Occupation Writer Name Gerard Villiers | Role Writer Movies S.A.S. a San Salvador | |
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Died October 31, 2013, Paris, France Spouse Christine de Villiers (m. ?–2013) Parents Jacques Deval, Valentine Adam de Villiers Books Chaos in Kabul: A Malko Lin, Revenge of the Kremlin, The Madmen of Benghazi, Vengeance Tchetchene, The Belfast Connection Similar People Philippe de Villiers, Jacques Deval, Raoul Coutard, Raymond Danon, Helene Plemiannikov | ||
G rard de villiers le tonton makoui de sas
Gérard de Villiers ([ʒeʁaʁ də vilje]; 8 December 1929 – 31 October 2013) was a French writer, journalist and publisher whose SAS series of spy novels have been major bestsellers. 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's James Bond books. SAS may be the longest-running fiction series ever written by a single author." 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. Bringing de Villiers and his hero Malko Linge to English-speaking readers, Vintage Books published The Madmen of Benghazi and Chaos in Kabul in 2014, Revenge of the Kremlin in 2015, and Lord of the Swallows in February 2016. Surface to Air is due out in June. All were translated by veteran literary translator William Rodarmor.
Contents
- G rard de villiers le tonton makoui de sas
- Les romans despionnage SAS de Grard de Villiers en cause
- Life
- English translations
- Film adaptations
- References
Les romans d'espionnage SAS de Gérard de Villiers en cause
Life
Villiers was the son of Jacques Adam de Villiers and a graduate of Sciences Po Paris, France's most reputed and highly selective Political Science university, as well as 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 Serene Highness" (HSH). In addition, the British Special Air Service (SAS) is the principal special forces unit of the British Army.
Villiers has written 200 novels of the franchise, selling more than 120 million books. In addition to France, they are popular in the United States, Germany, Russia, Turkey, and Japan, and studied by various intelligence services. De Villiers published four titles per year between 1966 and 2005, and five per year between 2006 and 2013. Usually the locale of the story is featured in the title (as in, Les amazones de Pyongyang' [The Amazons of Pyongyang] or Putsch à Ouagadougou [Coup in Ouagadougou]). Villiers was well known for writing novels in tune with contemporary events, such as wars or terrorist threats. He frequently visited theatres of operation, doing research and interviews to ground his stories with accurate facts. Each book was typically researched 15 days on location and then written in 15 additional days.
His mastery of political intrigue sometimes led him to publish books that anticipated crisis events. These included portrayals of the assassinations of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Due to tips from spies, he was nearly finished writing SAS: The Hunt for Carlos when the freelance assassin was captured.
English translations
In the mid-1970s, Pinnacle Books published a dozen of the SAS novels in English, now out of print. They include The Belfast Connection (ISBN 0-523-00844-9) in 1976.
Between 2014 and 2016, Vintage Books published five Malko Linge novels: The Madmen of Benghazi (ISBN 978-0-8041-6931-8) and Chaos in Kabul (ISBN 978-0-8041-6933-2), followed by three Russia-themed thrillers: Revenge of the Kremlin (ISBN 978-0-8041-6935-6), Lord of the Swallows (ISBN 978-0-8041-6937-0), and Surface to Air (ISBN 978-0-804-16939-4) in late 2016. The books were translated and adapted by French literary translator William Rodarmor.