Gérard de Villiers, French journalist and author (b. 1929)
Gérard de Villiers (French: [ʒeʁaʁ də vilje]; 8 December 1929 – 31 October 2013) was a French writer, journalist and publisher whose SAS series of spy novels have been major bestsellers. According to the New York Times, "His works have been translated and are especially popular in Germany, Russia, Turkey, and Japan. The SAS series has sold a reported 120 million copies worldwide, which would make it one of the top-selling series in history, on a par with Ian Fleming's James Bond books. SAS may be the longest-running fiction series ever written by a single author."De Villiers' books are well known in French-speaking countries for their in-depth insider knowledge of such subjects as espionage, geopolitics, and terrorist threats, as well as their hard-core sex scenes.
Vintage Books worked with his estate to publish his books in English translations posthumously, beginning in 2014 with The Madmen of Benghazi and Chaos in Kabul, Revenge of the Kremlin in 2015, and Lord of the Swallows in February 2016. Surface to Air was published in June 2016. All were translated by veteran literary translator William Rodarmor and brought de Villiers and his hero Malko Linge to English-speaking readers.