The man who made us root for An assassin: A farewell to Forsyth
Dear Reader,
The news of Frederick Forsyth's passing sends me upstairs to my grandfather's study. There, through the wood-panelled little room with its writer's leather-topped desk and well worn divan, I head for the bookshelf.
Nestled among Wilbur Smith's adventures, Len Deighton thrillers and Desmond Bagley novels, I find what I am looking for—three yellowed paperbacks with crumbling pages. The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File and The Devil's Alternative. Their author, the journalist-turned-novelist who redefined the geopolitical thriller, has died at 86.
Looking at these paperbacks, I am back thirty years, to my summer holidays in this house, riveted by Frederick Forsyth. This master thriller writer got me to commit my first literary crime—rooting for a killer ! I followed the Jackal, watching him set up his sniper's nest in a Paris apartment, and actually hoped this assassin would manage to kill Charles de Gaulle. Such is the power of a fiction writer to create empathy for any character, and Forsyth does this superbly for his lone wolf killer in The Day of the Jackal. Little wonder it's sold over 10 million copies, inspiring generations of assassin-protagonist stories from The Manchurian Candidate to Killing Eve.
So why should you read Frederick Forsyth?
1. To learn geopolitics - In The Dogs of War, a British mercenary overthrows an African dictator for mineral rights in a fictional Guinea-like nation; it's a pattern that repeats in pursuit of everything from petroleum to silicon chips. In The Odessa File, Nazi networks resurface just as far-right fascist networks today mutate and reappear—they never disappear.
2. For geography and history - This former journalist spent years reporting on the troubled hotspots of the world, from the Biafran War to the Cold War's front lines, and he sets his novels in these conflict zones, everywhere from Europe to Africa to Iraq and Afghanistan.
3. Real insights into military technology - This former RAF pilot-turned-journalist-turned-author features cutting-edge technology—military intelligence, espionage and drone warfare (The Kill List) and details their real-world ramifications. He was prescient about disinformation too (The Fourth Protocol).
4. An insider's view into unholy alliances - Forsyth's books reveal alliances between democratic governments, military contractors, dictators, intelligence agencies and opium smugglers (The Afghan). While this is fiction, much of it is based on real-world politics, making it both insightful and instructive.
5. The books make for great reading - Forsyth is a master storyteller. His books are perfectly paced with memorable characters (the assassin, the journalist, the spy) and non-stop action that keeps you turning pages .
Forsyth's autobiography offers riveting insights from a reporter who knew too much. Forsyth was a correspondent in conflict zones, rumoured to be a spy for MI6, the British intelligence service. As he writes: 'The Stasi arrested me, the Israelis regaled me, the IRA prompted a quick move from Ireland to England, and a certain attractive Czech secret police agent—well, her actions were a bit more intimate. And that's just for starters.' A fascinating life, told with thriller-like prose, only everything here is true.
Goodbye Frederick Forsyth, and thank you for the sleepless nights spent racing through your pages. Thank you for giving us geopolitics wrapped in pacy prose. Thank you for showing us the world in all its complexity—for investigating morality in the world's darkest corners. Above all, thank you for telling us uncomfortable truths in such an entertaining way that we couldn't look away.
From Forsyth's Shadows to The Safekeep: 2024's Women's Prize Winner
From the geopolitical shadows of Forsyth's fiction to the emotional shadows of post-war Europe, this year's Women's Prize winner, Dutch trans writer Yale van der Wouden exposes hidden histories through a Rebecca-like gothic tale of love and grief, set in post-war Netherlands, in the shadow of the Holocaust. Creepy and compelling, even if it reads a tad too 'arty'.
And finally, as Father's Day approaches, these lines by Dylan Thomas, from Fatherhood: poems about Fathers, remind us of the fierceness of fatherly love and loss.
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light…
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
What are your favourite father and child poems ?
(Sonya Dutta Choudhury is a Mumbai-based journalist and the founder of Sonya's Book Box, a bespoke book service. Each week, she brings you specially curated books to give you an immersive understanding of people and places. If you have any reading recommendations or reading dilemmas, write to her at sonyasbookbox@gmail.com. The views expressed are personal.)
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