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Time of India
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Remembering Frederick Forsyth
This is not an obituary of Frederick Forsyth, just a fan's recollection. Obituaries will be many (if the team at The Economist becomes a little 'pop' and less woke perhaps it will do it). Forsyth's demise is passing of an era, a genre of writing that was an intersection of espionage, wars, racy thrillers with pop heroism, crime intertwined in the history and the geo-politics of world war II, Cold war and post-colonial era. All these themes churned well into a large and rich corpus of best sellers that Frederick Forsyth produced over five decades, with remarkable success- Day of the Jackal, Odessa File, Devil's Alternative, Dogs of War, The Shepherd, Fourth Protocol, Phantom of Manhattan, The Afghan, Kill List- among others. Eminently readable, the racy novels interspersed with superb short stories collections: No Comebacks, The Veteran, The Deceiver. Quite a few of these were made into movies- successful ones. For the Gen X types (me included), these books were the closest we could come to the thrills, the intrigues and complexities of the post-colonial, cold war era. The 70s and 80s, the pre-globalization era, when India was a distant spectator to the bipolar world and when our windows to the world was confined to the papers, Illustrated Weekly, Archies, Commandos- Frederick Forsyth, Alistair Maclean, Leon Uris, Robert Ludlum were our windows to the world of espionage, global politics and statecraft. And in this genre Forsyth was in a class of his own. Alistair Maclean was too World War II British type. Ludlum too racy and too American, Leon Uris was too historical (and boringly voluminous to many). Forsyth was the perfect mix of the setting, context, events and of course a good story. The humanness of his characters, their strivings, success and failures, was endearing. None were superheroes, at best a phantom like Johnny Kravanagh in The Shepherd (made into a short film starring Ben Radcliffe and John Travolta (available on Disney Hotstar). The stories, actors were so close to reality that to an impressionable mind growing up in the 1980s, it all seemed real. That Forsyth was a trained Royal Air Force Pilot who saw action in the 1960s, an intelligence operative, BBC correspondent (when BBC was credible and respected) helped imparting that sense of realism to his racy scripts. Meticulous research, delving deep in history, and immaculate detailing made his writing so vivid that one did not need a motion picture adaptation- be it the murky world of the mercenaries in the 1960s Africa (Calo 'Cat' Shannon and his bunch in The Dogs of War) or the sordid saga of a concentration camp in Riga and the hunt for a Nazis war criminal in The Odessa File (the movie was so damn underwhelming). From the point of recall value, Day of the Jackal remains Forsyth's number one- again it was the detailing- whether forgery of documents, the ballistics and the taut plot woven so intricately around historical events that it all seemed real. His canvas stretched wider with cold war thrillers like Devil's Alternative which perhaps for the first time revealed Ukrainian subnationalism to the English-speaking world which had hitherto seen USSR as a Russian megalith, and the Fourth Protocol. In the 1990s and the subsequent decades after the cold war, his works centered around the themes of international terrorism, narcotics, and theaters in West Asia and Afghanistan in the works like The Afghan, The Veteran. These books may have lacked the nostalgia, the appeal and the readership of his earlier works, but they held their own against the forces of new mass media and information overload, which had somewhat demystified the arcane world of global geo-politics, espionage, crime syndicates and all. The last book of Forsyth that I read was the Kill List, it had all the attributes of a good Frederick Forsyth novel. It was to be made into a film and I just hope with so many OTT platforms and the popularity of the genre someone will take up that work. A writer's impressionability is to a great extent determined by the reader's age and sensibility. Like today, in my 50s, it is more of Pico Iyer or the right of center Political Economists and historians and scientists turned philosophers. But even to an ageing mind, the knowledge of these scholars and their wisdom is absolutely no match for the taut plot, storytelling and attention to detail and research of Frederick Forsyth- especially for the generation that grew up in the 70s and the 80s. Though sorry for his demise- even at 86 he had some juice left in the tank- it was a life well lived. It was disciplined, organized, successful and fulfilling. Thank you, Frederick for enriching ours. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer Views expressed above are the author's own.
Daily Record
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Outlander's Catriona Balfe 'disappointing' in role of Claire Fraser compared to books according to fans
Outlander star Catriona Balfe has been widely praised for her role as Claire, however some book fans have highlighted the major differences from Diana Gabaldon's description of the leading star. Outlander fans have divided opinion on how suitable the leading stars of the hit Starz show are in comparison to Diana Gabaldon's book franchise. It has opened the floor to debate on how the characters have transferred on-screen. Sam Heughan and Catriona Balfe are famed for their roles of Claire and Jamie Fraser. The historical romance series has amassed a global fanbase, after bringing to life Diana Gabaldon's Outlander books. However one fan has taken to discussion platform Reddit to question the suitability of Irish actress Balfe, as the role of Claire. It comes as the world war II nurse was described in the books as 'curvy' and having completely different coloured eyes, and height. Sam Heughan has appeared to impress many though, with the Scottish actor being hailed as 'ideal' for the portrayal of Highland warrior Jamie Fraser. "For Jamie, I feel like there aren't many differences, as I feel like Sam was born to play Jamie, with the subtle difference that he is 3cm shorter than his character. But in Claire we do see more differences between the one in the book and the one in the series?," one fan penned. They continued, "That doesn't mean Cait doesn't play a great role, I adore her. But when I read, it's a different Claire. Although I have no references. Do you know any famous women that you use as a reference when you imagine Claire because you feel that she is much closer to the one in the books? Or are you just imagining Cait?" Fans soon took to the forum to weigh in with their opinion, when many fans pointed out that although Balfe's acting is outstanding, her appearance is a far cry from how the books describe Claire Fraser. One fan said, "I don't see Cait, no. Specially bc Jamie talks a lot about her big a** and hips and Cait... well, she is a very skinny legend supermodel with the longest legs ever. She is almost as tall as Sam." Another echoed, "No I have a different image for Claire. She's supposed to her head in the middle of Jamie's chest when they stand or lay together. Cait is too tall to be Claire. And the eyes." A fan quickly responded, "Yes! How many times does Diana write eyes the color of 'verra fine whiskey'?" Someone else said, I'll get downvoted for this, but you asked. I picture Cait, but it's disappointing that's she's so thin. I roll my eyes when I read the books and Jamie talks about her round a** lol." "I don't picture Caitriona, I picture her as described. Book Claire looks nothing like Cait. The height, and especially the height difference with Jamie, her hair color is described as medium brown and Cait's is close to black, and of course the eyes and lack of curviness (particularly the plump arse) are totally different," added another. One person suggested, "I always picture Jessica Raine, the actress who played Jenny Lee on Call the Midwife." Meanwhile, some fans disagreed as they praised Catriona Balfe's portrayal. Many fans had ended up reading Gabaldon's books after watching the show, and could only imagine Cait as Claire. One person wrote, "I love the way she's described in the books as quite curvy (because I can relate, lol, and it makes sense for Jamie's character to be attracted to a curvy woman esp in that time period) but I loved Cait's performance so much that I just picture her." Someone else quipped, "I picture Caitriona as Claire, as I saw the show before I read the books. I don't mind her height as it's nice to see romantic character representation for tall women. As with the books and in rl, the tiny women generally get the tall guys." "I see Cait because the show led me to the books, but my book Claire is so much more than show Claire," added another. Another fan noted, "I have my own versions of all the characters in my mind when I read. Nothing against the actors. Most of them are fantastic. But the book characters are different people to me."
