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David Craig Owen Thomas (24 November 1942 – 4 April 2011) was a Welsh author of thrillers, most notably the Mitchell Gant and Kenneth Aubrey series of novels.
Background
The son of the Western Mail rugby union writer JBG Thomas, he was educated at Cardiff High School. He graduated from University College, Cardiff in 1967, obtaining his M.A. after completing a thesis on Thomas Hardy. Thomas became an English teacher, working at Shire Oak Grammar School in Walsall Wood, where he was Head of the English Department, as well as other grammar schools in the West Midlands.
Writing career
After unsuccessfully trying script writing for radio, Thomas wrote part-time, with his wife as editor, in two fields: philosophical thoughts in books of essays; and techno-thrillers, a genre whose invention is often attributed to the better-known Tom Clancy, though many fans feel that Thomas was its true originator. Most of Thomas's novels are set within MI6 and feature the characters of Sir Kenneth Aubrey and Patrick Hyde.
His best-known novel was Firefox, which brought him to global prominence and spawned a successful film adaptation, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood. After publishing his third novel, the Cold War espionage thriller Wolfsbane, he left teaching altogether, in 1977. His later books include Snow Falcon and A Different War. Shortly before his death he finished a two-volume commentary on German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche.
Thomas and his wife Jill had lived near Lichfield, Staffordshire, but moved to Somerset in 2010. He died on 4 April 2011 from pneumonia, following a short battle with acute myeloid leukemia. He was 68.