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Gérard de Villiers (; 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. Bringing de Villiers and his hero Malko Linge to English-speaking readers, Vintage Books published ''The Madmen of Benghazi '' and ''Chaos in Kabul'' in 2014, ''Revenge of the Kremlin'' in 2015, and plans to publish "Lord of the Swallows" and "Surface to Air" in 2016. All were translated by veteran literary translator William Rodarmor. ==Life== Villiers was the son of Jacques Adam de Villiers and a graduate of Sciences Po Paris, France's most reputed and highly selective Political Science university, as well as the ESJ Paris (Superior School of Journalism in Paris). After working as a foreign correspondent until 1965, he started writing spy novels. He is the author of the spy novel series ''SAS'', beginning in 1965, which tells the adventures of the Austrian prince and CIA agent Malko Linge. The title ''SAS'' is a play on initials and acronyms: ''Son Altesse sérénissime'' (SAS) is the French version of "His Serene Highness" (HSH). In addition, the British Special Air Service (SAS) is the principal special forces unit of the British Army. Villiers has written 200 novels of the franchise,〔(Publisher's web site ), accessed 2 November 2013〕 selling more than 120 million books. They are popular in Germany, Russia, Turkey and Japan, as well as in France. He published four titles per year between 1966 and 2005, and five per year between 2006 and 2013.〔〔 Usually the locale of the story is featured in the title (as in, ''Les amazones de Pyongyang or ''Putsch à Ouagadougou''). Villiers was well known for writing novels in tune with contemporary events, such as wars or terrorist threats. He frequently visited theatres of operation, doing research and interviews to ground his stories with accurate facts.〔(Hugh Schofield, "Get out of Afghanistan: France's million-selling spy writer" ), ''Sunday Times Online'', Sri Lanka, 7 October 2007, accessed 4 July 2011〕 Each book was typically researched 15 days on location and then written in 15 additional days. His mastery of political intrigue sometimes led him to publish books that anticipated crisis events. These included portrayals of the assassinations of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Due to tips from spies, he was nearly finished writing ''SAS: The Hunt for Carlos'' when the freelance assassin was captured.〔(Alan Riding, "France's James Bond Gets the Scoop on the Hunt for Carlos" ), ''New York Times'', 18 September 1994, accessed 4 July 2011〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Gérard de Villiers」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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