Anniversary BONDS for 2022

HAPPY NEW YEAR and welcome to another year of The Book Bond. This year will see a NEW Bond adventure, With A Mind To Kill by Anthony Horowitz. 2022 also marks a few anniversaries. How time flies when you're having fun!

60th Anniversary

Ian Fleming's most experimental Bond novel, The Spy Who Loved Me, is told entirely from the point of view of the heroine, Vivienne Michel. Published by Jonathan Cape in the UK on April 16, 1962. Released the same year of the first James Bond film, Dr. No.

40th Anniversary

John Gardner's second James Bond novel, For Special Services, finds 007 teaming up with the CIA and the daughter of Felix Leiter.  The first U.S. edition was published by McCann and Geoghegan on May 3, 1982. The UK edition by Jonathan Cape (pictured) came in September.

30th Anniversary

John Gardner's 11th original James Bond novel, Death Is Forever, finds 007 is a race to stop a terrorist attack on the newly opened English Chunnel. The U.S. edition from Putnam was published in June. The UK edition (pictured) was released by Hodder & Stoughton on July 2, 1992.

25th Anniversary

Raymond Benson debuts as the new continuation author with Zero Minus Ten, a timely 007 adventure dealing with a threat to Britain's handover of Hong Kong to China. The UK edition (pictured) was released by Hodder & Stoughton on April 3, 1997. The U.S. edition from Putnam was released on May 5, 1997.

20th Anniversary

Raymond Benson's final Bond adventure, The Man With The Red Tattoo, sees James Bond returning to Japan. The UK edition (pictured) was released by Hodder & Stoughton on May 2, 2002. The U.S. edition from Putnam was released on June 10, 2002.

Other anniversaries include: From Russia With Love (65th), Colonel Sun (55th), Serpents Tooth (30th) Tomorrow Never Dies (25th), Die Another Day (20th), Double or Die and Hurricane Gold (15th), and Red Nemesis(5th).

THE BOOK BOND will return

Wishing you and your loved ones a safe and happy holiday. See you all in 2022.

Season's greetings! pic.twitter.com/b9NWxfsah1

— Ian Fleming (@TheIanFleming) December 21, 2021

"The early reactions have been great"

The Express has an excellent profile of author Anthony Horowitz in which the author discussed his life and what inspired him to become a writer. It is well worth a click and read in full. Of course, it also offers a few clues about what to expect in his new Bond novel, With A Mind To Kill, which I've excerpted below:

  

"I wanted a sense of trilogy in my books: my first, Trigger Mortis, was set during the middle of Bond's career, the second, Forever And A Day, at the start, and the new one is the end."

"It's a very different book in tone to the first two. The truth is it's difficult to think up ideas that are better than Fleming's. But if you move the goalposts and come up with a fresh territory then there's a whole new ground to explore.

"So this is a more psychological Bond, it's darker, and the early reactions have been great. I'm really excited about it and proud the estate has come back to me to do two more. It's genuinely been a labour of love; Bond has been so important to me."

"There's a knife fight in the book I've just finished and, as I wrote it, all I thought was: 'How would Fleming write this? Would the camera be on the ceiling looking down at these two small figures facing off, or would it be inside Bond's head looking out?

"One of the joys of writing the third book was that I was intuitively inside Fleming's mind and how he would write. Maybe I'm being too boastful, the book isn't out yet!"

With A Mind To Kill is available for pre-order from Amazon.co.uk (UK edition) and Amazon.com (US edition).

James Bond is back WITH A MIND TO KILL

James Bond LIVES! Today Ian Fleming Publications and Jonathan Cape/Vintage reveal the title and cover art for Anthony Horowitz's third James Bond adventure. With A Mind To Kill is due for release on May 26, 2022. I, for one, can't wait to shake off the last Bond film by diving back into the books where 007 never dies (for real).

It is M’s funeral. One man is missing from the graveside: the traitor who pulled the trigger and who is now in custody, accused of M’s murder – James Bond. 

Behind the Iron Curtain, a group of former Smersh agents want to use the British spy in an operation that will change the balance of world power. Bond is smuggled into the lion’s den – but whose orders is he following, and will he obey them when the moment of truth arrives?

In a mission where treachery is all around and one false move means death, Bond must grapple with the darkest questions about himself. But not even he knows what has happened to the man he used to be.

 

CLICK HERE to pre-order Waterstone's Exclusive signed edition of With A Mind To Kill. The regular edition is also now available for pre-order on Amazon.co.uk.

THURSDAY...

 Latest update from Bond author Anthony Horowitz. Cover as well! Can't wait.

New Bond title and cover launching Thursday, I'm told!

— Anthony Horowitz (@AnthonyHorowitz) December 13, 2021

IAN FLEMING's Villa at GoldenEye (video)

I really enjoy David Zaritsky's The Bond Experience and the below video is a gem. Enjoy.

CASINO ROYALE first edition (video)

The good folks at Peter Harrington Books show the details of a true Casino Royale first edition by Ian Fleming. Enjoy.