New poll

I've revamped our main page poll on which 2008 releases you are most looking forward to. Devil May Care was running away with the results of the last poll (87% and climbing) which made it a pretty uninteresting and somewhat obvious result.

So I've eliminated Devil May Care and now ask which 2008 release besides Devil May Care are you most looking forward to. The new poll also allows you to select multiple answers. So...vote your heart out!

UK release dates for Shark Bait & Paradise Plot

Titan Books has confirmed for us the UK release dates for their next two releases, Shark Bait and The Paradise Plot. (For whatever reason, Amazon.co.uk shows the U.S. release date, which is typically several months after the books actually arrive in UK stores.)

According to Titan, Shark Bait will be available in the UK on January 25, 2008. The Paradise Plot will be released on June 27, 2008.

Thanks Titan.

Devil May Care UK edition available on Amazon

The UK hardcover edition of Sebastian Faulks centenary James Bond novel, Devil May Care, is now available for pre-order on Amazon.co.uk.

Interestingly, Amazon shows the publisher as Vintage instead of Penguin 007 and the page count has shot up from 304 to 320. But Amazon listings can be fluid with their info, so...

Devil May Care will be released on May 28, 2008 in the UK and U.S. The U.S. edition can be pre-ordered HERE.

Final Fling official plot teaser

It appears the information floodgates are starting to open on the big 2008 Bond releases. Over the weekend we got the Hurricane Gold paperback cover art, the SilverFin Graphic Novel has just appeared on Amazon...and now we score the official plot teaser for Samantha Weinberg's concluding chapter in her Moneypenny Diaries trilogy, Final Fling.

(Warning: Contains spoilers for those who have not read the first two novels.)

FINAL FLING combines the excitement of a cold war spy thriller with the mystery of a contemporary detective story. In the 1964/65 volume of her private diaries, Jane Moneypenny reports her demotion from the position of M’s secretary as the British Secret Intelligence Service is hit by a series of defection scandals. Facing considerable personal danger, she combines forces with 007 in a resolve to smoke out the mole she is convinced is buried deep in the heart of the Office. But, when Bond is sacked and M is forced into retirement, Moneypenny finds herself on her own…

Forty-two years later, Miss Moneypenny’s niece and heir, Kate Westbrook, starts to suspect that her aunt’s death was no accident. She is sure the clues to what happened lie in the search for the mole. As she pieces them together, however, she realizes that there are significant forces who are determined to prevent her finding the truth.

From the glamour of 1960s Jamaica to the treacherous beaches of the Outer Hebrides, FINAL FLING reveals just how far people are prepared to go to defend – or betray – their beliefs, and relates the life and death, and surprising final love, of the world’s most famous fictional secretary.

Bond is sacked? M is forced into retirement? Sounds like Final Fling is going to be a substantial (and maybe controversial) contribution to the James Bond continuation canon.

Final Fling is due for release in May 2008 and can be pre-ordered now on Amazon.co.uk.

Titan uncovers The Paradise Plot

CommanderBond.net reports that The Paradise Plot will be Titan Books second release of 2008 (following Shark Bait). The collection will be released on July 15 and can be pre-order now on Amazon.com.

Published in the Daily Star from August 20, 1981, "The Paradise Plot" finds 007 faking his resignation from MI6 in order to infiltrate a Caribbean-based criminal organization that uses a nuclear-powered dirigible to commit stealth attacks.

UPDATE: Titan has confirmed for us that the second story in the collection will be "Deathmask" (there will only be two stories in the collection this time). Published in June 1982, "Deathmask" finds James Bond traveling to Athens and Istanbul trying to stop a madman from unleashing a deadly virus.

Hurricane Gold paperback cover art

The Young Bond Dossier has revealed cover art for the paperback edition of Charlie Higson's fourth Young Bond novel, Hurricane Gold.


This paperback edition will be released in the UK on May 28, 2008, the same day as Sebastian Faulks' Devil May Care. Hurricane Gold was released as a hardcover in the UK in September.

