(One of the most famous novels of Gerard de Villiers, due ...)
One of the most famous novels of Gerard de Villiers, due to the fact it predicted the assassination of the President of Egypt a year before he was killed
(Une masse noire sembla jaillir du mur et deux mains colos...)
Une masse noire sembla jaillir du mur et deux mains colossales serrèrent la gorge de Malko avec une brutalité inouïe. Il ouvrit la bouche pour crier, mais aucun son ne sortit. Un voile passa devant ses yeux, ses jambes se déroulèrent sous lui. L'appel d'une voix de femme criant son nom lui parvint faiblement, puis il perdit connaissance.
(Dolorès Ribero coupa sèchement Malko : "Je ne pensais pas...)
Dolorès Ribero coupa sèchement Malko : "Je ne pensais pas que vous seriez assez stupide pour venir ici seul. Quand le pope m'a appelée après votre passage chez lui, j'aurais pu décamper et vous ne m'auriez pas retouvée. - Pourquoi ne l'avez-vous pas fait ? - Je suis restée pour vous tuer. C'est la première fois que je vais tuer quelqu'un, mais vous ne savez pas à quel point ça me fait plaisir."
Read Less
(L’estomac contracté, Malko recula encore, heurtant le mur...)
L’estomac contracté, Malko recula encore, heurtant le muret de pierre entourant l’esplanade du Parthénon. Derrière lui, il y avait l'à-pic de cent mètres. Aucun être vivant ne résisterait à cette chute. Son choix était simple : ou il se suicidait en sautant, ou il attendait que ses adversaires l’aient rejoint, assommé et précipité eux-mêmes dans le vide. Ils l’encerclaient maintenant à moins de dix mètres.
(Malko sentit qu'on lui arrachait son pistolet; la pointe ...)
Malko sentit qu'on lui arrachait son pistolet; la pointe du poignard appuyait toujours sur sa gorge. Le chef sortit un stylo à bille et une feuille de papier de sa poche, puis lança à Maiko: Vous écrivez: " les billets étaient faux. Nous voulons trois millions de dollars d'ici trois jours. Sinon, l'otage sera exécuté." L'otage c'était lui.
Gérard de Villiers was a French writer and journalist. He's famous for his spy novel series about Prince Malko Linge, Austrian Prince and CIA operative. De Villiers wrote 200 novels that were sold in over 150 million copies worldwide. Each of them is full with high-paced action, unique characters and vivid sex scenes, which is why he is considered to be the successor of Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond.
Background
Gérard de Villiers was born in Paris in a family that had aristocratic origin. His father Jacques Adam de Villiers was also a writer, more precisely a playwright with the pseudonym Jacques Deval. Young Gérard showed his talent for writing early in his life and it didn't come as a surprise that he followed in his father's footsteps.
Education
Being a part of a middle-class family with an aristocratic origin provided de Villiers all needed prerequisites for great education. He graduated from Political Science University of Sciences Po in Paris, which is one of the most selective and respectable universities in France. As a huge fan of journalism, de Villiers decided to enroll and graduate from Superior Journalism School (ESJ) in Paris. Before beginning his career, he was in the military, serving as an officer during the Algerian war.
Career
After serving in the military, de Villiers decided to look for a job as a journalist. He enjoyed spells with France Dimanche, Paris-Presse, France-Soir and Paris Match, where he would write about various different stuff, from reporting about Vietnam war all the way to the stories of Hollywood celebrities on vacation on the French Riviera. In his spare time, de Villiers worked on a detective novel.
When the famous author of James Bond spy novels Ian Fleming died in 1964, de Villiers was taunted by his editor to take over. The French took his advice and created Prince Malko Linge, who will become a hero of a total of 200 novels in his S.A.S. series. The acronym S.A.S. stands for Son Altesse Sérénissime (His Serene Highness). Prince Malko Linge was an Austrian Prince and a freelance CIA operative, created as a composite of three different characters - former French Intelligence Agency chief officer who de Villiers strongly admired, a German baron who had his own castle and an Austrian arms dealer.
