Gérard de Villiers (; 8 December 1929 – 31 October 2013) was a French writer,

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

and

publisher Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

whose ''SAS'' series of

spy novel Spy fiction is a genre of literature involving espionage as an important context or plot device. It emerged in the early twentieth century, inspired by rivalries and intrigues between the major powers, and the establishment of modern intellig ...

s have been major bestsellers.

Life

Born in Paris in 1929, Villiers was the son of playwright Jacques Adam de Villiers (known by his stage name of

Jacques Deval Jacques Deval (27 June 1895 – 19 December 1972) was a French playwright, screenwriter and film director. Novels *''Marie Galante'' (1931) Plays *''Une faible femme''; a comedy in three acts (1920) *''Dans sa candeur naïve''; a comedy in thre ...

) and his wife. His father was both prolific and a spendthrift. The younger Villiers attended high school and graduated from

Sciences Po Sciences Po () or Sciences Po Paris, also known as the Paris Institute of Political Studies (), is a public research university located in Paris, France, that holds the status of ''grande école'' and the legal status of . The university's unde ...

university in Paris. He also obtained a degree from the

École supérieure de journalisme de Paris The ''École supérieure de journalisme'' (ESJ Paris; in English: ''Paris School of Journalism'') is an institution of higher education in Paris dedicated to journalism and related studies. Its origin was in the ''Collège Libre des Sciences S ...

. He began writing during the 1950s for ''

France Soir ''France Soir'' () was a French newspaper that prospered in physical format during the 1950s and 1960s, reaching a circulation of 1.5 million in the 1950s. It declined rapidly under various owners and was relaunched as a populist tabloid in 2006 ...

'', a French daily, and became a

foreign correspondent A correspondent or on-the-scene reporter is usually a journalist or commentator for a magazine, or an agent who contributes reports to a newspaper, or radio or television news, or another type of company, from a remote, often distant, locati ...

. He found "the blend of risk and cold calculation" in intelligence work to be "seductive". In 1964 Villiers began to write and publish spy novels. He had acquaintances among the military and intelligence services who enjoyed helping Villiers describe them and their acts in fiction. He is the author of the

series ''SAS'', publishing his first volume in 1965. It tells the adventures of the Austrian prince and

CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...

agent Malko Linge, referred to in the first title as "SAS" ('' Son Altesse Sérénissime''). This is a play on initials and

acronyms An acronym is a type of abbreviation consisting of a phrase whose only pronounced elements are the initial letters or initial sounds of words inside that phrase. Acronyms are often spelled with the initial Letter (alphabet), letter of each wor ...

: Firstly, ''Son Altesse sérénissime'' (SAS) is the French version of "His Serene Highness" (HSH). Secondly, the British

Special Air Service The Special Air Service (SAS) is a special forces unit of the British Army. It was founded as a regiment in 1941 by David Stirling, and in 1950 it was reconstituted as a corps. The unit specialises in a number of roles including counter-terr ...

(SAS) is the principal

special forces Special forces or special operations forces (SOF) are military units trained to conduct special operations. NATO has defined special operations as "military activities conducted by specially designated, organized, selected, trained and equip ...

unit of the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

. Thirdly, the SAS series has always included product (airlines and spirits) placement from varying sponsors over the years. One of the first sponsors was Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), which flew the hero around in the beginning, although he later set his heart (and the author's wallet) on

Air France Air France (; legally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France, and is headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. The airline is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and is one of the founding members ...

. Villiers wrote 200 ''SAS'' novels.Publisher's web site
accessed 2 November 2013 De Villiers' books are well known in French-speaking countries for their in-depth insider knowledge of such subjects as espionage, geopolitics, and terrorist threats, as well as their hard-core sex scenes. According to the ''New York Times'', "His works have been translated and are especially popular in Germany, Russia, Turkey, and Japan. The ''SAS'' series has sold a reported 120 million copies worldwide, which would make it one of the top-selling series in history, on a par with

Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer, best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., and his ...

