Henry Patterson is the real name of which author?

Henry Patterson (born 27 July 1929), known by his pen name Jack Higgins, is a British writer. He is one of the best-selling authors of popular thrillers and espionage novels. His breakthrough novel "The Eagle Has Landed" (1975) sold over 50 million copies and was adapted into a successful film by the same title.

Some of his other notable books are "A Prayer for the Dying" (1987), "The Eagle Has Flown" (1991), "Thunder Point" (1993), "Angel of Death" (1995), "Flight of Eagles" (1998), and "Day of Reckoning" (2000). His 85 novels in total have sold over 150 million copies and have been translated into 55 languages.

Higgins was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. When his father abandoned them soon after, his Irish mother returned with him to her home town of Belfast, Northern Ireland, to live with her mother and her grandfather on Shankill Road. Raised amid the religious and political violence of Belfast, Patterson learned to read at the age of three, when he was tasked with reading "The Christian Herald" to his bed-ridden grandfather. At night, he would crouch beneath a window and read by the light of the street lamps.