Author and former spy Frederick Forsyth has called time on fiction writing saying that he has run out of things to write about and his wife has told him that he is too old.
Forsyth who is 78 has written a dozen novels which have sold over 70 million copies across the globe but it seems that that twelve titles is where his author career will end; talking to The Guardian he said
“I’m tired of it and I can’t just sit at home and do a nice little romance from my study,”
Forsyth who trained as a Royal Air Force pilot revealed in his memoirs which were published last year that during his career he often worked for MI6 The UK’s spy service and that he got most of his inspiration from his years in Africa and the former Soviet bloc during the Cold War. He would send his drafts to MI6 prior to publication to ensure he wasn’t revealing any sensitive information and they would often be returned with annotations and paragraphs underlined with one particularly notable edit from MI6 coming in regards to his novel The Fourth Protocol, where he avoided telling readers how exactly to trigger a nuclear weapon: “You don’t want anyone actually to do it!” said Forsyth.
A stickler for research Forsyth was in Somalia to research his novel The Kill List when his wife told him “You’re far too old, these places are bloody dangerous and you don’t run as avidly, as nimbly as you used to.”
He says he attempted to perform an online search of Somalia but it had left him “very dissatisfied” with the results saying “There was some statistical information on Somalia but not what I wanted, which was atmosphere.”
The two combined with the fact that Forsyth also feels that he has run out of things to say finally made his mind up for him.
The author who has only ever written using a typewriter says his memoir was his swan song adding “How many bakers go on baking after 78?” he will now focus his attention on campaigning for Alexander Blackman, a Royal Marine sentenced to life imprisonment for shooting an injured Afghan fighter in 2011.
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