Forsyth served as a Royal Air Force pilot before becoming a foreign correspondent and a novelist. Photo: AP
A pilot who turned to writing to clear his debts, British author Frederick Forsyth, who died on Monday (June 9) 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.