James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

books. ''SAS'' may be the longest-running fiction series ever written by a single author". In addition to France, they were translated and popular in Germany, Russia, Turkey, and Japan; and, since some have been published in English since 2014, in the United States and other English-speaking countries. They are said to be studied by various intelligence services and enjoyed by successive French heads of state. Villiers published four titles per year between 1966 and 2005, increasing his production to five per year between 2006 and his death in 2013. Usually the locale of the story is featured in the title (as in, ''Les amazones de Pyongyang he Amazons of Pyongyangor ''Putsch à Ouagadougou''

oup in Ouagadougou Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

. Villiers was well known for writing novels that incorporated contemporary events, such as wars or terrorist threats. He frequently visited theaters of operation, doing research and interviews to ground his stories with accurate facts.Hugh Schofield, "Get out of Afghanistan: France's million-selling spy writer"
''Sunday Times Online'', Sri Lanka, 7 October 2007, accessed 4 July 2011 He typically researched each book by 15 days on location and then wrote it in another six weeks. His sales were at a maximum during the 1980s, but during the early 21st century Villiers was still earning "between 800,000 and a million euros a year (roughly $1 million to $1.3 million)" for his books. This enabled him to keep a villa in St. Tropez and a "grand house" on Avenue Foch in Paris.Robert F. Worth, "The Spy Novelist Who Knows Too Much"
''New York Times'', 03 February 2013; accessed 14 November 2018 Villiers's mastery of international politics sometimes resulted in his publishing books that seem "prophetic". His ''Le Chemin de Damas'' (2012) was set in the middle of Syria's 21st-century civil war, and it described an attack on a government command center near the presidential palace, a month before such an attack took place. In an earlier book, he portrayed the assassinations of Egyptian President

Anwar Sadat Muhammad Anwar es-Sadat (25 December 1918 – 6 October 1981) was an Egyptian politician and military officer who served as the third president of Egypt, from 15 October 1970 until Assassination of Anwar Sadat, his assassination by fundame ...

before the fact. Due to tips from spies, he was nearly finished writing ''SAS: The Hunt for Carlos'' when the freelance assassin known as

Carlos the Jackal Ilich Ramírez Sánchez (; born 12 October 1949), also known as Carlos the Jackal () or simply Carlos, is a Venezuelan convict who conducted a series of assassinations and terrorist bombings from 1973 to 1985. A committed Marxist–Leninist, ...

was captured.Alan Riding, "France's James Bond Gets the Scoop on the Hunt for Carlos"
''New York Times'', 18 September 1994, accessed 4 July 2011 His family plot in cimetière de Passy in Paris; Adam de Villiers was his father.

English translations

During the mid-1970s, Pinnacle Books published a dozen of the early SAS novels in English, which are now out of print. They include ''The Belfast Connection'' (, ''Furie à Belfast'') in 1976. His 1975 book about the

Shah of Iran The monarchs of Iran ruled for over two and a half millennia, beginning as early as the 7th century BC and enduring until the 20th century AD. The earliest Iranian king is generally considered to have been either Deioces of the Median dynasty () ...

- ''L'Irresistible Ascension de Mohammad Reza, Shah d'Iran'', co-written with Bernard Touchais and Annick de Villiers, was translated as ''The Imperial Shah: An Informal Biography'' (UK: Weidenfeld & Nicolson; US: Little Brown & Co., 1976) by June P. Wilson and Walter B. Michaels. Between 2014 and 2016, Vintage Books published posthumously five Malko Linge novels: ''The Madmen of Benghazi'' (, ''Les Fous de Benghazi'') and ''Chaos in Kabul'' (, ''Sauve-qui-peut à Kaboul''), followed by three Russia-themed thrillers: ''Revenge of the Kremlin'' (, ''La Vengeance du Kremlin''), ''Lord of the Swallows'' (, ''Le Maître des hirondelles''), and ''Surface to Air'' (, ''Igla S'') in late 2016. The books were translated and adapted by French literary translator

William Rodarmor William Rodarmor (born June 5, 1942) is an American journalist, adventurer, and translator of French literature. He is notable in the field of literary translation for having won the Lewis Galantière Award from the American Translators Associat ...

