Gérard de Villiers, 1929–2013
The spy novelist who spun tales from real sources
Gérard de Villiers was one of France’s most popular novelists, but his country’s leaders turned up their noses at his sex-packed spy tales—while secretly poring over their well-sourced details. “The French elite pretend not to read him,” said former Foreign Minister Hubert Védrine. “But they all do.”
De Villiers, the son of a notorious womanizer, was raised by his mother and two sisters, said Le Monde (France). As a foreign affairs reporter during the 1950s, he built up a source network among intelligence officials and diplomats. After Ian Fleming died in 1964, an editor friend urged him to “take over.” De Villiers took three characters he knew—a French intelligence official, a German baron, and an arms dealer—and by “knitting their DNA” together created Malko Linge, aka S.A.S., an Austrian aristocrat who spied for the CIA. “No one would have taken a Frenchman seriously,” he explained. “Besides cheese and wine, nothing about us is credible abroad.”
His first book, S.A.S. in Istanbul, was a hit in 1965, said The Daily Telegraph (U.K.), and de Villiers went on to write 200 S.A.S. novels, selling some 100 million copies worldwide. He called his books “fairy tales for adults,” but they were often “eerily prescient” about geopolitical events. In 1980, de Villiers wrote about the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat a year before it happened. Last year’s The Madmen of Benghazi chronicled jihadist activity in that Libyan city six months before Islamist radicals killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens there.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
De Villiers “became a kind of drop box for real-world secrets” from the world’s spy agencies, said The New York Times, and he cast his novels with fictional versions of spooks he had met. His routine was arduous: He would spend two weeks in whatever country he was writing about, and then six weeks writing each book, churning out four or five a year. He dreamed of S.A.S. becoming a Hollywood icon like James Bond, and his lasting regret was that his books were so little known outside his homeland. “I bear the curse,” he once said, “of being French.”
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
'His story should be here'
Today's Newspapers A roundup of the headlines from the US front pages
By The Week Staff Published
-
'Not cross buns': the row over recipe revamps
Talking Point New versions of the Easter favourite have sparked controversy but sales are soaring
By Adrienne Wyper, The Week UK Published
-
The England kit: a furore over the flag
Why everyone's talking about Nike's redesign of the St George's Cross on the collar of the English national team's shirt has caused controversy
By The Week UK Published
-
Benjamin Zephaniah: trailblazing writer who 'took poetry everywhere'
Why Everyone's Talking About Remembering the 'radical' wordsmith's 'wit and sense of mischief'
By The Week UK Published
-
Shane MacGowan: the unruly former punk with a literary soul
Why Everyone's Talking About The Pogues frontman died aged 65
By The Week UK Published
-
'Euphoria' star Angus Cloud dies at 25
Speed Read
By Catherine Garcia Published
-
Legendary jazz and pop singer Tony Bennett dies at 96
Speed Read
By Devika Rao Published
-
Martin Amis: literary wunderkind who ‘blazed like a rocket’
feature Famed author, essayist and screenwriter died this week aged 73
By The Week Staff Published
-
Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian folk legend, is dead at 84
Speed Read
By Peter Weber Published
-
Barry Humphries obituary: cerebral satirist who created Dame Edna Everage
feature Actor and comedian was best known as the monstrous Melbourne housewife and Sir Les Patterson
By The Week Staff Published
-
Mary Quant obituary: pioneering designer who created the 1960s look
feature One of the most influential fashion designers of the 20th century remembered as the mother of the miniskirt
By The Week Staff Published