cool reality and unique insider information. Since then he has written twelve novels which have been bestsellers around the world: The Odessa File, The Dogs of War, The Devil's Alternative, The Fourth Protocol, The Negotiator, The Deceiver, The Fist of God, Icon, Avenger, The Afghan, The Cobra and, most recently, The Kill List. He lives in Buckinghamshire, England.

The Fox

The number one bestseller from the master of storytelling

The No. 1 bestseller 
 
'Forsyth has lost none of his storytelling finesse and geopolitical grasp . . . this is Forsyth at his spellbinding best' Daily Mail 
 
'An ingenious, expertly written and serious look at international conflicts which threaten the future of the world' Washington Post 
 
Most weapons do what you tell them. Most weapons you can control. 
 
But what if the most dangerous weapon in the world isn't a smart missile or a stealth submarine or even an AI computer programme?What if it's a 17-year-old boy with a blisteringly brilliant mind, who can run rings around the most sophisticated security services across the globe, who can manipulate that weaponry and turn it against the superpowers themselves? How valuable would he be? And what wouldn't you do to get hold of him? 
 
The Fox is a race-against-time thriller across continents to find and capture, or protect and save, an asset with the means to change the balance of world power. Whatever happens he must not fall into the wrong hands. Because what follows after that is unthinkable...

The master storyteller is back with a classic race-against-time thriller with a modern edge.

Forsyth deserves his place among the thriller greats

The five year wait for Forsyth’s latest sensation has been worth every second.

Forsyth has lost none of his storytelling finesse and geopolitical grasp . . . this is Forsyth at his spellbinding best

Ripped from today’s headlines . . . Forsyth fashions our contemporary reality into an assured thriller

A thriller that’ll have you checking your PC’s security . . . with plenty of detail on the world of cyber-security and fine pacing and characterisation, Forsyth delivers another lesson in how it should be done

[I]ngenious, expertly written and a serious look at international conflicts that threaten the future of the world…Forsyth is supremely well-informed about world affairs, politics, diplomacy, weaponry and the mysteries of spycraft. In “The Fox,” as in all his novels, he lays them out in brilliant detail

‘Outstanding … Frederick Forsyth does it again. For a story like this to work, the details have to be on point, and it’s clear that the author has done his homework as he breaks down how hackers work, often detailing their various methods and the different virtual traps they can set … just the kind of stunning, relevant, full-throttle story that thriller fans have been waiting for, and nobody delivers quite like Frederick Forsyth, one of the very best writers the genre has ever known’

My Life in Intrigue

The Outsider

FREDERICK FORSYTH HAS SEEN IT ALL. AND LIVED TO TELL THE TALE… 
At eighteen, Forsyth was the youngest pilot to qualify with the RAF. 
At twenty-five, he was stationed in East Berlin as a journalist during the Cold War. 
Before he turned thirty, he was in Africa controversially covering the bloodiest civil war in living memory. 
Three years later, broke and out of work, he wrote his game-changing first novel, The Day of the Jackal. He never looked back. 
Forsyth has seen some of the most exhilarating moments of the last century from the inside, travelling the world, once or twice on her majesty’s secret service. He’s been shot at, he’s been arrested, he’s even been seduced by an undercover agent. 
But all the while he felt he was an outsider. This is his story.

As thrilling as his fiction - this is Frederick Forsyth's life in his own words.

Forsyth insists that The Outsider is not an autobiography. So I will just say that this is one of the most exciting and enjoyable accounts of an author’s life, in vaguely chronological order and written by the author himself, that I have ever read.

The comparison with Bond is apt . . . it may well be the best book he has ever written.

If there is one memoir to read this autumn, it's Frederick Forsyth's extraordinary life story, The Outsider, which reads like a James Bond novel. The author of The Day Of The Jackal tells his own story and it's clear where the inspiration for so many of his best-selling thrillers came from when you read about his own life, beginning as the RAF's youngest pilot at the age of 19 and carrying on through being captured by the Stasi and threatened by the IRA.

Enjoyed Freddie Forsyth last night. Boy has he lived a full life! And a life so beyond anything most of us can imagine, full of coups, civil wars, spies, and most importantly, typewriters. Great stories.

In this engaging level-headed memoir . . . he reminds me of Ian Fleming, a fellow Europhile (in the cultural rather than political sense_ who also honed his writing skills at Reuters. Fleming is more elegant, more playful; Forsyth has more balls.

