History Creator / JackHiggins

* TheMovieOfTheBook: A few of his novels have been made into films, notably ''Film/TheWrathOfGod'' and ''Film/TheEagleHasLanded''.

* MacGuffin: Among them, a secret treaty signed by UsefulNotes/MaoZedong granting all of UsefulNotes/HongKong to Britain in perpetuity (in ''On Dangerous Ground'', published three years before the handover).

** Two British Prime Ministers, UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill and UsefulNotes/JohnMajor, are assassination targets in (respectively) ''The Eagle Has Landed'' and ''Eye of the Storm'' [[spoiler: (although Churchill doesn't actually appear in the former, as its [[TwistEnding revealed at the end]] that the "Churchill" the German commandos try to kill is actually a BodyDouble).]]

** Several British Prime Ministers, notably UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill and UsefulNotes/JohnMajor who are both assassination targets in (respectively) ''The Eagle Has Landed'' and ''Eye of the Storm'' [[spoiler: (although Churchill doesn't actually appear in the former, as it's [[TwistEnding revealed at the end]] that the "Churchill" the German commandos try to kill is actually a BodyDouble).]]

* Several British Prime Ministers, notably UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill and UsefulNotes/JohnMajor who are both assassination targets in (respectively) ''The Eagle Has Landed'' and ''Eye of the Storm'' [[spoiler: (although Churchill doesn't actually appear in the former, as it's [[TwistEnding revealed at the end]] that the "Churchill" the German commandos try to kill is actually a BodyDouble).]]

* UsefulNotes/TheTroubles: Forms the backdrop to several of his stories, such as ''A Prayer for the Dying'', ''Angel of Death'' and ''Drink with the Devil''. Two of his best-known protagonists, Sean Dillon and Liam Devlin, are ex-IRA men.

* {{Bookends}}: Some of his UsefulNotes/WorldWarII stories have these, usually involving an AuthorAvatar trying to find out what happened in the war and speaking to survivors. The most notable example is ''The Eagle Has Landed'' -- he first finds out about the story when he visits the village in the prologue, and after the story has been told he finds out about the TwistEnding in the epiologue.

** ''Wrath of the Lion'' (1964) concerns a last-ditch attempt by the OAS to take revenge on UsefulNotes/CharlesDeGaulle over [[UsefulNotes/TheFrenchColonialEmpire Algerian]] [[UsefulNotes/Algeria independence]]. Although in this one, they're using a submarine rather than a [[Literature/TheDayOfTheJackal paid assassin]].

* PenName: Originally, he wrote under his own name -- "Harry Patterson" -- although he also used the [[IHaveManyNames pen names]] "James Graham", "Martin Fallon" and "Hugh Marlowe". He started using "Jack Higgins" in the late 1960s, and the last novel for which he ''didn't'' use that name was ''To Catch a King'', which was published in 1979. A few of his earlier works have since been rewritten and republished under the name "Jack Higgins", in some cases with a different title (thus, ''Seven Pillars to Hell'' by Hugh Marlowe (1963) and ''Sheba'' by Jack Higgins (1994) are the same story, with some minor revisions).

* UsefulNotes/WorldWarII: The setting of quite a few of his stories -- ''The Eagle Has Landed'', ''The Valhalla Exchange'', ''Night of the Fox'', ''Luciano's Luck'' and ''Flight of Eagles'' to name but five. Some of his contemporary thrillers -- ''Thunder Point'', ''On Dangerous Ground'' -- have their prologues take place during this conflict, leaving a MacGuffin for the characters in the main plot to find.

* MoneyDearBoy: He moved to Jersey in the mid-1970s following the success of ''The Eagle Has Landed'' because, with the highest rate of income tax being ''83%'' [[note]] today, it's 45% [[/note]], he was advised that he had to become a tax exile if he wanted to hang onto ''any'' of the money he made from writing.
--> "I didn't really want to go. If the tax rates had been as they are now – or even at 50p in the pound – I'd have stayed in England. I had a good life there and I was happy; but I'd never had any real money and I wanted the security."