There is yet no release date for Hurricane Gold in the U.S., which doesn't get Book 3, Double or Die, until April '08.

For full coverage of all things Young Bond related, visit our sister site The Young Bond Dossier, now the OFFICIAL source for Young Bond news.

Canada getting own Devil May Care

We have a U.S. hardcover, an audiobook, a large print paperback, and now comes news via Amazon.ca of yet another edition of Sebastian Faulks upcoming Centenary Bond novel Devil May Care -- a Canadian hardcover.

Typically, I'd assume this is just the same book at the already listed U.S. hardcover from Doubleday. However, Amazon shows the publisher as Doubleday Canada and shows a unique ISBN number, meaning it is a different edition. Whether it will sport variant cover art remains to be seen.

This is a first for Canada. In the past, Canadian bookstores have stocked imported UK editions of the Bond novels.

The release date for the Canadian Devil May Care remains the same as all other editions: May 28, 2008.

Faulks used Benson's Bedside Compainion

A terrific profile of Sebastian Faulks published in today's Washinton Post has revealed a few juicy new tidbits about his process of creating Devil May Care.

First off, Faulks reiterated that he "hates thrillers, hates thrilling films, they're just not thrilling." The Post revealed that the idea for Faulks to write the Centenary Bond novel "originated with his agent, Gillen Aitken, who sits on the board of Ian Fleming Publishing."

In preparation, Faulks said that he re-read the Fleming books and studied Fleming's style. "It's a journalist's style: short sentences, a lot of active verbs, no semicolons." On how he researched Bond's character he summed it us as being "Pretty easy, you just read the books."

But perhaps the most interesting revelation is that Faulks named Raymond Benson's The James Bond Bedside Companion as a research tool, especially in regards to the cars of Bond. "You look in the index, under 'car' -- it's not that hard."

Benson, who penned six original James Bond adventures between 1997 and 2002, first broke into the Bond publishing world in 1984 with The James Bond Beside Companion. An updated version of the book was released in 1988. In my opinion, it is still the best Bond reference book, being one of the only books to cover both the literary and cinematic 007.

Well chosen, Mr. Faulks.

Penguin revamps their 007 logo

As it is our stated mission to compulsively bring you ALL the latest James Bond literary news no matter how small or trivial, here is our first exciting SCOOP!

Penguin has revamped their Penguin 007 logo.

(Okay, maybe it's not the most exciting scoop. But we're a day old. What do you want?)

This new logo appeared sometime in the last 12 hours on the official Penguin 007 website counting down to the release of Sebastian Faulks' Centenary Bond novel Devil May Care. And in case you've forgotten what the old logo looked like (or don't believe me), just give a clicksee HERE.

Which logo to you like better? I'm on the fence myself.

A long lost appearance of YOUNG BOND at Eton

Our friend Tanner over at the excellent spy blog Double O Section has uncovered “a long lost appearance” of young James Bond at Eton. But he’s unlike the hero of the Charlie Higson novels. In fact, this “Young Bond” is a bully!

In the 1977 fiction biography of The Avengers hero John Steed (John Steed: An Authorized Biography by Tim Heald), we find this passage:

One factor which seems to have contributed to John's unhappiness at this time was the bullying which was an unfortunate feature of life in the school - or at least in those circles in which Steed moved. The main bully was a boy called Bond, later to achieve a certain notoriety in a career not totally unlike Steed's. Indeed their paths were to cross several times in adult life, seldom with profitable results. Although Bond was only two or so years older than Steed (a fact which will doubtless be disputed by Bond and his cronies) he was a great deal bigger. One of his fetishes was to make smaller boys stir his evening mug of cocoa for him, just as in later life he was to make a laughable affectation out of his insistence on dry martini cocktails being stirred rather than shaken. One day he demanded that Steed perform this service. Steed refused. Bond again insisted. 

'Who the hell do you think you are?' enquired Steed, suggesting at the same time that he should pick on someone his own size. 

