57-622: Kenneth Martin Follett (born 5 June 1949) is a Welsh author of thrillers and historical novels who has sold more than 160 million copies of his works. Follett's commercial breakthrough came with the spy thriller Eye of the Needle (1978). After writing more best-sellers in the genre in the 1980s, he branched into historical fiction with The Pillars of the Earth (1989), an epic set in medieval England which became his best-known work and
114-453: A cat and mouse , with Dieter making it more and more personal to capture Flick. Flick, on the other hand, doesn’t know how much Dieter has been able to deduce about her team. Flick and her team travel from their drop to Paris and then on to Reims . Photos of Flick are on posters everywhere. Diana and Maude are captured in a fancy restaurant. Back in London, Paul has deduced that Helicopter
171-493: A moral and a surprise ending . Jackdaws (novel) Jackdaws is a World War II spy thriller written by British novelist Ken Follett . It was published in hardcover format in 2001 by Dutton Books , then reissued as a paperback book by Signet Books in 2002. An audiobook narrated by Kate Reading was released in August 2002. A week or so before D-Day , a group of French resistance fighters tries to take out
228-558: A best-seller, ranking high on the New York Times Best Seller list ; a number have been adapted for the screen. As of January 2018, he had published 44 books. The first five best sellers were spy thrillers: Eye of the Needle (1978), Triple (1979), The Key to Rebecca (1980), The Man from St. Petersburg (1982) and Lie Down with Lions (1986). On Wings of Eagles (1983) was the true story of how two of Ross Perot 's employees were rescued from Iran during
285-404: A case of mistaken identity or wrongful accusation. Thrillers take place mostly in ordinary suburbs and cities, although sometimes they may take place wholly or partly in exotic settings such as foreign cities, deserts , polar regions, or the high seas . These usually tough, resourceful, but essentially ordinary heroes are pitted against villains determined to destroy them, their country, or
342-485: A century. It commences at a time when Europe turns against Elizabethan England , and the queen finds herself beset by plots to dethrone her. A fourth novel, The Evening and the Morning (2020), is a prequel to The Pillars of the Earth . Set in the decade around 1000 AD – in the so-called Dark Ages – the story "concerns the gradual creation of the town of Kingsbridge and of the many people – priests, nobles, peasants,
399-552: A critical telephone exchange in Sainte-Cécile. Felicity, who goes by Flick, is the group leader. The attack is a disaster, with many of the fighters killed or captured. Flick escapes with her wounded husband Michel, who is a resistance leader and is having an affair with a younger lady. Dieter Franck is a German Army officer working for Field Marshall Erwin Rommel. Rommel is on the coast, preparing for an invasion attempt by
456-516: A distinct style in the 1800s and early 1900s with novels like The Count of Monte Cristo (1848) and The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915). The films of Alfred Hitchcock are critical in the development of the thriller film during the mid-20th century. Some popular 21st-century mainstream examples include: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo , Gone Girl , The Girl on the Train , The Woman in
513-407: A friend of Flick’s brother and a female impersonator who is a telephone exchange expert. Training follows. Diana and Maude develop a lesbian relationship. Denise is kicked off the team, because she talks too much. Paul is an American on the staff of General Montgomery and falls for Flick. In France, Dieter tries to infiltrate the resistance groups. He gets Mademoiselle Lemas to reveal how she
570-429: A hobby. Later, he said, he began writing books when he needed £200 to fix his car, and the publishers' advance a fellow journalist had been paid for a thriller was £200. Success came gradually at first, but the 1978 publication of Eye of the Needle , which became an international bestseller and sold over 10 million copies, made him both wealthy and internationally famous. Each of Follett's subsequent novels has become
627-537: A merchant in The Pillars of the Earth . In 2016, A Dangerous Fortune was also adapted. Pillars of the Earth and A Column of Fire have both been adapted into Danish-language musicals. Pillars of the Earth had its world premiere October 12, 2016 at Østre Gasværk Teater , Copenhagen . A Column of Fire had its world premiere in 2019 at Bellevue Teatret , Klampenborg . Both of the musicals were written by Thomas Høg, Lasse Aagaard, and Sune Svanekier. Follett
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#1732780833107684-471: A new plan, using a team of women dressed as cleaning women to enter the building in Sainte-Cécile and destroy the exchange. She recruits a six-woman team: Denise, a Lady; Maude, a driver for FANY who exaggerates the truth; Diana, daughter of the Baron where Flick’s mom is a servant and Flick grew up, who is a crack shoot; Ruby, who is in prison and killed another prisoner; Jelly, an explosives expert; and Greta,
