Gerard de villiers sas 170 series#
They were also known for being completely on track with contemporary events and presenting a lot of intriguing characters inspired by real-life people that de Villiers met on his travels.ĭuring his career, the author of SAS series invested a lot into building relations with highly-ranked intelligence officers of different countries. The first book, as well as all that followed, offered a lot of high-passed action and quite explicit scenes of sex and violence. In 1965, the first novel of the series, SAS in Istanbul, was published in 1965. Prince Malko Linge was an Austrian Prince and a freelance CIA operative, created as a composite of three different characters - former French Intelligence Agency chief officer who de Villiers strongly admired, a German baron who had his own castle and an Austrian arms dealer. stands for Son Altesse Sérénissime (His Serene Highness). The French took his advice and created Prince Malko Linge, who will become a hero of a total of 200 novels in his S.A.S. When the famous author of James Bond spy novels Ian Fleming died in 1964, de Villiers was taunted by his editor to take over. In his spare time, de Villiers worked on a detective novel. He enjoyed spells with France Dimanche, Paris-Presse, France-Soir and Paris Match, where he would write about various different stuff, from reporting about Vietnam war all the way to the stories of Hollywood celebrities on vacation on the French Riviera. After serving in the military, de Villiers decided to look for a job as a journalist.