Henry Patterson was a British author who went under the pen name Jack Higgins. He was a popular thriller and spy novelist who sold millions of copies. His novel The Eagle Has Landed, which was made into a popular 1976 film of the same name, sold more than 50 million copies.
The Eagle Has Landed author Henry Patterson died at the age of 92
Henry Patterson, the bestselling author of The Eagle Has Landed, died at the age of 92.
According to his publisher HarperCollins, the writer died in his home in Jersey, surrounded by his family.
Patterson wrote 85 books under the pseudonym, Jack Higgins, mostly thrillers and spy fiction.
He is most known for his novel The Eagle Has Landed, which was released in 1975 and is set during WWII.
It went on to sell over 50 million copies and was converted into a British film starring Sir Michael Caine, Donald Sutherland, Jenny Agutter, and Robert Duvall.
Patterson’s works have been translated into 60 languages and have sold over 250 million copies worldwide.
“I’ve been a fan of Jack Higgins for as long as I can remember,” said HarperCollins CEO Charlie Redmayne. He was the quintessential thriller writer: instinctive, tough, and unflappable.
“The Eagle Has Landed and his other Liam Devlin books, his later Sean Dillon series, and so many others were and remain absolutely unputdownable.
“Being part of his publishing for even part of his career has been a privilege – his passing marks the end of an era.”
Patterson was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, on July 27, 1929, to an English father and a Northern Irish mother. He was born and raised in Belfast before moving to Leeds when his mother remarried.
He became a teacher after completing two years of national service and began writing novels in his leisure time. Sad Wind From the Sea, the writer’s first novel, received a £75 advance in 1959.
Henry Patterson Age, Family, and Early Life
Henry Patterson was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, on July 27, 1929, to an English father and a Northern Irish mother. His mother returned with him to her hometown of Belfast, Northern Ireland, to live with her mother and grandfather on the Shankill Road when his father abandoned them.
Patterson, who grew up in Belfast amid religious and political strife, began to read at the age of three when he was assigned to read The Christian Herald to his bedridden grandfather. He’d crouch beneath a window at night and read by the light of streetlamps.
Which school and college did he go to?
Patterson’s family moved to Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, when his mother remarried, and he attended the Roundhay Grammar School for Boys.
He was a poor student who graduated with only a few official qualifications. In 1947, he began two years of national service, first with the East Yorkshire Regiment and then as a non-commissioned officer with the Household Cavalry’s Royal Horse Guards Regiment, undertaking border security work on the East German border.
He returned to London after leaving the army to study sociology at the London School of Economics while working as a night driver and laborer. He chose the university because of its “nonconformist past.” [1] After three years of education, he got a third-class diploma.
Henry Patterson’s career, What was his profession?
Higgins began writing books in 1959. James Graham was one of his aliases. Because of the increasing success of his early work, he was able to take time off from teaching, which he finally left to pursue his dream of becoming a full-time novelist.
Patterson’s early novels, written under his real name (as “Harry Patterson”) and the pseudonyms James Graham, Martin Fallon, and Hugh Marlowe, are thrillers with hardened, cynical characters, merciless villains, and perilous settings.
Between 1959 and 1974, Patterson published 35 such novels (sometimes three or four per year) while honing his art. Among his early works, East Of Desolation (1968), A Game For Heroes (1970), and The Savage Day (1972) stand out for their vividly detailed locales (Greenland, the Channel Islands, and Belfast, respectively) and unusual narratives.
Patterson began writing under the pseudonym Jack Higgins in the late 1960s; his first minor bestsellers, two contemporary thrillers The Savage Day and A Prayer for the Dying, were published in the early 1970s, but it was the publication of his 36th book, The Eagle Has Landed, in 1975, that cemented Higgins’ reputation.
Patterson’s third phase began in 1992 with the publishing of Eye of the Storm, a fictionalized account of a failed mortar attack on Prime Minister John Major by a cruel young Irish gunman-philosopher named Sean Dillon, hired by an Iraqi millionaire.
Henry Patterson’s net worth, how much does he earn?
Multi-millionaire best-selling author Jack Higgins, a British novelist, is worth $86 million.
Henry Patterson’s wife, What about his relationship?
Henry Patterson met his first wife, Amy Hewitt, while both were students at the London School of Economics. Sarah, Ruth, Sean, and Hannah were Henry and Amy’s four children when they married in 1958.
The couple divorced in 1984. Patterson married Denise Palmer, his second wife, in 1985. He lived on the island of Jersey in the Channel Islands.
Is he available on any kind of social media platform?
Henry Patterson Doesn’t seem to be available on any sort of social media. As we did a quick search for him on social and weren’t able to find his account.
Body Appearance of Henry Patterson‘s Height, Weight
| Height | N / A |
| Hair | White |
| Eye color | Grey |
| Weight | N / A |
| Body type | Fit |
| Sexual orientation | Straight |
Interesting facts about Henry Patterson’s should be knows
| Nationality | English |
| Ethnicity | White |
| Age | 92 |
| Relationship status | Married |
| Spouse(s) | Ammy Hewitt(former) Denise Palmer(present) |
| Children | 4 |