Eagle Has Landed author Henry Patterson has died aged 92
Patterson, who began writing when he was a teacher, penned 85 novels between 1959 and 2017.
HarperCollins said Patterson died at his Jersey home surrounded by family.
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.
The 1976 adaptation starred Robert Duvall, Donald Sutherland and Sir Michael Caine.
Patterson 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.
RIP Jack Higgins. I have read dozens of his books, always a great read. He certainly had an immense talent for the thriller genre.
"What a lot of trouble one avoids if one refuses to have anything to do with the common herd. To have no job, to devote ones life to literature, is the most wonderful thing in the world. - Cicero