741-713: A prominent Blairite . During university, Follett rebelled against his parents' "puritanical faith" and became an atheist. As of 2022, he is "still an atheist, but I do have a spiritual life". He is an amateur musician playing bass guitar for Damn Right I Got the Blues, and appears occasionally with the folk group Clog Iron playing a bass balalaika . Follett now lives in Hertfordshire , England. Apples Carstairs series (as Simon Myles) Piers Roper series Kingsbridge series The Century Trilogy Standalone novels Non-fiction Thriller (genre) Thriller
798-502: A rebuilt Hornet Moth biplane with vital information about German radar. Whiteout (2004) is a contemporary thriller about the theft of a deadly virus from a research lab. Follett surprised his readers with his first non-spy thriller, The Pillars of the Earth (1989), a novel about building a cathedral in a small English village during the Anarchy in the 12th century. The novel was highly successful, received positive reviews and
855-444: A story keeps the person hooked to reading or watching more until the climax is reached. In terms of narrative expectations, it may be contrasted with curiosity and surprise . The objective is to deliver a story with sustained tension, surprise, and a constant sense of impending doom. As described by film director Alfred Hitchcock, an audience experiences suspense when they expect something bad to happen and have (or believe they have)
912-437: A superior perspective on events in the drama's hierarchy of knowledge, yet they are powerless to intervene to prevent it from happening. Suspense in thrillers is often intertwined with hope and anxiety, which are treated as two emotions aroused in anticipation of the conclusion - the hope that things will turn out all right for the appropriate characters in the story, and the fear that they may not. The second type of suspense
969-629: A trainee reporter in Cardiff on the South Wales Echo . In 1973 a daughter, Marie-Claire, was born. After three years in Cardiff, he returned to London as a general-assignment reporter for the Evening News . Finding the work unchallenging, he eventually left journalism for publishing and became, by the late 1970s, deputy managing director of the small London publisher Everest Books. He began writing fiction during evenings and weekends as
1026-404: Is a genre of fiction with numerous, often overlapping, subgenres, including crime , horror , and detective fiction . Thrillers are characterized and defined by the moods they elicit, giving their audiences heightened feelings of suspense , excitement , surprise , anticipation and anxiety . This genre is well suited to film and television . A thriller generally keeps its audience on
1083-617: Is a member of various organisations that promote literacy and writing, and is actively involved in various organisations in his home town of Stevenage . He is active in numerous Stevenage charities and was a governor of Roebuck Primary School for ten years, serving as the Chair of Governors for four of those years. On 15 September 2010, Follett, along with 54 other public figures, signed an open letter published in The Guardian stating their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI 's state visit to
1140-416: Is contacted by resistance fighters. Dieter’s French girlfriend Stephanie assumes the role of Mademoiselle Lemas and is able to convince Helicopter, a new radio operator, that she and Dieter are part of the resistance. Flick senses something wrong at their original drop site, so she and her team parachute into France at an alternate location. This thwarts Dieter’s first attempt to capture Flick. It becomes
1197-399: Is one of the genre's most enduring characteristics. But what gives the variety of thrillers a common ground is the intensity of emotions they create, particularly those of apprehension and exhilaration, of excitement and breathlessness, all designed to generate that all-important thrill. By definition, if a thriller doesn't thrill, it's not doing its job. Suspense is a crucial characteristic of
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#17327808331071254-490: Is regarded as a groundbreaking psychological thriller , introducing innovative suspense-enhancing audiovisual techniques that have become standard and ubiquitous ever since. Gilles (1936) is an early example of a political thriller , and in one of the book's subplots the protagonist Gilles Gambier finds himself embroiled in an left-wing assassination plot against the Prime Minister. The plot falls apart due to
1311-485: Is set against a problem . No matter what subgenre a thriller film falls into, it will emphasize the danger that the protagonist faces. The protagonists are frequently ordinary citizens unaccustomed to danger, although commonly in crime and action thrillers, they may also be "hard men" accustomed to danger such as police officers and detectives. While protagonists of thrillers have traditionally been men, women lead characters are increasingly common. In psychological thrillers,
1368-437: Is the "...anticipation wherein we either know or else are fairly certain about what is going to happen but are still aroused in anticipation of its actual occurrence." According to Greek philosopher Aristotle in his book Poetics , suspense is an important building block of literature, and this is an important convention in the thriller genre. Thriller music has been shown to create distrust and ominous uncertainty between
1425-687: The Mahābhārata may have used similar narrative techniques to modern thrillers. The Three Apples , a tale in the One Thousand and One Nights ( Arabian Nights ), is a murder mystery with multiple plot twists and detective fiction elements. In this tale, a fisherman discovers a heavy, locked chest on the banks of the Tigris river and sells it to the Abbasid Caliph , Harun al-Rashid , who has it broken open - only to discover inside it
1482-521: The Allies , and sent Dieter into France to gauge the strength of the French resistance. Dieter, an expert interrogator , witnessed the attack, seeing trained, brave fighters with plenty of weapons. Under interrogation, he forces one of the captured prisoners to tell him about Michel and Mademoiselle Lemas, who is the contact for Allied agents entering France. Flick heads back to London , where she develops
1539-414: The dismembered body of a young woman. Harun then orders his vizier , Ja'far ibn Yahya , to solve the crime and find the murderer within three days. This whodunit mystery has also been considered a detective story, though it lacks a sleuth . The Count of Monte Cristo (1844) is a swashbuckling revenge thriller about a man named Edmond Dantès who is betrayed by his friends and sent to languish in
1596-450: The "edge of their seats" as the plot builds towards a climax . The cover-up of important information is a common element. Literary devices such as red herrings , plot twists , unreliable narrators , and cliffhangers are used extensively. A thriller is often a villain -driven plot, whereby they present obstacles that the protagonist or hero must overcome. Roots of the genre date back hundreds of years, but it began to develop as
1653-596: The U.S. in the 1960s and one made in the UK in the 1970s. Although in no way linked, both series consisted of one-off dramas, each utilising the familiar motifs of the genre. The Twilight Zone consists of suspenseful unrelated dramas depicting characters dealing with paranormal , futuristic , supernatural , or otherwise disturbing or unusual events. Characters who find themselves dealing with these strange, sometimes inexplicable happenings are said to have crossed over into "The Twilight Zone". Each story typically features
1710-657: The UK. He has also donated £25,000 to the Yvette Cooper campaign in the 2015 Labour Party (UK) leadership election , as well as another £25,000 from his wife Barbara Follett . Follett's archival papers are housed at the Saginaw Valley State University in Michigan, United States. They include outlines, first drafts, notes and correspondence, original manuscripts, and copies of early books now out of print. Follett became involved, during
1767-759: The Williams Family, Welsh coal miners, of which several viewpoint characters end up as Members of the British Parliament and one of them becomes a cabinet minister in Clement Attlee 's post-WWII Labour government. However, the theme of British politics is nearly absent from the third part Edge of Eternity , which concentrates on the Cold War on the one hand and the US Civil Rights Movement on the other; for example, though
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1824-570: The Window , and the British television series Utopia . Writer Vladimir Nabokov , in his lectures at Cornell University , said: In an Anglo-Saxon thriller, the villain is generally punished, and the strong silent man generally wins the weak babbling girl, but there is no governmental law in Western countries to ban a story that does not comply with a fond tradition, so that we always hope that
1881-715: The World and Edge of Eternity , make up the Century Trilogy. Fall of Giants (2010) followed the fates of five interrelated families – American, German, Russian, English and Welsh – as they moved through the world-shaking dramas of the First World War , the Russian Revolution and the struggle for women's suffrage . Fall of Giants , published simultaneously in 14 countries, was internationally popular and topped several best-seller lists. Winter of
1938-590: The World (2012) picks up where the first book left off, as its five interrelated families enter a time of enormous social, political, and economic turmoil, beginning with the rise of Nazi Germany , through the Spanish Civil War and the great dramas of World War II, to the explosions of the American and Soviet atom bombs and the beginning of the long Cold War. The final novel in the 'Century' trilogy, Edge of Eternity , which follows those families through
1995-437: The basement. Flick and her team (minus Ruby, who was captured) manage to destroy the telephone exchange, but Greta is killed in the explosion. Dieter has managed to capture Michel and his young girlfriend, and has Michel reveal the pickup location for Flick’s team. While Dieter waits for the plane, Michel is able to sound a car horn, alerting Flick of the danger. Dieter kills Michel and his girlfriend, but Flick stabs Dieter in
2052-400: The character(s) is placed in a dangerous situation, or a trap from which escaping seems impossible. Life is threatened, usually because the principal character is unsuspectingly or unknowingly involved in a dangerous or potentially deadly situation. Hitchcock's films often placed an innocent victim (an average, responsible person) into a strange, life-threatening or terrorizing situation, in