In 1965, the first novel of the series, SAS in Istanbul, was published in 1965. The first book, as well as all that followed, offered a lot of high-passed action and quite explicit scenes of sex and violence. They were also known for being completely on track with contemporary events and presenting a lot of intriguing characters inspired by real-life people that de Villiers met on his travels.
During his career, the author of SAS series invested a lot into building relations with highly-ranked intelligence officers of different countries. It all started with Alexandre de Marenches, former leader of French external intelligence services, who was de Villiers' great friend. As their friendship deepened, de Villiers was let deeper and deeper into the world of spying, providing him incredible insight and accurate information for his novels.
Each novel de Villiers wrote was prepared in the same way - he would travel for two weeks gathering the info and then he would spend six weeks writing the novel. Each year between 1966 and 2005 de Villiers would publish four novels- in January, April, June, and October. From 2006, he upped his game to five novels a year and not even a case of torn aorta he suffered from in 2010 couldn't stop him to keep this pace. The last, 200th novel he had written was published in 2013 under the title The Revenge of Kremlin.
According to the most recent reports, Gerard de Villiers' books were sold in around 150 million copies worldwide, mostly in Europe. With these numbers, the S.A.S. series was deservedly chosen as the right successor for the James Bond spy novel series.
(Malko sentit qu'on lui arrachait son pistolet; la pointe ...)
2009
Religion
He is known for openly being against Islam, which goes in accordance with his right-wing stance.
Politics
While he wasn't openly affiliated with any party, de Villiers had always been clear that his stance was more inclined towards the right wing. This is why he was very surprised when Hubert Vedrine, former foreign minister of a left-wing French government, called him for a meeting. Vedrine did this because he discovered that de Villiers and the government had many same sources for their information. The French writer had never hidden the fact that he had friends on high positions in the French external intelligence agency.
Many politicians were enjoying reading de Villiers' novels, among which Jacques Chirac and Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. Although he has a letter from Nicolas Sarkozy framed on the wall of his room, de Villiers stated in one his interviews that he's confident that the former French president didn't read his novels.
Views
Although many people accused him of being a racist and an anti-Semite, he strongly states this is not true.
"I'm against communism and socialism, as well as Islam, but I'm no racist", claimed de Villiers.
One of his closest friends was Claude Lanzmann, a famous Jewish politician and director, which should be enough to refute those accusations. These false claims probably came from the fact that de Villiers never cared for political correctness. The language in his novels was often pretty vivid and explicit, and he used words like "fags" even in regular conversations and interviews.
Quotations:
"I'm not a sex machine. I'm a writing machine"
“I’m not a prophet. I draw hypothetical conclusions about countries I know well and sometimes, they turn out to be true”
Personality
He described himself as a "womanizer", which explains the fact that he had four marriages during his life. However, the fact that he estranged from all four wives might lead people to believe he had trouble with faithfulness.
De Villiers was persistent and responsible, which enabled him to keep up with high pace of publishing at least four novels every year. He was also famous for not caring about political correctness and using the language he thought was appropriate in any conversation.
Physical Characteristics:
De Villiers always cared about his looks and his public image, so you could always see him dressed nicely. Even in the days prior to his death when he needed a walker, he remained proud, confident and charismatic man he always had been.
Quotes from others about the person
“He has become a kind of institution. You can even see articles praising him in Libération (the left-leaning newspaper)", Renaud Girard, the chief foreign correspondent of Le Figaro
Interests
world of spying, women
Politicians
Jacques Chirac,Valéry Giscard d’Estaing
Writers
Ian Fleming
Connections
Gerard de Villiers was married four times and is survived by one son and one daughter.
Gerard de Villiers | French writer | Britannica.com
French pulp-fiction writer who penned 200 spy thrillers, over a period of nearly five decades (1965–2013), in the SAS series, so-called because of the codename Son Altesse Sérénissime...
Christophe Deloire, « Gérard de Villiers : Le mercenaire du polar », Le Point,
2005
French spy novelist Gérard de Villiers dies
Gérard de Villiers, who wrote 200 SAS spy novels and sold 150 million copies, dies aged 83, without the international recognition he felt he deserved.