Gerard de Villiers, prolific spy novelist dies at 83

Gerard de Villiers, the prolific French espionage writer who took top secrets and turned them into raunchy pop fiction aligned with Ian Fleming’s James Bonds series, has died in Paris. He was 83.

French spy writer Gerard de Villiers © AFP

He authored the top-selling Son Altesse Sérénissime (SAS) – or His Serene Highness – series, turning out four to five books a year, including the 200th book last month.

Sidelined by the critics and the French literati, de Villiers still sold more than 100 million copies worldwide, according to his publishers.

But he was not only a tireless author. An article in Liberation published after his death Friday etched him out to be a hardline extreme, chauvinist, racist and sexist.

Nevertheless, de Villiers was a go-to for global secrets and he counted on an expansive network of intelligence officials for information that gave his fast-moving plots a prescient, if not very real tone.

Even diplomats, military personnel and journalists would buy his books before setting foot in a new place – de Villers might have sparked the ire of many, but he knew his subjects well.

His books will be printed by Radom House in the U.S. and Canada at the start of 2014.