Biography

Early life

Jack Higgins was born Henry Patterson on 27 July 1929 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. When his father abandoned them soon after, his Irish mother returned with him to her home town of Belfast, Northern Ireland, to live with her mother and her grandfather on Shankill Road. Raised amid the religious and political violence of Belfast, Patterson learned to read at the age of three, when he was tasked with reading The Christian Herald to his bed-ridden grandfather. At night, he would crouch beneath a window and read by the light of the street lamps.

I read Oliver Twist when I was six. Not because it was a classic, but because it was a book that was available. I probably didn't understand everything in it—for years I used to pronounce the word rogue as rogger—but I didn't care. I just loved reading.

When his mother remarried, the family moved to Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, where Patterson attended the Roundhay Grammar School for Boys. He proved to be an indifferent student and left school with few formal qualifications. In the early 1950s, he joined the army and served as an non-commissioned officer in the Royal Horse Guards Regiment of the Household Cavalry in the East Riding of Yorkshire, on the North Sea, for two years. During his military service, Patterson discovered that he possessed both considerable sharpshooting skills and considerable intelligence.

After leaving the army, he returned to London to study Sociology at London School of Economics while supporting himself as a driver and laborer at night. He chose the school for its "history of nonconformism". He received his third-class degree after three years of study. After getting a teaching qualification, he took a job lecturing in Social Psychology and Criminology at Allerton Grange Secondary School Leeds. He taught Liberal Studies at Leeds Polytechnic and Education at James Graham College, which became part of Leeds Polytechnic in 1976.

Writing career

In 1959, Higgins began writing novels. One of his aliases was James Graham. The growing success of his early work allowed him to take time off from his teaching, and he eventually left the classroom to become a full-time novelist.

Patterson's early novels, written under his own name as well as under the pseudonyms James Graham, Martin Fallon, and Hugh Marlowe, are thrillers that typically feature hardened, cynical heroes, ruthless villains, and dangerous locales. Patterson published thirty-five such novels (sometimes three or four a year) between 1959 and 1974, learning his craft. East of Desolation (1968), A Game for Heroes (1970) and The Savage Day (1972) stand out among his early work for their vividly drawn settings (Greenland, the Channel Islands, and Belfast, respectively) and offbeat plots.

Patterson began using the pseudonym Jack Higgins in the late 1960s; his first minor bestsellers appeared in the early 1970s, two contemporary thrillers The Savage Day and A Prayer for the Dying but it was the publication of his thirty sixth book, The Eagle Has Landed, in 1975, that made Higgins' reputation. The Eagle Has Landed represented a step forward in the length and depth of Patterson's work. Its plot concerns with a German commando unit sent into England to kidnap Winston Churchill, and is reminiscent of Alberto Cavalcanti's wartime film Went the Day Well?, which itself was directly based on the 1942 Graham Greene short story "The Lieutenant Died Last". The main character is Irish gunman, poet, and philosopher Liam Devlin. Higgins followed The Eagle Has Landed with a series of thrillers, including several (Touch the Devil, Confessional, The Eagle Has Flown) featuring return appearances by Devlin.

The third phase of Patterson's career began with the publication of Eye of the Storm in 1992, a fictionalized retelling of an unsuccessful mortar attack on Prime Minister John Major by a ruthless young Irish gunman-philosopher named Sean Dillon, hired by an Iraqi millionaire. Cast as the central character over the next series of novels, it is apparent that Dillon is in many ways an amalgamation of Patterson's previous heroes — Chavasse with his flair for languages, Nick Miller's familiarity with martial arts and jazz keyboard skills, Simon Vaughan's Irish roots, facility with firearms and the cynicism that comes with assuming the responsibility of administering a justice unavailable through a civilized legal system.

Personal life

Higgins met Amy Hewett while both were studying at the London School of Economics. They were married in 1958, shortly after receiving a $210 advance for his first novel—"the biggest wedding present we could have had." They have four children: Sarah (born 1960), Ruth (born 1962), Sean (born 1965), and Hannah (born 1974). Their daughter Sarah Patterson penned the novel The Distant Summer (1976). Higgins lives on Jersey, in the Channel Islands, with his second wife, Denise.

