Best-selling author Jack Higgins has died aged 92, his publisher has confirmed, according to reports.
Higgins, whose real name was Henry Patterson, died at home in Jersey surrounded by his family, HarperCollins said in a statement.
The author, who wrote under his pseudonym, published 85 books in his lifetime and was best known for his 1975 novel The Eagle Has Landed, which sold more than 50 million copies.
The book told the story of a fictional Nazi plot to kidnap Sir Winston Churchill during the Second World War.
In 1976, the novel was turned into a film starring Sir Michael Caine, Robert Duvall and Donald Sutherland.
Other popular books he wrote include Comes the Dark Stranger, Hell is Too Crowded and To Catch a King.
Patterson’s last book, The Midnight Bell, was published in 2017 and became a Sunday Times bestseller.
Born in Newcastle in 1929 to an English father and Northern Irish mother, he was brought up in Belfast, before returning to England to live in Leeds.
After two years of National Service, he qualified as a teacher, writing on the side to earn some extra money.
-Source: sky.com
