Gérard de Villiers
Gérard de Villiers (born 8 December 1929, Paris) is a French writer, journalist and editor. His SAS series of spy novels have been bestsellers, with his total sales running into more than 150 million. His works have been translated and are especially popular in Germany, Russia, Turkey, and Japan. His mastery of political intrigue has sometimes led him to publish books that anticipated crisis events, such as the assassinations of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Indian president Indira Gandhi.
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[edit] Life
Villiers is the son of Jacques Adam de Villiers and a graduate of the ESJ Paris (Superior School of Journalism in Paris).
After working as a foreign correspondent until 1965, he started writing spy novels. He is the author of the spy novel series SAS, beginning in 1965, which tells the adventures of the Austrian prince and CIA agent Malko Linge. The title SAS is a play on initials and acronyms: Son Altesse sérénissime (SAS) is the French version of "His Royal Highness" (HRH). In addition, the British Special Air Service (SAS) is the principal special forces unit of the British Army.
As of 2007, Villiers had written 171 novels of the franchise, selling more than 150 million books, which are popular in Germany, Russia, Turkey and Japan, as well as in France. He has published as many as four per year.[1] Usually the locale of the story is featured in the title (as in, Les amazones de Pyongyang' or Putsch à Ouagadougou). Villiers is well-known for writing novels in tune with contemporary events, such as wars or terrorist threats. He has frequently visited theatres of operation, doing research and interviews to ground his stories with accurate facts.[1]
His mastery of political intrigue has sometimes led him to publish books that anticipate crisis events. These included portrayals of the assassinations of Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Indian president Indira Gandhi. Due to tips from spies, he was nearly finished writing SAS: The Hunt for Carlos when the assassin was captured.[2]
[edit] Film adaptations
- Victims of Vice (Brigade mondaine), directed by Jacques Scandelari (1978)
- Miles O'Keefe played Malko in S.A.S. à San Salvador (1983).
- Richard Young starred in Eye of the Widow (1989), directed by Andrew V. McLaglen.
[edit] References
- ^ a b Hugh Schofield, "Get out of Afghanistan: France's million-selling spy writer", Sunday Times Online, Sri Lanka, 7 October 2007, accessed 4 July 2011
- ^ Alan Riding, "France's James Bond Gets the Scoop on the Hunt for Carlos", New York Times, 18 September 1994, accessed 4 July 2011
[edit] Bibliography
- Christophe Deloire, « Gérard de Villiers : Le mercenaire du polar », Le Point, January 13, 2005
[edit] External links
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