Bibliography

Year	Title	Writing as	Featuring	Publisher	Notes
1959	Sad Wind from the Sea	Harry Patterson	Mark Hagen	John Long
1960	Cry of the Hunter	Harry Patterson	Martin Fallon	John Long
1961	The Thousand Faces of Night	Harry Patterson	Hugh Marlow	John Long
1962	Comes the Dark Stranger	Harry Patterson	Martin Shane	John Long
1962	Hell Is Too Crowded	Harry Patterson	Matthew Brady	John Long
1962	The Testament of Caspar Schultz	Martin Fallon	Paul Chavasse	Abelard-Schuman	The Bormann Testament
1963	The Dark Side of the Island	Harry Patterson	Hugh Lomax	Fawcett
1963	Pay the Devil	Harry Patterson	Clay Fitzgerald	Barrie & Rockliffe
1963	Seven Pillars to Hell	Hugh Marlowe	Gavin Kane	Abelard-Schuman	Sheba
1963	Year of the Tiger	Martin Fallon	Paul Chavasse	Abelard-Schuman
1964	Passage by Night	Hugh Marlowe	Harry Manning	Abelard-Schuman
1964	A Phoenix in the Blood	Harry Patterson	Jay Williams
1964	Thunder at Noon	Harry Patterson	John Dillinger		Revised in 1983 as Dillinger
1964	Wrath of the Lion	Harry Patterson
1965	The Graveyard Shift	Harry Patterson	Nick Miller
1965	The Keys of Hell	Martin Fallon	Paul Chavasse
1966	A Candle for the Dead	Hugh Marlowe	Sean Rogan		The Violent Enemy
1966	The Iron Tiger	Jack Higgins	Jack Drummond
1966	Midnight Never Comes	Martin Fallon	Paul Chavasse
1966	The Violent Enemy	Hugh Marlowe	Sean Rogan		A Candle for the Dead
1967	Brought in Dead	Harry Patterson	Nick Miller
1967	Dark Side of the Street	Martin Fallon	Harry Youngblood
1968	East of Desolation	Jack Higgins	Joe Martin	Berkley
1968	Hell Is Always Today	Harry Patterson	Nick Miller
1969	A Fine Night for Dying	Martin Fallon	Paul Chavasse
1969	In the Hour Before Midnight	Jack Higgins	Stacy Wyatt		The Sicilian Heritage
1969	The Sicilian Heritage	Jack Higgins	Stacy Wyatt		In the Hour Before Midnight
1970	A Game for Heroes	James Graham	Owen Morgan
1970	Night Judgement at Sinos	Jack Higgins	Jack Savage
1971	The Last Place God Made	Jack Higgins	Sam Hannah
1971	Toll for the Brave	Jack Higgins	Ellis Jackson
1971	The Wrath of God	James Graham	Emmet Kogh
1972	The Khufra Run	James Graham	Jack Nelson
1972	The Savage Day	Jack Higgins		Holt
1973	A Prayer for the Dying	Jack Higgins	Martin Fallon	Holt
1974	The Run to Morning	Martin Fallon	Oliver Grant		Bloody Passage
1975	The Eagle Has Landed	Jack Higgins	Liam Devlin	Holt
1976	Storm Warning	Jack Higgins		Holt
1977	The Valhalla Exchange	Jack Higgins	Hamilton Canning
1978	Day of Judgement	Martin Fallon	Simon Vaughan	Holt
1979	To Catch a King	Harry Patterson	Walter Schellenberg
1980	Solo	Jack Higgins	Asa Morgan	Stein and Day	The Cretan Lover
1981	Luciano's Luck	Jack Higgins	Harry Carter	Stein and Day
1982	Touch the Devil	Jack Higgins	Liam Devlin	Stein and Day
1983	Dillinger	Jack Higgins	John Dillinger		Thunder at Noon revised and reissued
1983	Exocet	Jack Higgins	Charles Ferguson	Stein and Day
1985	Confessional	Jack Higgins	Liam Devlin	Stein and Day
1986	Night of the Fox (novel)	Jack Higgins	Harry Martineau	Simon & Schuster
