This is the latest edition of Colin Smith's best selling - it was translated into Spanish, French, German and Finnish -1976 biography of the Venezuelan born terrorist Ilich Ramirez Sanchez. Carlos - Portrait of a Terrorist is the result of painstaking research. Here is the full story of his transformation from spoilt playboy to 'The Jackal', once the favorite assassin of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Previously updated in 1995, after Carlos was sedated and sacked then handed over to French commandos in Khartoum, it has been revised following his latest 2011 conviction by a Paris court for a brutal series of terrorist bombings committed in 1982 and 1983. Smith's account blends perceptive eyewitness reportage of Carlos in action with the memories of friends, acquaintances and at least one lover.