Does SOLO contain clues to a YOUNG BOND SERIES 2?

For a while we've been getting hints of a possible Young Bond series 2 penned by a new author rather than Charlie Higson. We know that this new series would be set in Fettes in Edinburgh where James Bond attended school after being expelled from Eton for his "trouble with a maid" (dramatized in Higson's final Young Bond novel, By Royal Command). Now is there a clue to this new series embedded in the pages of William Boyd's new James Bond novel, Solo?

On pages 214-217, Bond has chance meeting in Washington D.C.'s Dulles airport with an old friend from Fettes named Turnbull "Bloater" McHarg (the chapter is actually titled "Bloater"). The four-page passage, which only relates to the plot in minor way, is curiously detailed and includes the names of Bond's friends and fellow Judo Club members at Fettes:

He winked. "Do you ever see anything of the old crowd? Bowen major, Cromarty, Simpson, MacGregor-Smith, Martens, Tweedie, Mostyn, and whatsisname, you know, the earl's son, Lord David White of--"

"No," Bond interrupted, flatly, keen to stem the flood of forgotten names. "I haven't seen anybody at all. Not one. Ever."

Could this be a deliberate seeding of a new Fettes-set Young Bond series? Could Boyd have already read the manuscript for the first book? Recall that in Devil May Care Sebastian Faulks included a deliberate nod to the Young Bond novel, Double or Die.

It might make sense that after three adult Bond novels -- this last one returning 007 to the Fleming timeline -- IFP might see fit to resurrect the bestselling Young Bond series.

Always fun to speculate.

Click here to read my five part series on The Secret History of Young James Bond.

Solo is available now in the UK from Jonathan Cape (Amazon.co.uk). The U.S. edition from Harper will be released on Tuesday (Amazon.com).

UPDATE: Official: Young Bond returns in 2014.