Eagle Has Landed author dies aged 92

Henry Patterson, the best-selling author of The Eagle Has Landed, has died aged 92, his publisher has said.

Patterson, who began writing when he was a teacher, penned 85 novels between 1959 and 2017.

The Eagle Has Landed, about a Nazi plot to kidnap Sir Winston Churchill in World War Two and written using the pseudonym Jack Higgins, sold more than 50 million copies and became a film.

HarperCollins said Patterson died at his Jersey home surrounded by family.

Patterson was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, and grew up in Belfast.

He sold more than 250 million books over his career, with his other works including Comes the Dark Stranger, Hell is Too Crowded and To Catch a King.

HarperCollins chief executive Charlie Redmayne described Patterson as a “classic thriller writer: instinctive, tough, relentless”, adding his novels “were and remain absolutely unputdownable”.

Jonathan Lloyd, Patterson’s literary agent, also paid tribute, saying: “I had the privilege of being at Collins Publishers when we received the manuscript of The Eagle Has Landed.

“We all knew, with a rare certainty, that we would be publishing an instant classic.”