Colin Forbes was the main pen name of British novelist Raymond Harold Sawkins (1923-2006). Sawkins also used the pen names of Richard Raine, Jay Bernard and Harold English throughout his career. He is best known for his Tweed & Co. series, which consists of thriller novels, largely spy thrillers. Sawkins started out working as a sub-editor for a publishing company before serving with the British Army in North Africa and the Middle East during the Second World War. After coming back from the war, he worked for a publishing and print company and eventually transitioned into becoming a novelist on a full-time basis.
Raymond Harold Sawkins was born on July 14, 1923, in Hampstead, London, The United Kingdom. He began his career as a published author in the year 1966 with the publication of his debut novel titled "Snow on High Ground," which he wrote using his original name. He only published three of his first books under his own name. Sawkins went on to write over 40 books, mostly as Colin Forbes. He was most famous for his long-running series of thriller novels in which the principal character is Tweed, Deputy Director of the Secret Intelligence Service.
Sawkins was educated at The Lower School of John Lyon in Harrow, London. At the age of 16, he started work as a sub-editor with a magazine and book publishing company. He served with the British Army in North Africa and the Middle East during World War II. Before his demobilization, he was attached to the Army Newspaper Unit in Rome. On his return to civilian life, he joined a publishing and printing company, commuting to London for 20 years, until he became successful enough to be a full-time novelist. Sawkins was married to a Scots-Canadian, Jane Robertson (born 31 March 1925, died 1993). Together they had one daughter, Janet. He died of a heart attack on August 23, 2006.
Sawkins was often quoted as personally visiting every location he features in his books to aid the authenticity of the writing. As a result, there is detailed description of the places where the action in his books takes place. Fury (1995) was inspired by the courage of his wife before she died, and he set it apart from his other novels “because of the strong emotion and sense of loss that runs through it”. Just one of Forbes' novels was made into a film: Avalanche Express, directed by Mark Robson and starring Lee Marvin and Robert Shaw, which was released in 1979 to generally poor reviews.