Jack Higgins

Jack Higgins was the pen name of British novelist Harry Patterson (1929–2022), known for fast-paced thrillers including The Eagle Has Landed. He also published under other names, including James Graham and Martin Fallon.

Connect

The Eagle Has Landed: A 1975 thriller novel by Jack Higgins about a German plan to kidnap Winston Churchill during the Second World War. This bestselling novel established the historical-thriller formula most closely associated with Higgins.
Harry Patterson: The birth name of British novelist Jack Higgins, born in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1929. Higgins’s pseudonym concealed the identity behind his many novels.
Spy fiction: A genre of fiction centered on espionage, intelligence agencies, and covert operations. Higgins’s novels frequently turn secret missions and intelligence work into suspense plots.
John Sturges: An American film director known for The Great Escape and The Eagle Has Landed. Sturges directed the film adaptation that introduced Higgins’s novel to cinema audiences.
The Eagle Has Landed (film): A 1976 film adaptation of Jack Higgins’s novel, directed by John Sturges. Its success brought Higgins’s best-known story to a wider audience.
Newcastle upon Tyne: A city in northeast England, where Harry Patterson was born. Patterson’s early life began in the city that shaped his northern English background.
Historical fiction: Fiction set in a past period and shaped by its historical circumstances. His Second World War thrillers combine invented plots with real historical settings.
Michael Caine: An English actor whose film roles include Lieutenant Colonel Kurt Steiner in The Eagle Has Landed. Caine’s performance helped define the film’s German officer at the center of Higgins’s story.
The Key to Rebecca: A 1980 espionage thriller by Ken Follett, set during the Second World War in North Africa. Its wartime espionage plot offers a close comparison with Higgins’s popular historical thrillers.
Korean War: A war fought from 1950 to 1953 between North Korea and South Korea and their international allies. Patterson served in the British Army during the conflict, an experience that informed his military fiction.