Film adaptations

His SAS novels have been adapted in both French and English-language productions.

SAS

*'' S.A.S. à San Salvador'' (dir.

Raoul Coutard Raoul Coutard (16 September 1924 – 8 November 2016) was a French cinematographer. He is best known for his connection with the French New Wave (''Nouvelle Vague'') period and particularly for his work with director Jean-Luc Godard, which include ...

, 1983), with

Miles O'Keeffe Miles O'Keeffe (born June 20, 1954) is an American film and television actor. O'Keeffe got his first big break playing the title role in the 1981 version of '' Tarzan, the Ape Man''. Youth O'Keeffe was born in Ripley, Tennessee. A star footba ...

(as Malko),

Raimund Harmstorf Raimund Harmstorf (7 October 1939 – 3 May 1998) was a German actor. He became famous as the protagonist of a German TV mini series based on Jack London's the Sea-Wolf (which was sold into many countries) and starred later on successfully in ano ...

Dagmar Lassander Dagmar Lassander (born as Dagmar Regine Hager on 16 June 1943) is a German actress. The character of Lassander Dagmar in the Italian-influenced 2015 horror film '' We Are Still Here'' is named after her. Early life and career She was born in ...

Anton Diffring Anton Diffring (born Alfred Pollack; 20 October 1916 – 19 May 1989) was a German actor. He had an extensive film and television career in the United Kingdom from the 1940s to the 1980s, latterly appearing in international films. Primarily a c ...

Sybil Danning Sybil Danning (born Sybille Johanna Danninger; May 24, 1952) is an Austrian–American former actress, model, and film producer. She is best known for her frequent appearances in B movies during the 1970s and 1980s. Biography Early life Dannin ...

*'' Eye of the Widow'' (dir. Andrew V. McLaglen, 1991), with Richard Young (as Malko), F. Murray Abraham,

Ben Cross Harry Bernard Cross (16 December 1947 – 18 August 2020) was an English actor. He was best known for his portrayal of the British Olympic athlete Harold Abrahams in the 1981 film ''Chariots of Fire'' and for playing Billy Flynn in the or ...

Mel Ferrer Melchor Gastón FerrerAncestry Library Edition (August 25, 1917 – June 2, 2008) was an American actor, director, and producer, active in film, theatre, and television. He achieved prominence on Broadway before scoring notable film hits with ...

Patrick Macnee Daniel Patrick Macnee (6 February 1922 – 25 June 2015) was a British-American actor best known for his breakthrough role as secret agent John Steed in the television series ''The Avengers (TV series), The Avengers'' (1961–1969). Starting out ...

His novels related to the Brigade mondaine of the French national police have also received some adaptations: *'' Victims of Vice'' (dir. Jacques Scandelari, 1978) *''Brigade mondaine : La secte de Marrakech'' (dir. Eddy Matalon, 1979) *' (''Super Witch of Love Island'', dir. Philippe Monnier, 1980)

Notes

References

* Christophe Deloire, « Gérard de Villiers : Le mercenaire du polar », ''Le Point'', January 13, 2005 * Andrea Mrena "Auteur de romans érotiques - écrivain chez Gérard de Villiers" AGTH Books- Amazon 2014 * Jacques Guérin "dossier les coulisses de l'édition". Gérard de Villiers présente L'Exécuteur, March 22
2014

External links

*

''Macau Business'', 18 February 2014 {{DEFAULTSORT:Villiers, Gerard de 1929 births 2013 deaths Burials at Passy Cemetery Writers from Paris French journalists Deaths from pancreatic cancer in France Spy fiction writers French male novelists 20th-century French novelists École supérieure de journalisme de Paris alumni French male non-fiction writers