'Bond, James Bond,' replied the bully, clearly expecting young Steed to fall grovelling at his feet. 

'Well, Bond,' said Steed evenly,'If you'd like to present yourself behind the Fives Courts by Jordan in half an hour's time I'll show you in the only language you apparently understand, precisely why I have no intention of stirring your rotten cocoa.'

Perhaps Charlie Higson can work in an appearance of John Steed in Young Bond 5 to return the favor?

Head on over to Double O Section to read more about this rare John Steed biography, and for a wealth of information on all things SPY.

Welcome to The Literary 007

Welcome to an all-new James Bond web destination; The Literary 007. Here you will find all the latest news on the literary James Bond, with a particular emphasis on the return of the adult 007 in Sebastian Faulks Centenary Bond novel Devil May Care.

We'll also keep up with what's happening with Charlie Higson's megaselling Young Bond series, Samantha Weinberg's Moneypenny Dairies, reprints of the Fleming originals and the continuation novels of Gardner, Benson, and Pearson, and the latest Titan Books reprints of the classic James Bond Daily Express comic strips. We'll also watch out for any literary tie-in's to Bond 22, and anything else Ian Fleming Publications may have planned for 007.

Even though we are brand new, we've launched the site with an archive already packed with James Bond literary news (courtesy our sister site The Young Bond Dossier). So plunge in and get to know the original Bond, James Bond, here at The Literary 007.

And spread the word!

Faulks talks Devil May Care with NPR

Novelist Sebastian Faulks spoke with NPR about his new novel, Engleby, AND his upcoming Centenary James Bond novel Devil May Care.

Faulks noted that he followed Ian Fleming's own prescription of "How To Write A Thriller" (an article Fleming wrote for SHOW Magazine in 1962) which, according to Faulks, specifies writing 2000 words a day combined with snorkeling, martinis, and having dinner with beautiful women.

It's a good interview, and very funny when Faulks talks about how he is already becoming inextricably associated with James Bond in London literary circles.

CLICK HERE to have a listen at the NPR website.

Goodenough for Young Bond 5?

In our exclusive video clip of Charlie Higson dropping his bombshell piece of news that James will “fall in love” in Young Bond 5, Charlie also mentions that a “girl from his past” will return and complicate Bond’s new “obsession.”

So who will this returning character be?

While Charlie said he hadn’t yet entirely made up his mind, he did strongly hint that it would be Amy Goodenough from his second Young Bond novel, Blood Fever.

Said Charlie, “She might appear in the fifth book, I’m thinking about it. I want to bring back some characters, and some I know are definitely coming back...but, yes, I think I probably will bring back Amy Goodenough.”

Young Bond 5 will be released in hardcover in the UK on September 4, 2008.

Source: www.youngbonddossier.com

Double or Die Limited Collectors Edition in stores

The Double or Die Limited Collector’s Edition is available at participating Waterstone’s bookstores now. Limited to 999 copies, this Collector’s Edition is a slipcased hardcover signed and numbered by author Charlie Higson.

There has been a little confusion about availability and different versions of the book, so I’ve clarified the details with IFP and Puffin Books.

Despite it being listed on the Waterstone’s website and Amazon, the Double or Die Limited Collector’s Edition is a Waterstone’s in-store exclusive. That means you can only buy the book at a Waterstone’s bookstore. The online listings have been removed and pre-orders cancelled.

We also got a report from a fan who bought a copy that was unsigned and unnumbered. Turns out this was simply an anomaly (and a collectible one at that). All copies of Double or Die Limited Collector’s Edition should be signed and numbered.

Happy hunting!

Source: www.youngbonddossier.com

Young Bond short story a possibility

During his appearance at the Hurricane Gold launch party last month, Charlie Higson revealed an exciting piece of Young Bond news that has gone unreported...until now.

During the Q&A session, Charlie let slip that he is “toying” with the idea of writing a Young Bond short story set between Hurricane Gold and Young Bond 5.