2109-575: The descendants of the characters in Pillars . It focuses on the destinies of a handful of people as their lives are devastated by the Black Death , the plague that swept Europe from the middle of the 14th century. The next novel in the series, A Column of Fire , was published in September 2017. Beginning in 1558, the story follows the romance between Ned Willard and Margery Fitzgerald over half
2166-709: The enslaved – who played significant roles". As such, the book provides "a solid underpinning to the later installments of the Kingsbridge series". A fifth novel, The Armour of Light , was released in September 2023. The novel is set to open in 1792, around the beginning of the Industrial Revolution . The series has been described as being "as comprehensive an account of the building of a civilization – with its laws, structures, customs and beliefs – as you are likely to encounter anywhere in popular fiction". Follett's novels, Fall of Giants , Winter of
2223-495: The events of the second half of the 20th century, was published on 16 September 2014. Like the previous two books, it chronicles the lives of five families through the Cold War and civil-rights movements. A major element of the first two volumes, Fall of Giants and Winter of the World , is the increasing political assertiveness of the British working class and the rise of the British Labour Party – exemplified by
2280-864: The first published in the Kingsbridge series. He has continued to write in both genres, including the Century Trilogy . Many of his books have achieved high ranking on bestseller lists, including the number-one position on the New York Times Best Seller list . Follett was born on 5 June 1949 in Cardiff , Wales. He was the first child of Martin Follett, a tax inspector, and Lavinia (Veenie) Follett, who went on to have two more children, Hannah and James. Barred from watching films and television by his Plymouth Brethren parents, he developed an early interest in reading but remained an indifferent student until he entered his teens. His family moved to London when he
2337-552: The ineptness of the conspirators, and Gilles ends with the protaganist leaving to fight in the Spanish civil war . The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1963) by John le Carré is set in the world of Cold War espionage and helped to usher in an era of thriller fiction based around professional spies and the battle of wits between rival spymasters. There have been at least two television series called simply Thriller , one made in
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2394-436: The late 1970s, in the activities of Britain's Labour Party . In the course of his political activities, he met Barbara Broer , a Labour Party official, who became his second wife in 1984. She was elected as a Member of Parliament in 1997, representing Stevenage. She was re-elected in both 2001 and 2005, but did not stand in the 2010 general election. Follett himself remains a prominent Labour supporter and fundraiser as well as
2451-522: The notorious Château d'If . His only companion is an old man who teaches him everything from philosophy to mathematics to swordplay . Just before the old man dies, he reveals to Dantès the secret location of a great treasure . Shortly after, Dantès engineers a daring escape and uses the treasure to reinvent himself as the Count of Monte Cristo. Thirsting for vengeance , he sets out to punish those who destroyed his life. The first recognizable modern thriller
2508-422: The novel continues until 1989, it makes no reference at all to the rise of Margaret Thatcher in 1979. Follett has had a number of novels made into films and television mini series: Eye of the Needle was made into an acclaimed film , starring Donald Sutherland, and six novels have been made into television mini-series: The Key to Rebecca , Lie Down with Lions , On Wings of Eagles (1986), The Third Twin –
2565-492: The protagonists are reliant on their mental resources, whether it be by battling wits with the antagonist or by battling for equilibrium in the character's own mind. The suspense often comes from two or more characters preying upon one another's minds, either by playing deceptive games with the other or by merely trying to demolish the other's mental state. An atmosphere of menace and sudden violence, such as crime and murder, characterize thrillers. The tension usually arises when
2622-524: The revolution of 1979. The next three novels, Night Over Water (1991), A Dangerous Fortune (1993) and A Place Called Freedom (1995) were more historical than thriller, but he returned to the thriller genre with The Third Twin (1996) which in the Publishing Trends annual survey of international fiction best-sellers for 1997 was ranked no. 2 worldwide, after John Grisham 's The Partner . His next work, The Hammer of Eden (1998),
2679-482: The rights for which were sold to CBS for $ US1,400,000, a record price at the time – and The Pillars of the Earth (2010) and World Without End (2012). A video game adaptation titled Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth , developed and published by German studio Daedalic Entertainment, was released in three parts from 2017 to 2018. Follett had cameo roles as the valet in The Third Twin and later as
