When dreams come true

No, this isn't an April Fool's joke. Ian Fleming Publications and Penguin Michael Joseph have announced that a new James Bond novel by Charlie Higson will be published in the UK on September 24, 2026. Yes, this year! Below is the cover and part of the press release for King Zero.

A brand new James Bond novel, KING ZERO, has been announced via a guerrilla projection at sites across London. 

Beginning with the murder of an agent in Saudi Arabia by a weapon never before seen by the Secret Service and spanning the globe in an epic race against time to avert global catastrophe, the novel brings the literary Bond squarely into the twenty-first century, where the old world that made him is crumbling and a terrifying new order emerges while a dangerous villain – the most distinctive since Goldfinger – moves in the shadows. Higson explores themes of power, technology, and international tensions over resources in an extraordinarily timely story.

It will be published in the UK/Commonwealth by Penguin Michael Joseph, and is scheduled for release on 24th September 2026. Publisher Joel Richardson acquired rights from Viola Hayden and Ciara Finan at Curtis Brown, on behalf of Ian Fleming Publications Ltd. North American Rights have sold to Amazon Publishing.

Higson said: “Having warmed up with my Young Bond series, and the short story, On His Majesty’s Secret Service, I’m beyond excited to be writing my first full blown adult Bond adventure. 20 years after first writing “The name’s Bond, James Bond,” it still sends shivers down my spine every time I type it. I'm having a blast with this new novel, which is absolutely set in the modern world, and I hope will sit comfortably on the airport bookshelves alongside other contemporary thrillers. It embraces the worlds of both the literary Bond and the cinematic Bond, and my bad guy has all the elements we expect from a classic Bond villain, with a twist that’s not been done before”.

This is exactly what I've been hoping for, and everything about this sounds great. I especially love what I don't hear. No Fleming tie-in gimmick. No indication that it's "personal." Just a straight-ahead contemporary James Bond OO7 novel with a standout villain by an author steeped in Bond. This is just what the Doctor (No) ordered. 

This isn't enough to pull me back entirely from my sabbatical. I'm deep in the weeds on my own 2026 book, which, coincidentally, also has "King" in the title (you can see my own title reveal HERE). But I will let you know when the book is released. And if this kicks off a Higson Bond series (I hope), I won't miss a single shot!

You can pre-order King Zero by Charlie Higson at Amazon.co.uk.

THE BOOK BOND WILL RETURN

As we begin a new year without any news of a traditional James Bond novel in the works, I've decided to put The Book Bond on hiatus while I focus my energies on my own books. 

In my absence, I highly recommend Peter Crush's fantastic James Bond First Editions Blog. Peter is doing the kind of work I should be doing here. But he has the knowledge and the passion, and that is where the book Bond is being best represented. To make this easy, I've embedded his feed above.

There's also the terrific YouTube channel by Calvin Dyson, who is reviewing his way through all the novels. Calvin represents a new generation of Bond fans, and I am a regular watcher of his channel. He's also a huge Moonraker fan, so...

There are also some stellar Facebook groups, such as James Bond Collectible Books Worldwide, The Literary James Bond, and The Ian Fleming Foundation. My friend Matthew Bradford does a great job of covering the literary Bond and more at Double O Section.

Ian Fleming Publications is the place for news of new Ian Fleming-related books and the James Bond spin-off novels, such as Double O, The Q Mysteries, and James Bond and the Secret Agency Academy. I'm sure these will be fine books and will have many readers. I wish them all the success in the world. I'm just an old traditionalist who likes his straight-ahead James Bond adventures, and I feel like a bit of a fraud promoting these books when I'm not reading them myself.

But, hey, at least we have many ways to enjoy James Bond. We have new films on the way, video games, graphic novels, and spin-offs. So enjoy James Bond OO7 in whatever way you like. Just remember, it all started with THE BOOK BOND.

Cheers.

