LONDON — British novelist Frederick Forsyth, who authored best-selling thrillers such as The Day of the Jackal and The Dogs of War, has died aged 86, his publisher said.

A former correspondent for Reuters and the BBC, and an informant for Britain’s MI6 foreign spy agency, Mr. Forsyth made his name by using his experiences as a reporter in Paris to pen the story of a failed assassination plot on Charles de Gaulle.

The Day of the Jackal, in which an English assassin, played in the film by Edward Fox, is hired by French paramilitaries angry at Mr. De Gaulle’s withdrawal from Algeria, was published in 1971 after Mr. Forsyth found himself penniless in London.

Written in just 35 days, the book was rejected by a host of publishers who worried that the story was flawed and would not sell as Mr. De Gaulle had not been assassinated. Mr. De Gaulle died in 1970 from a ruptured aorta while playing Solitaire.

But Mr. Forsyth’s hurricane-paced thriller complete with journalistic-style detail and brutal sub-plots of lust, betrayal, and murder was an instant hit. The once poor journalist became a wealthy writer of fiction.

“I never intended to be a writer at all,” Mr. Forsyth later wrote in his memoir, The Outsider – My Life in Intrigue. “After all, writers are odd creatures, and if they try to make a living at it, even more so.”

So influential was the novel that Venezuelan militant revolutionary Illich Ramirez Sanchez, was dubbed “Carlos the Jackal.”

Mr. Forsyth presented himself as a cross between Ernest Hemingway and John le Carre — both action man and Cold War spy — but delighted in turning around the insult that he was a literary lightweight.

“I am lightweight but popular. My books sell,” he once said.

His books, fantastical plots that almost rejoiced in the cynicism of an underworld of spies, criminals, hackers, and killers, sold more than 75 million copies.

Behind the swashbuckling bravado, though, there were hints of sadness. He later spoke of turning inwards to his imagination as a lonely only child during and after World War Two.

The isolated Mr. Forsyth discovered a talent for languages: he claimed to be a native French speaker by the age of 12 and a native German speaker by the age of 16, largely due to exchanges.

He went to Tonbridge School, one of England’s ancient fee-paying schools, and learned Russian from two emigre Georgian princesses in Paris. He added Spanish by the age of 18.

He also learned to fly and did his national service in the Royal Air Force where he flew fighters such as a single seater version of the De Havilland Vampire.

THE REPORTER
Impressing Reuters’ editors with his languages and knowledge that Bujumbura was a city in Burundi, he was offered a job at the news agency in 1961 and sent to Paris and then East Berlin where the Stasi secret police kept close tabs on him.

He left Reuters for the BBC but soon became disillusioned by its bureaucracy and what he saw as the corporation’s failure to cover Nigeria properly due to the government’s incompetent post-colonial views on Africa.

It was in 1968 that Mr. Forsyth was approached by the Secret Intelligence Service, known as MI6, and asked by an officer named “Ronnie” to inform on what was really going on in Biafra.

By his own account, he would keep contacts with the MI6, which he called “the Firm,” for many years. His novels showed extensive knowledge of the world of spies and he even edited out bits of The Fourth Protocol (1984), he said, so that militants would not know how to detonate an atomic bomb.

His writing was sometimes cruel, such as when the Jackal kills his lover after she discovers he is an assassin.

“He looked down at her, and for the first time she noticed that the grey flecks in his eyes had spread and clouded over the whole expression, which had become dead and lifeless like a machine staring down at her.”

THE WRITER
After finally finding a publisher for The Day of the Jackal, he was offered a three-novel contract by Harold Harris of Hutchinson.

Next came The Odessa File in 1972, the story of a young German freelance journalist who tries to track down SS man Eduard Roschmann, or “The Butcher of Riga.”

After that, The Dogs of War in 1974 is about a group of white mercenaries hired by a British mining magnate to kill the mad dictator of an African republic — based on Equatorial Guinea’s Francisco Macias Nguema — and replace him with a puppet.

The New York Times said at the time that the novel was “pitched at the level of a suburban Saturday night movie audience” and that it was “informed with a kind of post-imperial condescension toward the black man.”

Divorced from Carole Cunningham in 1988, he married Sandy Molloy in 1994. But he lost a fortune in an investment scam and had to write more novels to support himself. He had two sons — Stuart and Shane — with his first wife.

His later novels variously cast hackers, Russians, al Qaeda militants, and cocaine smugglers against the forces of good — broadly Britain and the West. But the novels never quite reached the level of the Jackal.

A supporter of the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union, Mr. Forsyth scolded Britain’s elites for what he cast as their treachery and naivety.

In columns for The Daily Express, he gave a host of withering assessments of the modern world from an intellectual right-wing perspective.

The world, he said, worried too much about “the oriental pandemic” (known to most as COVID-19), Donald Trump was “deranged,” Vladimir Putin “a tyrant,” and “liberal luvvies of the West” were wrong on most things.

He was, to the end, a reporter who wrote novels.

“In a world that increasingly obsesses over the gods of power, money and fame, a journalist and a writer must remain detached,” he wrote. “It is our job to hold power to account.” — Reuters

SEOUL — K-pop supergroup BTS members RM and V were discharged from the South Korean military on Tuesday after mandatory service, as fans were counting down to the band’s comeback with more members finishing their national duty later this month.

Cheered by dozens of fans near the military base, the two members in their army uniforms saluted the crowd and said they will soon be returning to perform.

“To all the ARMYs who have waited for us in the military, I want to say I am truly, truly grateful. Please wait just a little longer and we will return with a really cool performance,” V said in front of fans and media. Known as ARMY, BTS has a global fan club with millions of loyal followers.

Two other bandmates, Jin and J-Hope, were discharged from the military earlier and have been performing solo and appearing on variety shows.

Jimin, Jungkook, and Suga are set to wrap their military service as late as June 21, media reports say.

The globally recognized K-pop icon BTS has not released a group project since 2022 and its members are hoping for the reunion.

“After pursuing our own little ventures, we are now coming back together, and I love that for us,” J-Hope told a magazine in December.

Entertainment group HYBE, which manages BTS, is planning a huge event called BTS FESTA this week for fans to celebrate the band’s 12^th anniversary. It is not clear whether the members will show up, but Jin attended last year.

Shares in HYBE rose 2.3% as of 0211 GMT, hitting their highest point in more than three years.

Holding a flower bouquet for their discharge from the army, RM said he wanted to perform the most.

“(Members) would feel the same, but stage performance, I want to perform the most. I’ll work hard to make an album soon and come back to the stage,” RM said, after playing the sax for the crowd.

Groupies from around the world flew into South Korea to celebrate the return of their “life-changing” stars.

“It is just absolutely joyful. That is now four out, two again tomorrow and then Suga. Then we have OT7, we have seven kings back with us,” said Philip Darbyshire, a 72-year-old Australian fan, referring to the band’s seven members. “It is just wonderful.” — Reuters