There’s plenty of sex and subterfuge, with close shaves, hairy escapades and hints of involvement with the intelligence services . . . ultimately, The Outsider is as good a read as any of the thrillers. If you’re looking for thrills and spills, you’ll find them.

Former RAF pilot and investigative journalist, Frederick Forsyth defined the modern thriller when he wrote The Day of The Jackal, described by Lee Child as ‘the book that broke the mould’, with its lightning-paced storytelling, effortlessly cool reality and unique insider information. Since then he has written twelve novels which have been bestsellers around the world: The Odessa File, The Dogs of War, The Devil's Alternative, The Fourth Protocol, The Negotiator, The Deceiver, The Fist of God, Icon, Avenger, The Afghan, The Cobra and, most recently, The Kill List. He lives in Buckinghamshire, England. 
 
www.frederickforsyth.co.uk

The Kill List

'Packs a punch... impossible to put down' Daily Mail 
'The plot is as taut and lean as ever' Daily Express 
'The master of the political thriller strikes again' Kirkus 
______________________ 
 
THE KILL LIST 
The names of those men and women who would threaten the world's security - held above top secret at the highest level of the US government. 
 
THE PREACHER 
At the top of it, a radical Islamic cleric whose sermons inspire his followers to kill Western targets. As the bodies begin to pile up in America, Great Britain and across Europe, the message goes out: discover this man's identity, locate him and take him out. 
 
THE TRACKER 
Ex-US marine, now one of America's most effective terrorist hunters, with an impossible job. Aided only by a brilliant teenaged hacker, he must throw out the bait and see whether his deadly target can be drawn from his lair...

A terrifying and breathtaking thriller which dares to look behind the news headlines to reveal the truth about the world in which we live

Full of insider technical detail, [The Kill List] packs the punch Forsyth's readers relish, complete with a breath-taking denouement in the desert that makes it impossible to put down...A master storyteller

I was gripped by the story of the lone assassin hired to kill President de Gaulle. I reread it last year and found it just as enthralling. It hadn't dated a bit. More than four decades later Forsyth's new thriller proves he has lost none of his powers. The prose, like the plot, is as taut and lean as ever. That reflects the journalist that first and foremost Forsyth has always been. So too does his unerringly topical eye.

THRILLER OF THE WEEK - A contemporary update on the theme of a deadly assassin closing in on an important target

The Art of the Matter (Storycuts)

In this fascinating insight into the shady inner workings of the art world a young appraiser working at a prestigious auction house comes across an unidentified masterpiece. But when the powerful CEO of the company claims the discovery as his own the appraiser teams up with the original owner of the piece to gain revenge. Together they set up a cunning scam that shatters the illusion of the elegant world of the Old Masters. 
 
Part of the Storycuts series, this short story was previously published in the collection The Veteran.

Destructive double-dealing is dispensed within the plush boardrooms of a celebrated auction house.

The Citizen (Storycuts)

On a routine flight from Bangkok to Heathrow the captain receives an anonymous tip-off from an overzealous family man that he checks out as a matter of course. Meanwhile, Bill Butler is roused from his bed and, together with his Knock team, must try to outwit the devious smugglers. 
 
Part of the Storycuts series, this short story was previously published in the collection The Veteran.

The Knock pit their wits against drug smugglers on an international flight.

Frederick Forsyth

The thrilling number one bestseller from the master of storytelling

The chilling thriller from the international bestselling phenomenon. 
 
'A cunningle wrought tale' Financial Times 
'A stirring and beautiful story' The Times 
_____________ 
 
Christmas Eve, 1957. 
 
For one Royal Air Force pilot, one last hurdle remains between himself and a cozy Christmas morning in England. A sixty-six-minute flight in his Vampire fighter plane from Germany to Lakenheath. 
 
A routine flight plan and a full tank of fuel. What could go wrong? 
 
But as the fog begins to close in, the compass goes haywire and the radio dies, leaving him in silence, lost and alone up in the inky black sky. 
 
All hope seems lost as he accepts his fate when, out of nowhere, a vintage fighter-bomber appears and is miraculously trying to make contact. 
 
For one lonely pilot this is a miracle, but really the mystery has just begun ... 
_____________ 
 
With over 1,000 5* reviews . . . 
 
***** 'This was for me the best Christmas military short story' 
***** 'What a great story!! I just loved it.' 
***** 'A splendid story. Still have goosebumps after reading it.' 
***** 'I, too, read this every Christmas season - and think of it often throughout the year.' 
***** 'What a wonderful surprising ending, I didn't see that coming, very good story, I think imma remember it for a long time.'

Frederick Forsyth

The Shepherd

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