He is 70 and still going strong. Observers describe him as the hardest working man in Britain. Born in Belfast in 1929, Harry Paterson, better known as Jack Higgins, is today one of the most widely read novelists in the world.
There is a story behind how Harry Paterson acquired the pseudonym Jack Higgins. Higgins was the maiden name of his mother, who was Irish, and Jack was the name of a tough Irish loyalist uncle of his.
Higgins hit big time with his thriller “The Eagle Has Landed” in 1975, when he was already 45 years old. And since then, there has been no looking back. An estimate has it that Higgins’ paperbacks sell an average of 50,000 copies a month. Another says that he has been translated into 42 languages.
Higgins’ thrillers are marked by thorough historical research. He is considered an authority on politics, especially those of Northern Ireland. Another inimitable trait is the authenticity in his stories. There is an interesting case to illustrate this: When he was writing his novel “Solo,” about a pianist who becomes a terrorist, Higgins jumped 10 feet off a stage to see if it was humanly possible!
He left school when he was 15 to do a series of jobs, which included working as a tram driver, a circus helper and as a council worker in the road cleaning department. He later worked as a teacher and studied for a degree through correspondence which enabled him to do a teacher training course at an adult education college.
It is not commonly known that Higgins was an accomplished novelist even before “The Eagle Had Landed” brought him to the best-seller lists. He began publishing novels when he was 30. While still a teacher, he wrote 15 thrillers that added to the family finances. It was not until 1970 that Higgins became a full-time writer. He had toyed with the idea for some time but when he met a clergyman, his life took a new turn. He revealed his dilemma to the clergyman who, instead of giving religious instructions, cited one of Churchill’s customs in similar circumstances: “Write down all the reasons in one column for doing a thing and then, in another column, write down all the reasons for not doing the thing. Choose the list which is longer.” Higgins did just that and resigned from his job.
Higgins’ first novel was “Sad Wind From the Sea,” written in 1959 and set in China. Later, a recurrent theme was the IRA and the troubles in Northern Ireland. It is amazing how these novels appeal to a variety of people around the world, many of whom could not locate Northern Ireland on a map and who can’t tell Loyalists from Republicans!
Some of his more famous books include “Confessional,” “Sheeba,” “Touch the Devil,” “The Day of Reckoning” and “The President’s Daughter.”
Unlike most of his other novels, “The President’s Daughter” deals with a Jewish terrorist group which kidnaps the American president’s daughter in order to get him to sign an order that authorizes the bombing of some Arab countries. It is a thriller that should not be missed.
Today, Higgins is a multimillionaire, who writes all night and goes to bed when the world awakens. And he is pretty proud of who he is — he has stressed that in no uncertain terms in the course of many interviews. He moved from England to Jersey in the Channel Islands when, after “The Eagle Has Landed,” he discovered that the Inland Revenue was taking 83 percent of his income!
“The Eagle Has Landed” continues to be cited as his best book. It concerns a German plot to kidnap Churchill. The book was made into a famous Hollywood movie, in which Michael Caine plays the role of the deep-down-good German commander.
