YEREVAN, AUGUST 31, ARMENPRESS. The disclosure comes with the publication of the author's autobiography The Outsider: My Life.

Fans have long suspected that Forsyth, 77, acclaimed for his highly realistic spy novels, may have been involved with British intelligence. “Armenpress” reports, referring to “BBc News” that he told the BBC it started when he was asked to send information from the Biafran War in Nigeria.

He said he was approached by an intelligence officer who asked him to "tell us what's going on" during the civil war, which lasted from 1967 to 1970.

A former BBC and Reuters journalist, many of his fictional plots drew on his real-life experiences covering stories around the world.

Despite becoming an established author with the success of 1971's The Day of the Jackal - which earned Forsyth a three-book publishing deal and led to a hit film - he undertook missions to Rhodesia, South Africa and, at the height of the Cold War, East Germany.

As a kind of pay-off for his services, he said MI6 did approve passages from some of his later novels.

Forsyth said he was given a number to ring. He was told: "Send us the pages and we will vet them, and if they are too sensitive, we will ask you not to continue."

"But usually the response was: 'OK, Freddie!'"

Forsyth has sold some 70 million books, many of which have been adapted into films. His most recent novel was 2013's The Kill List.

He was awarded a CBE in 1997.

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