Gordon Thomas

Gordon Thomas (21 February 1933 – 3 March 2017) was a British investigative journalist and author, notably on topics of secret intelligence. Thomas was the author of 53 books published worldwide including The Pope's Jews, Secret Wars, and Gideon's Spies, with sales exceeding 45 million copies. Thomas got the scoop on the nationalisation of the Suez Canal for the Daily Express in 1956. He was a cousin of the poet Dylan Thomas. He was a foreign correspondent beginning with the Suez Crisis and ending with the first Gulf War. He was a BBC writer/producer for three flagship BBC programmes: Man Alive, Tomorrow's World and Horizon.

In 1998 he wrote and narrated a major documentary for Channel 4: The Spy Machine. It followed three years of research during which he was given access to Mossad's main personnel. The documentary was co-produced by Open Media and Israfilm. Two years later Thomas wrote Gideon's Spies: Mossad's Secret Warriors. As Thomas's "Notes on Sources" afterword to Gideon's Spies makes clear, the research for the film provided him with some, but not all, of the sources and material he used when writing his later book independently of Channel 4 and the film-makers. Gideon's Spies has so far been published in 16 languages. Sources for the book included Ari Ben-Menashe, a former Israeli intelligence agent, and Israeli spy Rafi Eitan. According to Charles Foster in Contemporary Review: "Writers who know their place are few and far between: fortunately Mr Thomas is one of them. By keeping to his place as a tremendous storyteller without a preacher's pretensions, he has put his book amongst the important chronicles of the state of Israel."

His 1974 book Voyage of the Damned was adapted for the 1976 film starring Faye Dunaway which won five Academy Award nominations. In 2020, playwright Tom Stoppard adapted for BBC Radio 4 Daniel Kehlmann's play based on the same book.

His last book was Shadow Warriors: Daring Missions of World War II by Women of the OSS and SOE (written with Greg Lewis).

He died on 3 March 2017 at the age of 84 at the Royal United Hospital, Bath, Somerset, England.

Personal life Thomas was a cousin of the poet Dylan Thomas who helped him publish his first book.

Major awards International Television Award from the Festival de Télévision de Monte-Carlo Two Mark Twain Society Awards for Reporting Excellence Edgar Allan Poe Award for Shipwreck

Selected bibliography

Thomas, G. (1987). The Jesus Conspiracy: An Investigative Reporter's Look at an Extraordinary Life and Death.

Book clubs Thomas's works have appeared in: The Book of the Month Club The Literary Guild Book The Reader's Digest Book Club

Film adaptations Voyage of the Damned won five Academy Award nominations Enola Gay won the Emmy Awards Foreign Critics Prize Experiences won the Juries and Critics prize at the Monte-Carlo Film Festival