10 Facts About Jan Guillou

Jan Guillou acquired French citizenship at birth and became a Swedish citizen in 1975.

Jan Guillou finished his studentexamen from the boarding school Viggbyholmsskolan, located in Viggbyholm, in 1964.

Jan Guillou started his career as a journalist writing for the magazine FIB aktuellt from 1966 to 1967.

Jan Guillou was a member of the Communist Party of Sweden, a minor Maoist party active mainly during the 1970s, for six months until he was expelled for refusing to pay the monthly member fee while he was living abroad.

Jan Guillou labeled the media's reaction to the 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot and the measures taken to avoid havoc at the airports unnecessary since the suspects had already been caught.

Ever since the IB affair and the resulting prison sentence for espionage in 1973, Jan Guillou has been a strong critic of the Swedish Security Service.

In 1986 Jan Guillou published Coq Rouge, the first novel about his fictional Swedish military spy Carl Hamilton.

Jan Guillou is introduced in Tjuvarnas marknad in 2004, and her story continues in Fienden inom oss in 2007 and Men inte om det galler din dotter in 2008, a novel which saw the return of Carl Hamilton.

In 2011 Jan Guillou published the first part of a new series meant to depict the 20th century, from 1901 to 2001.

Jan Guillou was chairman of the Swedish Publicists' Association from 2000 to 2004.