Forsyth traces his journey from English schoolboy during the Battle of Britain to Royal Air Force flyer, foreign correspondent in tumultuous Paris and paranoid East Berlin, debonair young lover, outraged witness of the famine in Biafra, internationally bestselling author, husband, and father. Along the way, he explains how the events of his own life provided the seeds for his first three blockbuster novels (The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, and The Dogs of War), and how he meticulously researched many of the others.

There have been many adventures, noteworthy and deeply influential events throughout Forsyth’s life, all vividly chronicled with his recognizable wit and gifted storytelling abilities in THE OUTSIDER, including:

•Carrying secret documents in and out of East Germany on behalf of Britain’s foreign intelligence service, the MI6, and getting stopped by the secret police in the process.

•Landing in the midst of a bloody coup in the African nation of Guinea-Bissau, where Colombian drug cartels were sowing chaos.

•Saving another prominent journalist from getting shot; miraculously avoiding his own death—and amputation—after a brutal car crash at the age of 20, which left him in a coma before an almost complete recovery.

•Becoming the youngest pilot in the Royal Air Force and later, parachute-jumping with British Army trainees less than half his age.

•Making a quick move from Ireland to England to avoid getting kidnapped by the IRA; almost dying in a typhoon in the Indian Ocean; traveling to Mogadishu, the war-torn capital of Somalia, for research against the wishes of his wife; and, at last, at the age of seventy-six, fulfilling his childhood ambition to fly a Spitfire.

•Finishing The Day of the Jackal in thirty-five days, with no previous experience writing fiction.

One of the most delightful, insightful, and entertaining memoirs in years, THE OUTSIDER will thrill Frederick Forsyth’s legions of devoted readers – and attract new ones – as he finally tells his most intriguing story of all: his own.

About the Author
FREDERICK FORSYTH is the author of fifteen internationally bestselling novels, from 1971’s The Day of the Jackal to 2013’s The Kill List, two short story collections, and two previous nonfiction books. A former Royal Air Force pilot and print and television reporter for Reuters and the BBC, he won the Diamond Dagger Award from Britain’s Crime Writers’ Association in 2012 for a career of sustained excellence. Five movies have been made from his novels: The Day of the Jackal (twice, the second time in 1997 as The Jackal), The Odessa File, The Dogs of War, and The Fourth Protocol. Icon was made into a television mini-series, and a major film based on The Kill List is currently in the works. Mr. Forsyth lives in England.