The story would take place aboard an ocean liner bringing Bond and Aunt Charmain back to England from Mexico. Aboard ship, James would encounter Wilder Lawless (the heroine of SilverFIn) who is transporting horses.

Charlie didn’t elaborate beyond that and he did caution that it was “something that might happen or might not”...but it sure sounds like a good idea to me!

Source: www.youngbonddossier.com

The prince among shampoos...

No, this isn’t a commercial. This is Young (and old) Bond related.

As most fans know, Charlie Higson has been planting references to the original Ian Fleming James Bond novels throughout his Young Bond series. In SilverFin we meet the father of Red Grant (From Russia With Love), in Blood Fever it’s the father of Count Lippe (Thunderball), and in Double or Die we get a glimpse of Universal Exports. But in Hurricane Gold, the reference is a little more subtle.

In Chapter 24, James is able to shower after several days of trudging through the muddy jungles of a hurricane ravaged Mexico. Not only does he discover here how much he loves a good shower (Bond showers a lot in Fleming), but he also discovers Pinaud Elixir shampoo.

“...he promised himself that he would only ever use that brand from now on in memory of the best shower he had ever had.”

-Hurricane Gold, Chapter 24

One doesn’t need to be a Fleming scholar to know Charlie is pointing us toward a reference here. Heck, he even calls the chapter “Pinaud Elixir.” But where in Fleming can we find Bond’s favorite shampoo?

Thanks to our friends at CBn, we have the answer:

“His two battered suitcases came and he unpacked leisurely and then ordered from Room Service a bottle of the Taittinger Blanc de Blancs that he had made his traditional drink at Royale. When the bottle, in its frosted silver bucket, came, he drank a quarter of it rather fast and then went into the bathroom and had an ice-cold shower and washed his hair with Pinaud Elixir, that prince among shampoos, to get the dust of the roads out of it.”

-On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Chapter 2

Incredibly, one can still get a bottle of Pinaud Elixir shampoo from The Dutch Shaving Shop. You can even get one with the old style label.

Have you spotted any other Fleming references in Hurricane Gold? If so, drop us an email and tell us about it.

Thanks to doublenoughtspy and MkB over on the CBn Forum for the detective work and image.

Hurricane Gold #007 found in Lancashire, sells on eBay

The elusive Hurricane Gold #007 has sold on eBay. The seller discovered the book in a small bookshop in Lytham St Ann's in Lancashire and put the book up for auction with an opening bid of .99p. The auction ended today with 27 bids and final sale price of £156.50 ($319.82).

Charlie Higson signed and numbered 1500 copies of his fourth Young Bond novel on August 10, 2007. These copies were made available only to independent bookstores.

Other Hurricane Gold signed editions have appeared on eBay, including #2 which sold for £70. But #007 (the only single digit copy to receive a double-oh prefix) is unquestionably the “golden ticket” of the batch.

UPDATE: I didn’t want to say anything until I had the book in hand, but the winner of this auction was...me. 😀

James Bond Centenary stamps

The Royal Mail will pay tribute to James Bond as part of the Ian Fleming Centenary celebrations next year when it releases a series of stamps commemorating the famous secret agent.

A series of six stamps will be released on 8 January 2008, each featuring four different covers of one of Ian Fleming’s novels.

Corinne Turner, Managing Director of Ian Fleming Publications Ltd said: "It is a privilege for Ian Fleming's novels to be celebrated by the Royal Mail Special Stamps' programme and we couldn't ask for a better start to his Centenary year."

Thanks to CBn and oo7 Magazine Online.

Charlie Higson drops a Book 5 bombshell

During the Hurricane Gold launch party on September 6, Young Bond author Charlie Higson revealed a major Young Bond 5 plot point. View the clip below to hear it for yourself. But be warned, this could be considered a SPOILER.

Young Bond short story a possibility

During his appearance at the Hurricane Gold launch party last month, Charlie Higson revealed an exciting piece of Young Bond news that has gone unreported...until now.

During the Q&A session, Charlie let slip that he is “toying” with the idea of writing a Young Bond short story set between Hurricane Gold and Young Bond 5.