1989	Memoirs of a Dance Hall Romeo	Jack Higgins		Simon & Schuster
1989	A Season in Hell	Jack Higgins	Tonny Villiers	Simon & Schuster
1990	Cold Harbour	Jack Higgins	Dougal Munro	Simon & Schuster
1990	The Eagle Has Flown	Jack Higgins	Liam Devlin	Simon & Schuster
1992	Eye of the Storm	Jack Higgins	Sean Dillon	Putnam	Midnight Man
1993	Thunder Point	Jack Higgins	Sean Dillon	Putnam
1994	On Dangerous Ground	Jack Higgins	Sean Dillon	Putnam
1994	Sheba	Jack Higgins	Gavin Kane	Berkley
1995	Angel of Death	Jack Higgins	Sean Dillon	Putnam
1995	The Morgan Score	Jack Higgins	Asa Morgan
1996	Drink with the Devil	Jack Higgins	Sean Dillon	Putnam
1996	Year of the Tiger 1996	Jack Higgins	Paul Chavasse	Berkley
1997	The President's Daughter	Jack Higgins	Sean Dillon	Putnam
1998	Flight of Eagles	Jack Higgins	Harry Kelso	Putnam
1999	The White House Connection	Jack Higgins	Sean Dillon	Putnam
2000	Day of Reckoning	Jack Higgins	Sean Dillon	Putnam
2001	Edge of Danger	Jack Higgins	Sean Dillon	Putnam
2002	The Keys of Hell	Jack Higgins		HarperCollins
2002	Midnight Runner	Jack Higgins	Sean Dillon	Putnam
2003	Bad Company	Jack Higgins	Sean Dillon	Putnam
2004	Dark Justice	Jack Higgins	Sean Dillon	Putnam
2005	Without Mercy	Jack Higgins	Sean Dillon	Putnam
2006	The Bormann Testament	Jack Higgins
2006	Sure Fire	Jack Higgins		Putnam	With Justin Richards
2007	The Killing Ground	Jack Higgins	Sean Dillon	Putnam
2007	Rough Justice	Jack Higgins	Sean Dillon	Putnam
2008	Death Run	Jack Higgins		Putnam	With Justin Richards
2009	A Darker Place	Jack Higgins	Sean Dillon	Putnam
2009	First Strike	Jack Higgins		Putnam	With Justin Richards
2009	Sharp Shot	Jack Higgins		Putnam	With Justin Richards
2009	The Wolf at the Door	Jack Higgins	Sean Dillon	Putnam
2010	The Judas Gate	Jack Higgins	Sean Dillon	Putnam
2012	A Devil is Waiting	Jack Higgins	Sean Dillon	Putnam
2013	The Death Trade	Jack Higgins	Sean Dillon	Putnam
2014	Rain on the Dead	Jack Higgins	Sean Dillon	Putnam

Filmography

Year	Title	Writing as	Director	Starring	Notes
1967	The Violent Enemy	Hugh Marlowe	Don Sharp	Tom Bell	From the novel A Candle for the Dead
1972	The Wrath of God	James Graham	Ralph Nelson	Robert Mitchum
1976	The Eagle Has Landed	Jack Higgins	John Sturges	Donald Sutherland
1984	To Catch a King	Harry Patterson	Clive Donner	Robert Wagner	Television film
1987	A Prayer for the Dying	Jack Higgins	Mike Hodges	Mickey Rourke
1989	Confessional	Jack Higgins		Keith Carradine	Television series, 4 episodes
1990	Night of the Fox	Jack Higgins	Charles Jarrott	George Peppard	Television film
1996	On Dangerous Ground	Jack Higgins	Lawrence Gordon Clark	Rob Lowe	Television film
1996	Windsor Protocol	Jack Higgins	George Mihalka	Kyle MacLachlan	Television film
1997	Midnight Man	Jack Higgins	Lawrence Gordon Clark	Rob Lowe	Television film, from the novel Eye of the Storm
1998	Thunder Point	Jack Higgins	George Mihalka	Kyle MacLachlan	Television film

[ Source: Wikipedia ]