2736-496: The run), menaced women, psychotic individuals, spree killers , sociopaths , agents , terrorists, police , escaped convicts , private eyes , people involved in twisted relationships, world-weary men and women, psycho-fiends, and more. The themes frequently include terrorism, political conspiracy , pursuit, or romantic triangles leading to murder. Plots of thrillers involve characters which come into conflict with each other or with outside forces. The protagonist of these films
2793-609: The stability of the Free World (especially if it is set during the Cold War ). Often in a thriller movie, the protagonist is faced with what seem to be insurmountable problems in his mission, carried out against a ticking clock, the stakes are high and although resourceful, they face personal dilemmas along the way forcing them to make sacrifices for others. Ancient epic poems such as the Epic of Gilgamesh , Homer's Odyssey and
2850-420: The thriller genre. It gives the viewer a feeling of pleasurable fascination and excitement mixed with apprehension, anticipation, and tension. These develop from unpredictable, mysterious, and rousing events during the narrative, which makes the viewer or reader think about the outcome of certain actions. Suspense builds in order to make those final moments, no matter how short, the most memorable. The suspense in
2907-976: The viewer of a film and the character on screen at the time when the music is playing. Common methods and themes in crime and action thrillers are ransoms , captivities , heists , revenge , and kidnappings . Common in mystery thrillers are investigations and the whodunit technique. Common elements in dramatic and psychological thrillers include plot twists , psychology , obsession and mind games . Common elements of science-fiction thrillers are killing robots, machines or aliens, mad scientists and experiments. Common in horror thrillers are serial killers , stalking , deathtraps and horror-of-personality . Elements such as fringe theories , false accusations and paranoia are common in paranoid thrillers . Threats to entire countries, spies, espionage, conspiracies, assassins and electronic surveillance are common in spy thrillers . Characters may include criminals, stalkers , assassins , innocent victims (often on
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#17327808331072964-701: The wicked but romantic fellow will escape scot-free and the good but dull chap will be finally snubbed by the moody heroine. Thrillers may be defined by the primary mood that they elicit: suspenseful excitement. In short, if it "thrills", it is a thriller. As the introduction to a major anthology says: ...Thrillers provide such a rich literary feast. There are all kinds. The legal thriller, spy thriller, action-adventure thriller, medical thriller, police thriller, romantic thriller, historical thriller, political thriller, religious thriller, high-tech thriller, military thriller. The list goes on and on, with new variations constantly being invented. In fact, this openness to expansion
3021-466: Was Erskine Childers ' The Riddle of the Sands (1903), in which two young Englishmen stumble upon a secret German armada preparing to invade their homeland. The Thirty-Nine Steps (1915) is an early detective thriller by John Buchan , in which an innocent man becomes the prime suspect in a murder case and finds himself on the run from both the police and enemy spies. Fritz Lang 's M (1931)
3078-598: Was another contemporary suspense story followed by a Cold War thriller, Code to Zero (2000). Follett returned to the Second World War era with his next two novels, Jackdaws (2001), a thriller about a group of women parachuted into France to destroy a vital telephone exchange – which won the Corine Literature Prize for 2003 – and Hornet Flight (2002), about a daring young Danish couple who escape to Britain from occupied Denmark in
3135-418: Was captured and that Flick may be in trouble, so he flies into France and makes his way to Mademoiselle Lemas place, where he is captured. Flick leads her team to Mademoiselle Lemas’s house, looking for a place to hide. She finds Paul’s toothbrush outside (he purposely dropped it there) and senses a problem. Flick and her team kill the two Gestapo officers inside the house, kill Stephanie and find Paul alive in
3192-568: Was on The New York Times Best Seller list for eighteen weeks. It topped best-seller lists in Canada, Britain and Italy, and was on the German best-seller list for six years. As of 2017 it has sold 26 million copies. On 16 August 2017, a published as a computer game adaptation by German developer and publisher Daedalic Entertainment was released. Its much-later sequel, World Without End (2007), returns to Kingsbridge 157 years later, and features
3249-457: Was ten years old, and he began applying himself to his studies at Harrow Weald Grammar School and Poole Technical College. He won admission in 1967 to University College London , where he studied philosophy and became involved in centre-left politics. He married Mary, in 1968, and their son Emanuele was born in the same year. After graduation in the autumn of 1970, Follett took a three-month post-graduate course in journalism and went to work as
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