James Bond and the end of MASS MARKET paperbacks

Below is a story from NPR about the imminent demise of the mass market paperback book. Mass market (MMP) refers to books typically sized 4x7. The idea was that they could fit in a pocket or handbag, and could be sold on uniform displays, such as rotating spindles (people of a certain age certainly remember these). The mass market format was how most people consumed books, including James Bond books. For more, listen to the story below.

This got me thinking: what was the last James Bond mass market paperback? 

One candidate is Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks, released by Vintage in the U.S. in May 2009. Interestingly, a trade paperback (classified as any book larger than a mass market) with different cover art was released at the same time.

Vintage, May 2009.

While Devil May Care may have been the last traditional mass market paperback, there is another candidate for the last. Jeffery Deaver's Carte Blanche was released as an oddly-sized paperback in the U.S. by Pocket Star in February 2012. It's very close to a mass market. In fact, the width is exactly the same. However, it's about half an inch taller. In my bookseller days, I would struggle with whether to ring this up as a mass market or trade paperback, and I'm still not sure today. Nevertheless, it did come after Devil May Care, so this might indeed be the last James Bond mass market paperback. It's just not a classic example.

Pocket Star Books, February 2012.

Mass markets vanished much earlier in the UK. As far as I know, Raymond Benson's The Man With The Red Tattoo was the last new James Bond novel released as a mass market paperback by Coronet in 2003. After this, all new James Bond paperbacks in the UK were released as trade paperbacks.

Coronet, 2003.

What about Fleming? This 2006 edition of Casino Royale is the last U.S. mass market Fleming title I'm aware of. It also got a trade paperback release. I was pretty excited when this appeared, as it fits beautifully on my shelf of mass market movie tie-in Bonds.

Penguin Books, 2006.

In the UK, Penguin released the Quantum of Solace collection as a mass market paperback in 2008. This is the last UK mass market paperback on my shelf (it completes my UK movie tie-in shelf). As I don't collect later Fleming titles, I don't know if this was the last UK mass market paperback. But it could be!

Penguin, 2008.

Here's a nice video by a bright young YouTuber about the history and demise of mass market paperbacks.

Have I overlooked something? What do you think of the Carte Blanche paperback? Should it be disqualified? Are you sad about the end of mass market books? Sound off in the comments below.

Happy New Year!

SilverFin 20TH ANNIVERSARY edition from IFP

Ian Fleming Publications has released a special 20th Anniversary edition of Charlie Higson's first Young Bond novel, SilverFin. It's signed and limited to 300 copies. You can purchase it from the Ian Fleming Publications website.

An Ian Fleming Shop global exclusive, limited to just 300 copies.

There's something in the water at Loch Silverfin. Something that must be kept secret. Something deadly...

Introducing a special twentieth anniversary edition of Charlie Higson's SilverFin, the first adventure in the Young Bond series, first published in 2005. This exclusive edition features a new cover design, a new introduction by the author and a hand-written signature.

In 2011, I wrote a series of blog posts about the history of Charlie Higson's excellent Young Bond novels. You can read the first installment covering SilverFin here: THE SECRET HISTORY OF YOUNG JAMES BOND, PART I.

JAMES BOND 007 under the Christmas tree

As I contemplate the holidays and another year without a new OO7 book or film, I'm feeling nostalgic for John Gardner's License Renewed. While the book was released in April of 1981, I received it as one of my Christmas presents that year. 

While I had found my dad's stash of Ian Fleming novels and had sampled some of them, this was the gateway book that made me a fan of the literary OO7. This was a Bond who walked in a world I was familiar with. And when For Special Services appeared the following year, I was a goner!

So here's a toast to License Renewed and the return of James Bond in 1981. We had a book every year and a movie every two years. It was all about entertainment, and James Bond never died. It was a great time to be a Bond fan.

Below are a few John Gardner-related posts you might enjoy. Happy Holidays.

THE RENAISSANCE OF '81

Rick Tulka's LICENSE RENEWED

BOND'S BEAST - WHEN OO7 DROVE A SAAB

JOHN GARDNER U.S. (true) first edition hardcovers