* UsefulNotes/TheTroubles: Forms the backdrop to several of his stories, such as ''A Prayer for the Dying'', ''Angel of Death'' and ''Drink with the Devil''. Two of his best-known protagonists, Sean Dillon and Liam Devlin, are ex-IRA men. A case of WriteWhatYouKnow, as Higgins spent part of his childhood in Belfast.
--> "We were very poor and there was great tension between the Catholics and the Protestants. As a Protestant, I'd get beaten up by Catholics ... Strangely, though, these experiences made me less rather more than sectarian. I came to see both religions as morally compromised and oppressed, and have written that ambiguity into two of my main characters. Many Catholics even assume I must be Catholic from the way I write."

Henry (Harry) Patterson (born 27 July 1929), better known by his pen-name '''Jack Higgins''', is a British [[note]] English father, Northern Irish mother [[/note]] author, best known for writing thrillers and espionage novels. His most famous work is probably ''The Eagle Has Landed'' (1975) which was made into [[Film/TheEagleHasLanded a movie]] in 1976. He has written 85 novels which have sold more than 150 million copies.

* UsefulNotes/TheTroubles: Forms the backdrop to several of his stories, such as ''A Prayer for the Dying'', ''Angel of Death'' and ''Drink with the Devil''. Two of his best-known protagonists, Sean Dillon and Liam Devlin, are ex-IRA men.

* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: A given, since several of his characters are sympathetically-portrayed IRA men whose loyalties are rather fluid. Liam Devlin, the joint protagonist of ''The Eagle Has Landed'', is such an example, as is Sean Dillon, who is first seen orchestrating an attack on Downing Street in ''Eye of the Storm'' but who is later blackmailed into working for British intelligence. In a couple of novels, Devlin is shown to have been Dillon's [[MasterApprenticeChain mentor]].

Henry Patterson (born 27 July 1929), better known by his pen-name '''Jack Higgins''', is a British [[note]] English father, Northern Irish mother [[/note]] author, best known for writing thrillers and espionage novels. His most famous work is probably ''The Eagle Has Landed'' (1975) which was made into [[Film/TheEagleHasLanded a movie]] in 1976. He has written 85 novels which have sold more than 150 million copies.

* TheChessmaster: Quite a few characters are this, most notably Brigadiers Munro and Ferguson.

** UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler is a minor character in several of the UsefulNotes/WorldWarII stories, like ''The Eagle Has Landed'' and ''Sheba''.

** The [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfWindsor Duke of Windsor (formerly Edward VIII)]] is targetted by German intelligence (in the form of real-life SS officer Walter Schellenberg) in ''To Catch A King''.

* PenName: Originally, he wrote under his own name -- "Harry Patterson" -- although he also used the pen names "James Graham", "Martin Fallon" and "Hugh Marlowe". He started using "Jack Higgins" in the late 1960s, and the last novel for which he ''didn't'' use that name was ''To Catch a King'', which was published in 1979. A few of his earlier works have since been rewritten and republished under the name "Jack Higgins", in some cases with a different title (thus, ''Seven Pillars to Hell'' by Hugh Marlowe (1963) and ''Sheba'' by Jack Higgins (1994) are the same story, with some minor revisions).

* YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters: A given, since several of his characters are sympathetically-portrayed IRA men whose loyalties are rather fluid. Liam Devlin, the joint protagonist of ''The Eagle Has Landed'', is such an example, as is Sean Dillon, who is first seen orchestrating an attack on Downing Street in ''Eye of the Storm'' but who is later blackmailed into working for British intelligence. In later novels, Devlin is shown to have been Dillon's [[MasterApprenticeChain mentor]].

