Frederick Forsyth was a journalist and diplomatic correspondent who frequently wrote newspaper articles about the Cold War; he had a brilliant understanding of the politics and events surrounding the war.

In 1961, he was posted behind the Iron Curtain to East Berlin as a correspondent for the Reuters news agency. It gave him first-hand experience of life under Communism and the Stasi regime. For him, it was an isolated existence, because he was not allowed to mix with East Berliners, in case he influenced them with Western ideas of democracy and Capitalism. He always had to be careful what he said in public and private, because he could risk being arrested by Stasi secret police as a suspected Western spy.

In 1965, he went to work for the BBC as a reporter. Later, he turned his hand to spy novels, all of which have become bestsellers, and some of which, e.g. The Odessa File and The Day of the Jackal, have been turned into Hollywood blockbusters.