Frederick Forsyth, bestselling author of The Day of the Jackal, dies at 86

Frederick Forsyth, the author who turned his adventures as a journalist and work with MI6 into bestselling thrillers, has died aged 86.

- Richard Lea

Forsyth's novels sold more than 75m copies around the world. He was awarded a CBE in 1997 and was given the Crime Writers' Association Diamond Dagger award for lifetime's achievement in 2012. Three of his best-known books, The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File and The Dogs of War were turned into hit films.

His agent, Jonathan Lloyd, said yesterday: "We mourn the passing of one of the world's greatest thriller writers. Only a few weeks ago I sat with him as we watched a new and moving documentary of his life...and was reminded of an extraordinary life, well lived."

Born in Ashford, Kent, in 1938, Forsyth flew fighter jets during his national service, but when the RAF could not guarantee he would stay in the cockpit, he set out to see the world. While working for Reuters as a journalist, he got a lucky break. "The guy stationed in Paris got a heart murmur and had to come home," he told the Big Issue. "A man stuck his head around the door of my office and said: 'Anyone here speak French?' Within days I was on the plane to Paris."

Paris in 1961 was in turmoil, with rightwing militants threatening to assassinate Charles de Gaulle after his offer of independence to Algeria. It was working in that atmosphere, and a meeting with one of De Gaulle's bodyguards, that gave Forsyth the idea for