* PenName: Originally, he wrote under his own name -- "Harry Patterson" -- although he also uses the pen names "James Graham", "Martin Fallon" and "Hugh Marlowe". He started using "Jack Higgins" in the late 1960s, and the last novel for which he ''didn't'' use that name was ''To Catch a King'', which was published in 1979. A few of his earlier works have since been rewritten and republished under the name "Jack Higgins", in some cases with a different title (thus, ''Seven Pillars to Hell'' by Hugh Marlowe (1963) and ''Sheba'' by Jack Higgins (1994) the same story, with some minor revisions).

* Several British Prime Ministers, notably UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill and UsefulNotes/JohnMajor who are both assassination targets in (respectively) ''The Eagle Has Landed'' and ''Eye of the Storm'' [[spoiler: (although Churchill doesn't actually appear in the former, as it's [[TwistEnding revealed at the end]]) that the "Churchill" the German commandos try to kill is actually a BodyDouble).]]

* MacGuffin: Among them, a secret treaty signed by Mao granting Hong Kong to Britain in perpetuity (in ''On Dangerous Ground'', published three years before the handover).

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Oh yes indeed -- several British Prime Ministers and US Presidents make appearances in his books.

** ''The Valhalla Exchange'' is based on the premise that Martin Bormann escaped from Berlin after Hitler's suicide; so too is ''Thunder Point''.

** Edward VIII is targetted by German intelligence (in the form of real-life SS officer Walter Schellenberg) in ''To Catch A King''.

* TheMovieOfTheBook: Several of his novels have been made into films, notably ''Film/TheWrathOfGod'' and ''Film/TheEagleHasLanded''.

Henry Patterson (born 27 July 1929), better known by his pen-name '''Jack Higgins''', is a British [[note]] English father, Northern Irish mother [[/note]] author, best known for writing thrillers and espionage novels. His most famous work is probably ''The Eagle Has Landed'' (1975) which was made into [[Film/TheEagleHasLanded a movie]] in 1976. As of 2020, he has written 85 novels which have sold more than 150 million copies.

* UsefulNotes/WorldWarII: The setting of quite a few of his stories -- ''The Eagle Has Landed'', ''The Valhalla Exchange'', ''Night of the Fox'', ''Luciano's Luck'' and ''Flight of Eagles'' to name but five. Some of his contemporary thrillers -- ''Thunder Point'', ''On Dangerous Ground'' have their prologues take place during this conflict, leaving a MacGuffin for the characters in the main plot to find.

* TheChessmaster: A couple of his spymasters are this. Brigadier Munro and Brigadier Ferguson are British intelligence chiefs who operate independently of [=MI5=] and [=MI6=], reporting directly to the Prime Minister -- Munro in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, Ferguson in the contemporary (1990s) thrillers.

** The Queen herself appears in the prologue of ''Exocet''.

* RippedFromTheHeadlines: Several examples...

* UsefulNotes/WorldWarII: The setting of quite a few of his stories -- ''The Eagle Has Landed'', ''The Valhalla Exchange'', ''Night of the Fox'', ''Luciano's Luck'' and ''Flight of Eagles'' to name but five. Some of his contemporary thrillers -- ''Thunder Point'', ''On Dangerous Ground'' have their prologues take place during this conflict, leaving a MacGuffin for the characters in the main plot to find.

** ''Eye of the Storm'' (1992) is a fictionalised account of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downing_Street_mortar_attack 1991 mortar attack on Downing Street]].

** ''Eye of the Storm'' (1992) is a fictionalised account of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downing_Street_mortar_attack 1991 mortar attack on Downing Street]].
* SequelGap: 15 years passed between the publication of ''The Eagle Has Landed'' (1975) and the publication of its sequel, ''The Eagle Has Flown'' (1990).

** ''Eye of the Storm'' (1992) is a fictionalised account of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downing_Street_mortar_attack 1991 mortar attack on Downing Street]].

** The Queen herself appears in the prologue of ''Exocet''.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Oh yes indeed -- several British Prime Ministers and US Presidents make appearances in his books. Of particular note is Edward VIII, who is targetted by German intelligence (in the form of real-life SS officer Walter Schellenberg) in ''To Catch A King''.