The story would take place aboard an ocean liner bringing Bond and Aunt Charmain back to England from Mexico. Aboard ship, James would encounter Wilder Lawless (the heroine of SilverFIn) who is transporting horses.

Charlie didn’t elaborate beyond that and he did caution that it was “something that might happen or might not”...but it sure sounds like a good idea to me!

Source: www.youngbonddossier.com

Young Bond SHORT STORY a possibility

During his appearance at the Hurricane Gold launch party last month, Charlie Higson revealed an exciting piece of Young Bond news that has gone unreported...until now.

During the Q&A session, Charlie let slip that he is “toying” with the idea of writing a Young Bond short story set between Hurricane Gold and Young Bond 5.

The story would take place aboard an ocean liner bringing Bond and Aunt Charmain back to England from Mexico. Aboard ship, James would encounter Wilder Lawless (the heroine of SilverFin) who is transporting horses.

Charlie didn’t elaborate beyond that and he did caution that it was “something that might happen or might not”...but it sure sounds like a good idea to me!

Bond to drive a Bentley in Devil May Care

The Telegraph reports that James Bond will drive a Bentley in the new adult centenary Bond novel Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks.

"Despite many of the films portraying him with an Aston Martin, Bond's first choice of car was a Bentley, so that is what he will be driving in my book," says Faulks.

"He also spends quite a lot of time abroad on his adventure, so in want of a hire car, which wouldn't really befit James, he will also have a driver at his disposal."

While Faulks revealed the color (battleship grey), he didn’t reveal the exact make of Bentley Bond would drive. James Rosenstein, Bentley's global director of external affairs, suggested it could be the 1967 T-series Bentley (pictured above), a popular model the year in which the novel is set.

"It is wonderful that somebody has decided to go back to the roots of the original book, to Ian Fleming's own tastes and to James Bond's passion for the cars," said Rosenstein.

Of course, Charlie Higson returned Bond to his automotive roots in his third Young Bond novel, Double or Die. In this book Bond acquires his classic Bentley 5.1 that sees him through Casino Royale.

The U.S. hardcover edition of Devil May Care is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com. The book will be released in May 2008 by Doubleday in the U.S. and Penguin in the UK.

Thanks to CBn.

Double or Die COLLECTOR'S EDITION in stores

The Double or Die Limited Collector’s Edition is available at participating Waterstone’s bookstores now. Limited to 999 copies, this Collector’s Edition is a slipcased hardcover signed and numbered by author Charlie Higson.

There has been a little confusion about availability and different versions of the book, so I’ve clarified the details with IFP and Puffin Books.

Despite it being listed on the Waterstone’s website and Amazon, the Double or Die Limited Collector’s Edition is a Waterstone’s in-store exclusive. That means you can only buy the book at a Waterstone’s bookstore. The online listings have been removed and pre-orders cancelled.

We also got a report from a fan who bought a copy that was unsigned and unnumbered. Turns out this was simply an anomaly (and a collectible one at that). All copies of Double or Die Limited Collector’s Edition should be signed and numbered.

Happy hunting!

James Bond The Authorised Biography re-released

The hardcover reprint of of James Bond The Authorised Biography by John Pearson is now shipping from Amazon.co.uk.

This most curious (and largely forgotten) James Bond continuation novel was first published in 1973 and purports to tell the “true” life story of James Bond up to and including the Fleming stories. Interestingly, the book covers some of the same territory now being explored in the bestselling Young Bond series by Charlie Higson.

A paperback reprint will be published in May next year.

Avenue of Death is #2 most viewed game online

According to Viralchart.com (a service that tracks over 200 million viral game views across the web) the official Young Bond tie-in game “Avenue of Death” is the #2 most viewed viral game online.

Avenue of Death was created by TAMBA Internet and is available to play on the official Young Bond website www.youngbond.com. In it, players help Young Bond navigate deadly obstacles in the Avenida de la Muerte, which features in the latest Young Bond bestseller Hurricane Gold.