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Frederick Forsyth and hindsight: 40 years of thrillers
‘Kill List’ author reflects on more than 40 years of political thrillers‘Kill List’ author reflects on more than 40 years of action-packed novelsNovelist Frederick Forsyth can’t seem to put pen down more than 40 years after ‘Day of the Jackal’
Author Frederick Forsyth.
Gillian Shaw
Frederick Forsyth
When: 7-9 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 21.
Where: Arizona Biltmore, 2400 E. Missouri Ave., Phoenix.
Admission: Free.
Details: 480-947-2974, poisonedpen.com.
By Randy Cordova The Republic | azcentral.com Fri Aug 16, 2013 10:49 AM
In “The Kill List,” a manhunter known as the Tracker pursues an Islamic radical who is using the Internet to spread his messages of hate. That’s the core of the latest densely plotted thriller from Frederick Forsyth, who has been creating novels of intrigue for more than 40 years.
A former war correspondent, the Brit launched his career with 1971’s “The Day of the Jackal,” which reached the top of the New York Times best-seller list and inspired a 1973 movie. Since then, he has continued with such successes as “The Odessa File,” “The Dogs of War” and “The Fourth Protocol.”
Forsyth, who lives in Buckinghamshire outside of London, will visit the Valley on a rare book tour and read from “The Kill List.” With a droll wit, he discussed the book and his career during a quick jaunt to the States.
Question: This is your first book tour in a few years.
Answer: A promotional tour hasn’t happened in two or three books. One of the things about modern communication is that to be on an American talk show in San Diego, you can go to New York now (and do a remote). You don’t have to move! In my early days, it was physically going to places like Buffalo and Boston.
Q: But this is a chance to interact with your readers. What do they want to know?
A: “Where do you get all the stuff?” And the answer is research, baby, research!
Q: For “The Kill List,” what did that entail?
A: There was a lot involved, and it was mainly in the USA. In and around Virginia, it’s surprising how many facilities and covert institutions are situated right there. Then I was out in Virginia Beach. And some was inside my own country, and then in Mogadishu (Somalia).
Q: How was Mogadishu?
A: Weird! You wouldn’t want to vacation there. I took a minder to look after me. They don’t want to kill you there. The real hazard for many Whites in Mogadishu is kidnapping. Never mind the religious fanatics; there are also gangsters. They would like to snatch you.
Q: Did people know who you were?
A: No, no. I was just a White guy. It was quick in, quick out. You want to see something, you go see it and get out of there.
Q: When you do research here, does your name open doors?
A: Not to be too big-headed about it, but it can. Sometimes the answer is, “Yeah, fine, OK, come on over and we’ll fit you in.” But it can be, “Who the hell are you? I don’t think we have time.”
Q: How did you come up with the concept for “The Kill List”?
A: Basically, like any newspaper reader, I was seeing these paragraphs about members of al-Qaida destroyed in missile strikes. But then the question is how the hell did they track them down? They’re not walking around with a Post-It on their foreheads saying, “Hi, I’m al-Qaida.” I began to inquire and learned that’s there’s a huge machine, an overwhelming American machine, dedicated just to finding them. The hunt is interesting to me.
Q: How long did it take you to write?
A: I rise at 5. I’m at my desk at 6, and I write until 12. I mustn’t stop at less than 10 pages a day. I might do more, but never less. I do that six days a week. I used to do it seven, but I’m getting elderly, you know. But it’s surprising: You’re filling 60 pages a week, so you’re done in six, seven or eight weeks. Then, eventually I finish. I’m sort of whacked. I slump in a chair and take the manuscript to the publisher.
Q: You came out of the gate huge with “The Day of the Jackal.” Did you have any idea it would be so big?
A: No, and neither did the publisher. It could have been one of those blink-and-it’s-gone books. It could have simply sold 5,000 copies, which is all the initial printing was. But the last I heard, it was at 12 million. The orders kept coming in.
Q: Forgive me if this is rude, but could you live off the profit from that one book?
A: (Laughing) One could, but don’t forget this was 40 years ago. It probably would have given me $20,000 to $30,000 a year. I could have lived modestly on that, but I was also only 31. Who wants to quit at 31?
Q: You turn 75 this month. Do you think about retirement?
A: Every book. I’ve said it about three times: “That’s my last!” But now it inspires a matter of laughter from those around me. “Yeah, yeah, he’s retired again.”
Q: Why don’t you stop?
