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Year of the Golden Ape
Gamal Tafak, a fanatic Arab sheik, plans to use his nation's oil, a deadly British assassin, and a homemade atom bomb to force the West to concede to his demands
319 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1974
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About the author
Colin Forbes
157 books118 followersRaymond Harold Sawkins was a British novelist, who mainly published under the pseudonym Colin Forbes, but also as Richard Raine, Jay Bernard and Harold English. He only published three of his first books under his own name.Sawkins wrote 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 attended 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.Sawkins 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.
Sawkins attended 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.Sawkins 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.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 2, 2012
Originally published on my blog here in May 1998.
This is another very seventies thriller from Colin Forbes. Its theme is the oil crisis, and what might have happened if it had occurred at a period when real extremists were running the Arab states.
The plot concerns a hijack attempt on a British tanker carrying American oil, which is to be used to take a nuclear warhead into San Francisco Bay, to cause a situation which the Arabs will then take advantage of. That this plot is eventually foiled will come as a surprise to no one, but this is a thriller with no hero: everyone is pretty much as bad as each other. There is much that is predictable; in the end, the thriller is a pale imitation of one of the more unpleasant novels by a writer like Alastair Maclean. A problem for today's reader is the racism, which I'm sure is unintentional; the phrase "golden apes" is coined by a journalist in the story to describe the Arabs; perhaps it is good to be reminded that this sort of behaviour would have been considered acceptable to a newspaper of the time. It was considered acceptable even more recently by some - I remember the coverage of the Gulf crisis by the English tabloids (and I was working alongside a principally Musilim workforce at the time).
This is another very seventies thriller from Colin Forbes. Its theme is the oil crisis, and what might have happened if it had occurred at a period when real extremists were running the Arab states.
The plot concerns a hijack attempt on a British tanker carrying American oil, which is to be used to take a nuclear warhead into San Francisco Bay, to cause a situation which the Arabs will then take advantage of. That this plot is eventually foiled will come as a surprise to no one, but this is a thriller with no hero: everyone is pretty much as bad as each other. There is much that is predictable; in the end, the thriller is a pale imitation of one of the more unpleasant novels by a writer like Alastair Maclean. A problem for today's reader is the racism, which I'm sure is unintentional; the phrase "golden apes" is coined by a journalist in the story to describe the Arabs; perhaps it is good to be reminded that this sort of behaviour would have been considered acceptable to a newspaper of the time. It was considered acceptable even more recently by some - I remember the coverage of the Gulf crisis by the English tabloids (and I was working alongside a principally Musilim workforce at the time).
October 31, 2017
Older book but story could be drawn from today's headlines. An excellent read in a genre that i really like.....
February 11, 2018
A quite readable thriller about the oil crisis in the 1970's Middle East, but the ending didn't seem plausible to me...the outcome would have been far more horrific in real life.
June 27, 2020
Read in 1975. Good title, but the plot is a mystery.
January 26, 2021
Leuk actie boek. Beetje gedateerd, al is het wel leuk om te lezen over de periode van de brandstof tekorten in 1973.
August 1, 2022
Overall a great action/thriller some dry bits and some awkward new characters added in late but if you enjoy political action thrillers I would recommend!
January 15, 2024
Good
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 3, 2025
One of Colin Forbes’ earlier standalone novels, published in the 1970’s before his Tweed series came along. After devouring Tweed books as a young man I have kept these earlier novels back to enjoy at intervals before I inevitably re-read the entire Tweed series. Colin Forbes novels are never going to win awards for deep and complex characterisation but he really can tell an exciting story, here the terrorist takeover of a ship had me desperate to know what happened next. The story flew along once the main event started taking place and it was a shame to reach the end. If anything I thought the story ended too quickly, almost like a publishing deadline was upon Forbes, but it didn’t really affect my enjoyment of a rollicking story that probably too few people will read nowadays. Happy to be a keeper of this particular secret though.
February 1, 2021
This is a reasonable standalone novel from Forbes. The plot is interesting and based around the real events of the oil crisis of the 1970s. A hijacked oil tanker is being taken from Alaska to San Francisco. Unbeknownst to the leader of the hijackers and second plot is underway with an atomic bomb hidden somewhere on the tanker.
What lets this novel down is the style of writing. Rather than his normal polished narrative style Year of the Golden Ape appears to me as if it is a report on the events after they have occurred. This style is never overtly stated in the book but much of it is clipped and stunted and doesn’t flow from one element to another. For this reason I would not rate this as one of Forbes’s best works but it is still enjoyable enough.
What lets this novel down is the style of writing. Rather than his normal polished narrative style Year of the Golden Ape appears to me as if it is a report on the events after they have occurred. This style is never overtly stated in the book but much of it is clipped and stunted and doesn’t flow from one element to another. For this reason I would not rate this as one of Forbes’s best works but it is still enjoyable enough.
August 26, 2014
Wasn't sure if I would like this book or not.....
But I did.
The genres of "thriller" and related ones seem to have changed over the last few years. They so often, these days, seem to be "easy" and fast reads, which is good........
Year of the Golden Ape is a little bit more "dense" of a read than more recent books, so the read is a little bit slower, and you are forced to think a little bit more as you read the story.
My opinion of course.
But I did.
The genres of "thriller" and related ones seem to have changed over the last few years. They so often, these days, seem to be "easy" and fast reads, which is good........
Year of the Golden Ape is a little bit more "dense" of a read than more recent books, so the read is a little bit slower, and you are forced to think a little bit more as you read the story.
My opinion of course.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews