The death of Frederick McCarthy Forsyth at 86 has created a vacuum in the world of letters. He was an outstanding British writer and journalist, whose contributions were felt all over the world. With his journalistic writing and creative works, he regaled his readers with his unique stories that took readers to the innermost recesses of life, international politics and history.
Born on August 25, 1938, Forsyth died on June 9, 2025. He was educated at the University of Granada, Spain. In 1997, he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). He was better known as a journalist and writer. He served with the Royal Air Force and was commissioned with the rank of acting pilot officer in August 1956 and became a pilot officer in 1957.
As a writer, Forsyth contributed immensely to the growth and the popularity of thrillers in the world with cliff-hanging, fast-paced crime stories. He was famous for 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 Veterans, The Avengers, The Afghan, The Cobra, and The Kill List. The narrative energy, flair, mind- blowing twists in plots earned his books repeated mentions on bestsellers lists. Such was his brilliance that more than half of his classics were adapted into films. The incredible numbers of copy sales also placed him among the leading lights of his generation of thriller writers. By 2006, he had sold more than 70 million books in more than 30 languages.
Forsyth’s success as a writer, even when he didn’t set out to be one, shows that there are unexplored talents in individuals. It encouraged us to explore beyond our comfort zone. The author admitted in an interview that he took to writing fiction to meet his financial needs. He had wanted to be a soldier, and when he left the military it was borne out of the desire to see the world as a foreign war correspondent. His first full-length novel, The Day of the Jackal, was published in 1971, and became an international bestseller. He surprised himself by winning the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel in 1972. He admitted he used the same journalism research technique he learnt in writing the spectacular novel.
He wrote Emeka, the biography of Chief Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the erstwhile Biafran leader in 1982. He also published The Biafran Story in 1969, an account of the Biafran war. Forsyth’s journalistic career started with Reuters News Agency in 1961. He went on to serve as an assistant correspondent for the BBC in 1965. He was also a newspaper columnist for Daily Express. He spent his early career covering French affairs. Travelling to Nigeria in 1967 to cover the Nigerian civil war as a BBC correspondent was his first ever visit to Africa.
The BBC had sponsored his trip for only six months, hoping that the war would be over within the six-month period, given the superior firepower of the Federal troops. BBC did not consider it a priority to continue sponsoring the war coverage after his return as it was more concerned with the America-Vietnam war, but Forsyth called the bluff of the BBC by resigning and returning to Nigeria to continue covering the war as a freelance reporter, spending additional two years.
The audacity of Forsyth as a daredevil reporter is commendable. Through his reports, he showed the world the harrowing experiences of Biafran people. Forsyth doubled as a spy for the British secret police, M16. Some of Forsyth’s novels contain journalist characters and espionage trajectories. His second full-length novel, The Odessa File, published in 1972, features a reporter trying to track down an ex-Nazi SS officer. The book was made into a movie with the same title. The Dogs of War, another novel, published in 1964, features a British mining executive hiring mercenaries to overthrow the government of an African country to enable him to have access to cheap mineral resources. It was turned into a movie in 1980.
Some of Forsyth’s thrillers are fictional interpretations of history. Using real-life events as the basis of his fiction, he colours the pages with his vibrant imagination. His 1994 novel, The Fist of God, is an artistic pillory of the first Gulf War in the Middle East codenamed Project Babylon. Also socio-political convulsions in post-Soviet Russia inspired the novel, Icon, published in 1996, about the rise of fascists to power. He also published The Afghan in 2006, a futuristic novel echoing the threat of a catastrophic assault on the West by terrorists.
Adieu, Frederick Forsyth!