Day of the Jackal author Frederick Forsyth has died after a brief illness at the age of 86.
A statement released by his literary agent, Curtis Brown, revealed he died at home after the short illness surrounded by his family.
The former MI6 agent, who was one of the youngest ever RAF pilots and a former journalist, published more than 25 books in his lifetime.
Mr Forsyth’s agent Jonathan Lloyd said in a statement: ‘We mourn the passing of one of the world’s greatest thriller writers.
‘Only a few weeks ago I sat with him as we watched a new and moving documentary of his life – In My Own Words, to be released later this year on BBC1 – and was reminded of an extraordinary life, well lived.’
Mr Lloyd said the author used ‘his gift for languages in German, French and Russian’ to become a foreign correspondent in Biafra.
‘Appalled at what he saw and using his experience during a stint as a Secret Service agent, he wrote his first and perhaps most famous novel,’ the agent added.
Day of the Jackal author Frederick Forsyth has died after a brief illness at the age of 86
A photo dated November 26, 1984 of Forsyth in Helsinki. The author has passed away, his agent said
The former MI6 agent, who was one of the youngest ever RAF pilots and a former journalist, published more than 25 books in his lifetime
Forsyth and his wife arriving at stud House in the grounds of Hampton Court Palace, London in 2010
‘He will be greatly missed by his family, his friends, all of us at Curtis Brown and of course his millions of fans around the world – though his books will of course live on forever.’
The star could speak fluent French and German by the time he was 15, and mastered Spanish – and rudimentary Russian – a couple of years later.
He was accepted by the RAF aged just 17, thereafter becoming its youngest ever jet pilot.
In his 20s, he was Reuters correspondent in Paris and then in Berlin, where he also began doing occasional missions for MI6.
Less than a decade later, after reporting on the war in Biafra, he wrote The Day Of The Jackal in 35 days, and has since sold well over 70 million books.