A: Oh, I really want to. I really do feel sometimes I’m written out. But a couple of years go by and I’ll see something and think, “Jesus, that is bloody fascinating.” Then, I’ll do a little bit of research. Then, the hook is in. And I’m a fisherman. I know about hooks.
Q: Does your wife want you to stop?
A: She’s encouraging: “Go ahead, darling.” The thing about writers is we’re weird bastards anyway. We live half our lives inside our own heads. We have a reputation for being distant and silent and locked away inside our own skulls. It takes a very special woman to cope with a writer.
Q: Are you a big computer guy?
A: No. I have an iPad, but I use it for e-mail and I use Google for general-knowledge research. I do not write on a computer. My friends call me a dinosaur. My response has always been: “Well, have you ever heard of anyone hacking into a typewriter?”
Reach the reporter at randy.cordova@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8849. Twitter.com/randy_cordova.
Culture Books Thrillers
Gillian Shaw
Frederick Forsyth
When: 7-9 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 21.
Where: Arizona Biltmore, 2400 E. Missouri Ave., Phoenix.
Admission: Free.
Details: 480-947-2974, poisonedpen.com.
By Randy Cordova The Republic | azcentral.com Fri Aug 16, 2013 10:49 AM
In “The Kill List,” a manhunter known as the Tracker pursues an Islamic radical who is using the Internet to spread his messages of hate. That’s the core of the latest densely plotted thriller from Frederick Forsyth, who has been creating novels of intrigue for more than 40 years.
A former war correspondent, the Brit launched his career with 1971’s “The Day of the Jackal,” which reached the top of the New York Times best-seller list and inspired a 1973 movie. Since then, he has continued with such successes as “The Odessa File,” “The Dogs of War” and “The Fourth Protocol.”
Forsyth, who lives in Buckinghamshire outside of London, will visit the Valley on a rare book tour and read from “The Kill List.” With a droll wit, he discussed the book and his career during a quick jaunt to the States.
Question: This is your first book tour in a few years.
Answer: A promotional tour hasn’t happened in two or three books. One of the things about modern communication is that to be on an American talk show in San Diego, you can go to New York now (and do a remote). You don’t have to move! In my early days, it was physically going to places like Buffalo and Boston.
Q: But this is a chance to interact with your readers. What do they want to know?
A: “Where do you get all the stuff?” And the answer is research, baby, research!
Q: For “The Kill List,” what did that entail?
A: There was a lot involved, and it was mainly in the USA. In and around Virginia, it’s surprising how many facilities and covert institutions are situated right there. Then I was out in Virginia Beach. And some was inside my own country, and then in Mogadishu (Somalia).
Q: How was Mogadishu?
A: Weird! You wouldn’t want to vacation there. I took a minder to look after me. They don’t want to kill you there. The real hazard for many Whites in Mogadishu is kidnapping. Never mind the religious fanatics; there are also gangsters. They would like to snatch you.
Q: Did people know who you were?
A: No, no. I was just a White guy. It was quick in, quick out. You want to see something, you go see it and get out of there.
Q: When you do research here, does your name open doors?
A: Not to be too big-headed about it, but it can. Sometimes the answer is, “Yeah, fine, OK, come on over and we’ll fit you in.” But it can be, “Who the hell are you? I don’t think we have time.”
Q: How did you come up with the concept for “The Kill List”?
A: Basically, like any newspaper reader, I was seeing these paragraphs about members of al-Qaida destroyed in missile strikes. But then the question is how the hell did they track them down? They’re not walking around with a Post-It on their foreheads saying, “Hi, I’m al-Qaida.” I began to inquire and learned that’s there’s a huge machine, an overwhelming American machine, dedicated just to finding them. The hunt is interesting to me.
Q: How long did it take you to write?
A: I rise at 5. I’m at my desk at 6, and I write until 12. I mustn’t stop at less than 10 pages a day. I might do more, but never less. I do that six days a week. I used to do it seven, but I’m getting elderly, you know. But it’s surprising: You’re filling 60 pages a week, so you’re done in six, seven or eight weeks. Then, eventually I finish. I’m sort of whacked. I slump in a chair and take the manuscript to the publisher.
Q: You came out of the gate huge with “The Day of the Jackal.” Did you have any idea it would be so big?
A: No, and neither did the publisher. It could have been one of those blink-and-it’s-gone books. It could have simply sold 5,000 copies, which is all the initial printing was. But the last I heard, it was at 12 million. The orders kept coming in.
Q: Forgive me if this is rude, but could you live off the profit from that one book?
