Best-selling thriller writer Jack Higgins dies aged 92

Best-selling thriller writer Henry Patterson has died at the age of 92.

Patterson, known to the public under his pseudonym Jack Higgins, published 85 books during his lifetime.

He died at home in Jersey, surrounded by his family, his long-term publishers HarperCollins said in a statement.

Patterson is best known for the 1975 novel The Eagle has Landed about a fictional plot to kidnap Winston Churchill during World War Two.

The book sold more than 50 million copies and was adapted into a film starring Robert Duvall, Donald Sutherland, and Sir Michael Caine.

Patterson was born in Newcastle on July 27 1929 to an English father and a Northern Irish mother.

He was raised in Belfast until his mother remarried and he moved to Leeds.

After a two-year stint of National Service, he qualified as a teacher and began to write novels on the side.

He received a £75 advance for his first novel, Sad Wind From The Sea, in 1959.

His final book, The Midnight Bell, was published in 2017 and was a Sunday Times bestseller.

HarperCollins said that by the time his final novel came out, they referred to him simply as “The Legend”.

He is survived by four children from his first marriage – Sarah, Ruth, Sean, and Hannah – as well as his wife, Denise.