Monday, April 15, 2013

007 going 'SOLO' in Africa and the USA

A surprise in today's press release announcing the title of William Boyd's new James Bond novel, Solo, was the additional news of the major locations featured in the book: Africa and the USA.

Funnily enough, it was exactly a year ago that The Spectator suggested that Boyd's Bond could be set in Africa based on comments the author made at the Oxford Literary Festival that year. Looks like the first rumor out of the box proved to be true. (Funny how often that happens.)

This is actually 007's second trip to Africa in a row. A large part of Jeffery Deaver's Carte Blanche was set in South Africa. Of course, Carte Blanche was a contemporary adventure while Boyd's novel is set in 1969, so I expect we will be visiting a very different Africa in Solo.

However, I'm even more excited by the news that 007 will be traveling to the USA in Solo. Can you believe that the literary James Bond has not set foot in the U.S. since Raymond Benson's The Facts of Death in 1998? In that book Bond traveled to Texas. Exactly where Boyd is taking Bond in the American portion of his book is not yet known. The last time Bond visited America in the classic Fleming timeline was The Spy Who Loved Me (1962).

At today's London Book Fair unveiling, Boyd said, "He goes on a real mission to real countries and the world he's in is absolutely 1969. There are no gimmicks, it's a real spy story. . . there is a very precise reason why I chose that year."

Hmmm....

Solo will be released by Jonathan Cape in the UK on September 26, 2013 (Amazon.co.uk) and by HarperCollins in the U.S. on October 8, 2013 (Amazon.com).

Note: The image here is fanart.

9 comments:

  1. It'll be interesting to see if the title refers to a villain's name or whether it's a thematic referral to Bond's nature and modus operandi.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It says specifically in the press release that the title refers to the fact that Bond takes on a mission alone.

      Delete
  2. Great title. I like everything we've heard about this book so far. Looking forward to this one more than I did the previous one-shots.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Sigh... You'll delete this soon enough, but I find it irritating that you still haven't researched this at all. Read Duff Hart-Davis's bio of Peter Fleming, please. p375. It's extremely clear that Jenkins wrote the whole thing. And here's John Cork to me, July 9 2010:

    'Yesterday, I became totally convinced that Geoffrey Jenkins did complete Per Fine Ounce and that he did so under contract.'

    John didn't have any evidence for his supposition, which was mistaken. His source for it was PJ-S, who I interviewed about the same thing. John admitted he was wrong privately to me (and said in the email I could make it public). Your continued belief that he was right, despite having clearly not read Hart-Davis (let alone consulted Jenkins' papers, as I did for months, including reading the contract and finding pages from *midway in the novel*) and immature decision to continue to spread this idea online, is precisely why I wanted John to make his error clear in public and where he'd made the original claim. The internet is public. CBN is public. Provide *evidence* for this BS or stop spreading it. I researched the story for over a year. You're certain you know about it having done none. Just some basic research, John, would show you you're wrong. Page 375 of 'Peter Fleming' by Duff Hart-Davis, published in 1974. I'll correct you every time you say this in public until you provide evidence for it or stop doing it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Of course, the Moon landing took place in 1969...
    Would anybody perhaps try toppling the Apollo 11-mission?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I was thinking it could involve the Moon landing as well. We'll see.

      Delete
  5. The only other important event in 1969 was the release of On Her Majesty's Secret Service. I doubt it's connected to that. Unless Bond grows a beard and infiltrates the London premiere pretending to be George Lazenby.

    It was explain a lot.

    ReplyDelete

Legal Disclosure

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Translate