Frederick Forsyth, author of The Day of the Jackal, The Shepherd, dead at 86

Frederick Forsyth, the British author of The Day of the Jackal and other bestselling thrillers, has died after a brief illness, his literary agent said Monday. He was 86.

Jonathan Lloyd, his agent, said Forsyth died at home early Monday surrounded by his family.

"We mourn the passing of one of the world's greatest thriller writers," Lloyd said.

Forsyth served as a Royal Air Force pilot before becoming a foreign correspondent and a novelist. In 2015, he told the BBC that he had been an informant for the British intelligence agency MI6 for many years, starting from when he covered a civil war in Nigeria in the 1960s.

Published in 1971, The Day of the Jackal propelled him into global fame. The political thriller about a professional assassin was made into a film in 1973 starring Edward Fox, and more recently was adapted in a television series starring Eddie Redmayne and Lashana Lynch.

LISTEN l Forsyth to CBC News on the origins of The Shepherd: 

As It Happens6:06How Frederick Forsyth wrote The Shepherd

British author and journalist Frederick Forsyth spoke to former As It Happens host Carol Off in 2006 about his beloved supernatural Christmas novella, which has been a mainstay on CBC Radio for decades.

A Christmastime favourite

He wrote more than 25 books including The Afghan, The Kill List, The Dogs of War and The Fist of God that have sold over 75 million copies, Lloyd said. Michael Caine, Pierce Brosnan, John Travolta and Christopher Walken are among the actors who starred in film or television adaptations of Forsyth's works.

"Still read by millions across the world, Freddie's thrillers define the genre and are still the benchmark to which contemporary writers aspire," said Bill Scott-Kerr, his publisher.

For CBC Radio listeners, Forsyth's The Shepherd is a perennial holiday favourite, as read by the late As It Happens host Alan Maitland.

Forsyth told CBC Radio in 2004 that the novella that combined aspects of the supernatural and war stories burst out of him on a trip to Ireland with his wife at the time. 

"She mockingly challenged me to write her a ghost story," said Forsyth.

"It was born by staring at a night sky in the middle of the winter and imagining a pilot up there and lost, and kind of screaming for help," he added.

Scott-Kerr, said that Revenge of Odessa, a sequel to the 1974 book The Odessa File that Forsyth worked on with fellow thriller author Tony Kent, will be published in August.

LISTEN l The Shepherd, as narrated by Alan Maitland: 

As It Happens31:36The Shepherd

A Christmas Eve tradition since 1979. As It Happens presents Frederick Forsyth's The Shepherd, read by our late host “Fireside” Al Maitland.