Jack Higgins

Jack Higgins was born on 27th July 1929 in Newcastle on Tyne, is the principal pseudonym of UK novelist Harry Patterson. He moved to Belfast, Northern Ireland with his mother after his parents marriage foundered, and was raised there amid religious and political violence. He served two years in the British army as a non commissioned officer, on the East German border during the 1950’s. After leaving the army he studied sociology and Political science at London school of Economics. After completing his degree he worked for a time as a teacher and began writing novels in 1959. He is the author of more than sixty novels. He started to write under the name of Jack Higgins in the late 1960’s. As Higgins, most have been thrillers of various types and, since his breakthrough novel ‘The Eagle Has Landed’ in 1975, nearly all have been best-sellers. ‘The Eagle Has Landed’ sold tens of millions of copies worldwide. He has also written under the names of Hugh Marlowe, and James Graham. He currently lives in Jersey, in the Channel Islands