Best-selling writer Frederick Forsyth - best known for The Day of the Jackal - has revealed he was an agent for the secret intelligence service MI6 for more than 20 years.
In extracts from his autobiography, 77-year-old Forsyth says he helped the spy agency in East Germany, Rhodesia and South Africa, and that the late Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once thanked him for his services.
"She indicated that she knew I'd done something, and I remember her sort of high-pitched voice, 'Well done, Freddy.' Thank you, Prime Minister."
He began his spying career in the late 1960s in Nigeria while also working as a journalist.
In return for his missions, Forsyth says members of MI6 helped him with research for his books.
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