Jan Guillou

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Jan Guillou

Jan Oscar Sverre Lucien Henri Guillou (born January 17, 1944 in Södertälje ) is a Swedish journalist and novelist.

Jan Guillou became internationally known for his espionage thriller about the Swedish secret agent Count Carl Hamilton alias Coq Rouge.

Life

Jan Guillou has worked as a journalist for newspapers, magazines and television since 1966. His writing career began in the 1970s. To date, he has published over 30 books (including fiction, feature articles, and controversial books). He has also written plays and television plays.

In 1973 he and his colleague Peter Bratt published an article in the weekly magazine Folket i Bild - Kulturfront about illegal activities at the Swedish secret service Informationsbyrån , which, with the help of the Swedish Social Democrats, had compiled an extensive collection of data on politically active persons and organizations. For the publication in which he exposed the cooperation between neutral Sweden and the Americans, he was sentenced to ten months in prison for espionage , of which he served five months in solitary confinement. He was initially imprisoned in Långholmen Central Prison.

In 1975, one of his articles on the activities of the CIA resulted in two US diplomats leaving the country. Guillou's research attracted worldwide attention.

In 1981 the autobiographical boarding school novel Ondskan was published (German title: Evil. Das Böse ; translated by Gabriele Haefs ), in which Guillou processes his experiences in the Swedish boarding school Solbacka. The novel caused a sensation in Sweden.

In recent years, Guillou has increasingly moved away from contemporary topics and turned to the historical novel of the Middle Ages . His trilogy about the crusader Arn Magnusson takes place in the 12th century.

In 2000 Guillou, among others founded Liza Marklund the Piratförlaget (pirate publisher) in protest against the conditions of the authors at the Swedish major publishers.

Based on Ondskan , the film Evil by director Mikael Håfström was released in 2003 with Andreas Wilson in the lead role. Several films were made based on his Coq Rouge series, such as 1989 Coq Rouge and 1992 Per Berglund's Democratic Terrorist , both starring Stellan Skarsgård , and 2012 Agent Hamilton - In the Interest of the Nation by Kathrine Windfeld and Agent Hamilton 2 - In personal mission (Hamilton - Men inte om det gäller din dotter), both with the main actor Mikael Persbrandt .

In autumn 2009 the Swedish evening newspaper Expressen uncovered that Guillou had worked for the Soviet secret service KGB from 1967 to 1972 and had delivered reports to it for a fee. Guillou admitted these contacts and stated that his aim was to infiltrate the KGB for journalistic reasons. Before and after this time, Guillou was a member of various groups close to the Communist Party of Sweden. These revelations sowed doubts about the credibility and integrity of Guillou, who is a regular guest on talk shows and joins the public debate on political and social issues.

Awards

  • 1988 Swedish Crime Award (National) for: I nationens intresse . Norstedt, Stockholm 1988 (German: In the interests of the nation . Piper, Munich 1992)

Works

The Coq Rouge range

  1. Coq Rouge. Advisors om en svensk spy . 1986 (German: Coq Rouge )
  2. The democratic terrorist . 1987 (German: The Democratic Terrorist )
  3. I nation's interest . 1988 (German: In the interest of the nation )
  4. Fiendens fiende . 1989 (German: Feind des Feindes )
  5. The hedervärde mördaren . 1990 (German: The honorable murderer )
  6. Vendetta . 1991 (German: Company Vendetta )
  7. Ingen mans land . 1992 (German: No man's land )
  8. Sail the enda . 1993 (German: The only victory )
  9. I hennes majesty tjänst . 1994 (German: In the name of Her Majesty )
  10. En medborgare Höjd över varje misstanke . 1995 (German: Above all suspicion )
  11. Madame terror . 2006. Translation by Katrin Frey. (German: Madame Terror. Special order for Hamilton )
  12. Men inte om det gäller din yolk . 2008 (not yet translated.)

(all German editions at Piper , Munich)

The Götaland trilogy

  1. Vagen till Jerusalem . 1998 (German: Die Frauen von Götaland - new edition (2009): Der Kreuzritter - Aufbruch )
  2. Temple Riddars . 1999 (German: The penitent from Gudhem - new edition (2009): The Crusader - banishment )
  3. Riket vid vägens slut . 2000 (German: Die Krone von Götaland - new edition (2009): The Crusader - Returns )

Independent sequel to the Götaland trilogy

  • Arvet efter Arn . 2001 (German: Der Kreuzritter - Das Erbe ; 2010)

Series of novels about Polisintendent Eva Johnsén-Tanguy

  1. Tjuvarnas marknad . 2004
  2. Fienden inom oss . 2007
  3. Men inte om det gäller din yolk . 2008 (also a free-standing sequel to the Coq Rouge series)

Series of novels on the 20th century

  1. Brobyggarna . 2011 (German translation by Lotta Rüegger and Holger Wolandt: Die Brückenbauer . 2012)
  2. Dandy . 2012 (German: The Brothers . 2013)
  3. Mellan reddens and svart . 2013 (German: Die Heimkehrer . 2014)
  4. Att inte vilja se . 2014 (German: fateful years . 2015)
  5. Blå stjärnan . 2015 (German: Die Schwestern . 2017)
  6. Äkta amerikanska jeans . 2016 (German: Der Sohn . 2018)
  7. 1968 . 2017
  8. De som dödar drömmar sover aldrig . 2018

Other

  • Det stora avslöjandet . 1974, new edition 2004
  • Ondskan (German: Evil - Das Böse 2005) 1981
  • Häxornas försvarare: ett historiskt reportage . 2003

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Article on the film from the world

Web links

Commons : Jan Guillou  - album with pictures, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Guillou, Jan
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Guillou, Jan Oscar Sverre Lucien Henri (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish journalist and novelist
DATE OF BIRTH January 17, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Södertälje , Sweden