A: (Laughing) One could, but don’t forget this was 40 years ago. It probably would have given me $20,000 to $30,000 a year. I could have lived modestly on that, but I was also only 31. Who wants to quit at 31?
Q: You turn 75 this month. Do you think about retirement?
A: Every book. I’ve said it about three times: “That’s my last!” But now it inspires a matter of laughter from those around me. “Yeah, yeah, he’s retired again.”
Q: Why don’t you stop?
A: Oh, I really want to. I really do feel sometimes I’m written out. But a couple of years go by and I’ll see something and think, “Jesus, that is bloody fascinating.” Then, I’ll do a little bit of research. Then, the hook is in. And I’m a fisherman. I know about hooks.
Q: Does your wife want you to stop?
A: She’s encouraging: “Go ahead, darling.” The thing about writers is we’re weird bastards anyway. We live half our lives inside our own heads. We have a reputation for being distant and silent and locked away inside our own skulls. It takes a very special woman to cope with a writer.
Q: Are you a big computer guy?
A: No. I have an iPad, but I use it for e-mail and I use Google for general-knowledge research. I do not write on a computer. My friends call me a dinosaur. My response has always been: “Well, have you ever heard of anyone hacking into a typewriter?”
Reach the reporter at randy.cordova@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-8849. Twitter.com/randy_cordova.
Culture Books Thrillers
Frederick Forsyth wins Diamond Dagger lifetime achievement award
The Day of the Jackal author honoured for settting 'a new standard of research-based authenticity' in thrillers
Alison Flood
theguardian.com, Friday 17 February 2012 12.57 GMT
Jump to comments (6)
Frederick Forsyth ... 'It's all inadvertent. I didn't mean to.' Photograph: Murdo Macleod
More than 40 years after he wrote his first novel, The Day of the Jackal, in just 35 days, Frederick Forsyth has been awarded the Diamond Dagger prize for a lifetime's achievement in crime writing. Chosen by his fellow crime authors to reward a career of "sustained excellence", 73-year-old Forsyth wins a prize which has gone in the past to John le Carré, PD James, Ruth Rendell and Elmore Leonard. The author of 11 bestselling novels – The Day of the Jackal has sold 10m copies – Forsyth pronounced the award a "considerable honour" for a "scribbler" in the crime genre, "particularly as it comes from my fellow rogues". The Day of the Jackal, Forsyth's debut about an assassin hired to kill President de Gaulle, "defined" the modern thriller "with its lightning-paced storytelling, effortlessly cool reality and unique insider information", said the Crime Writers Association, which made the award. The novel is "one of the greatest thrillers of our times", added author and chair of the Association Peter James, who praised Forsyth for setting "a new standard of research-based authenticity with his writing, which has had a major influence both on my work and on many of my contemporaries" in the crime and thriller field. "The really weird thing is that it's all inadvertent. I didn't mean to," said Forsyth, a former RAF pilot and investigative journalist who used his experience as a reporter when writing his first novel to move it along at a cracking pace: "This, this, this happened," he said. "My characters are two-dimensional, my dialogue is not going to set the Thames on fire – but that's alright, because I do make 80% of the book plot," with dialogue, character and style "squeezed into 20%". The authenticity of his writing, meanwhile, stems from his own "pernicketiness", and has seen the author travel around the world to research details for his books. "I've got lumbered with this idea that if I'm going to say this is how a Luger pistol was, it had bloody well be right," he said. "I've got to go the extra mile, and it's now required. I get a full mail bag if I get anything wrong. Things like the tanker from The Devil's Alternative – I thought I'd better go and see one of these bloody things. I couldn't find a million-tonner but I found a third-of-a-million-tonner and went up to Norway so I could describe it." Forsyth spends around nine months researching each novel, and then writes it up in two-and-a-half months, producing 10 pages a day and sitting at his typewriter for six hours, from six in the morning. "I force myself to do that, otherwise I'd end up with lots of half-written novels. It's rather gruelling," he said. Although the thriller author has said in the past that he doesn't intend to write any more novels, he's currently deep in research for a new one, which he hopes to begin writing up in October. "With the government taking 50%, I thought perhaps I can do with a little more," he said. "I'm actually getting rather miffed because what I thought was an obscure subject is coming up in the headlines: Somalia. I will have to go there … I want to go into the deep south, into Mogadishu and investigate al-Shabaab. I think it's going to be the new al-Qaida … the new epicentre, and I want to try and get in there."
