Young Bond GALAXY large print editions

Below are all five UK Large Print editions of Charlie Higson's Young Bond novels. These were released by Galaxy Plus and make a nice set. I especially like Hurricane Gold as the release UK paperback used a highly reflective gold cover that obscured the artwork. But here the croc can be seen clearly! Also notice SilverFin uses the UK proof cover art and By Royal Command the hardcover art. 

Click to read THE SECRET HISTORY OF YOUNG JAMES BOND

The Young Bond PROOFS

I was surprised at how popular the Raymond Benson James Bond proofs were that I just sold on eBay and shared here. So I thought I'd share my set of Young Bond proofs. I don't have plan to sell these, but still thought people would enjoy a look.

For the final two Higson books the publisher released what might be more accurately called Galleys. But as far as I know, these were the only advance copies. Hurricane Gold came in two variants.

The only proof I have for the Steve Cole books is Shoot To Kill. I don't know if proofs exist for his other three books.

U.S. publisher Miramax produced proofs for the first two Charlie Higson books. As far as I know, these are the only U.S. proofs for any of the Young Bond titles.

YOUNG BOND audiobook refresh (update)

Whole Story Audiobooks have released the first four Charlie Higson Young Bond novels in the UK with cover art using the new Young Bond logo. These are the unabridged readings by Nathaniel Parker. I could not find a listing Charlie Higson's last novel, By Royal Command.

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.co.uk

Whole Story also released the audiobook for Steve Cole's first Young Bond adventure, Shoot To Kill.

Amazon.co.uk

UPDATE: We can now add By Royal Command to Whole Story's audiobook refresh.

Amazon.co.uk

THE SECRET HISTORY OF YOUNG JAMES BOND, PART IV

Unused Kev Walker cover art

Gold Standard

In early 2007, right on the heels of the release of Double or Die, Bond fans were surprised to learn that the next Young Bond novel would be released in the summer of that same year. Until then, the series had been on a one book per year schedule.

"Actually, what happened was Book Four was not meant to be out until next year," author Charlie Higson explained in 2007. "I had various other writing jobs, so I delivered Book Four early to Puffin, and pushed it through to make sure it was finished well in advance so that I could clear the decks to get on with other writing before I started on Book Five. But, of course, publishers being publishers, they got the book early and said 'Well, we’ll publish it early!' So they brought publication forward by about four or five months, which basically means that I’m four or five months behind on Book Five."

This time Puffin couldn’t keep the title under wraps, which leaked on Amazon a few days before the official announcement on April 24, 2007 of Young Bond 4: Hurricane Gold.

"Well, as with all the other titles, it came very late in the day after many, many different titles," says Higson. "In fact, my working title for the book was Lagrimas Negras, which was very quickly rejected by the publishers as being incomprehensible to English readers. But the publishers had got very excited about the idea of gold and they said 'we'd love to have gold in the title somewhere' because they were working on this concept of making a gold book."

Original press release

As the book featured Bond struggling amid the ravages of a hurricane, Higson suggested a combination of these two major themes. "It’s quite a nice combination for a title. So I suggested [Hurricane Gold] to them and they jumped at it, at which point, as with SilverFin, I had to go back and work it into the book a bit."

The all-gold hardcover (a first for the series) would also have a wrap around banner with the title. Along with the original press release came a photo of Charlie Higson holding the book. But on this photo we see a banner with the silhouette of a crocodile, which continued the creepy critter themes of the other covers. However, it was soon decided this spoiled a surprise in the book, so the crocodile was eliminated come publication. (Happily, the crocodile would return with a vengeance on the paperback edition.)

Another surprise was the book's location. Higson had previously said that Book 4 would be set in the Alps. But the teaser announced Book 4 would feature "A treacherous road trip in Mexico."

Higson explained the reason for the change. "After Double or Die which was cold, grey England at Christmas, I really thought it was important to send him off somewhere hot and glamorous for the next one. And in fact, that was kind of the reaction Ian Fleming got after Moonraker. He got lots of letters from people saying 'We don’t want to see Bond in Kent. We want to see him somewhere nice and sunny.'"

For his "sunny" locale, Higson was initially torn between Mexico and North Africa. But then he discovered that Ian Fleming dismissed North Africa as a location for Bond.

"I don’t know what his objections were but he didn’t like the idea of North Africa," says Higson. "So I thought well, Mexico. And then I can start in Mexico and end up in the Caribbean. Geographically it makes sense. I thought I really had to have something in the books of the Caribbean because it was such a big deal for Fleming."

Feeling that the structure of the books were becoming "a little bit obvious that you’d have the first third of the story in Eton, and then he’d go off, out for a big adventure," Higson decided to shake up the formula in his fourth book. In Hurricane Gold there would be no scenes set at Eton. The change allowed Higson to create a faster, more action-packed novel. "I thought, yeah, let’s switch it around a bit and just launch him straight in at the beginning fully into the adventure," says Higson.

Launch he did. Hurricane Gold has a relentless pace and some truly spectacular set pieces. The book finds Bond on vacation with his Aunt Charmain in Mexico, where he quickly becomes involved with a gang of brutal American gangsters led by the villainous, Mrs. Glass.

A female villain is a rarity in a Bond novel, and, in fact, the character started out as male. But Higson decided a woman worked better and made the change. "Not during the book," he quipped. "Although perhaps he should. It’s about time we had a sex-changing Bond villain."

Another one of Higson's most colorful characters in the book is the brain damaged henchman, "Manny the Girl." In the novel it's explained that Manny received his nicknamed because his M.O. of robbing banks dressed as a woman. But in reality the name is rooted in Fleming. Higson discovered the name in an unpublished Ian Fleming notebook, among other unused gems like Betty Freshette, Pearl Dazzle, Pelikan Strat, and Doctor Thong.

The Bond Girl also sports one of the more Bondian names of the series, Precious Stone. "Actually in the first draft of the book she wasn’t called Precious, she was called Amaryllis Stone," says Higson. "I like the name Amaryllis and, obviously, there was a Fleming connection. A cousin, I think she was a cello player, who is alluded to in From A View To A Kill rather cheekily by Fleming."

However, because the character starts off as somewhat unpleasant and spoiled, IFP were a worried that it might upset the Fleming family, so Higson went searching for another name and decided Precious worked just as well.

"It’s quite good for the character, this kind of southern belle who lives with her father who absolutely dotes on, and so he's called her 'Precious' and she's lived up to her name." (Higson would later use Amaryllis as the name of yacht in his Young Bond short story, A Hard Man To Kill.)

Another nod to Fleming came in the form of the books climatic "Avenue of Death", an endurance test that recalled Doctor No's climatic maze of death. Says Higson, "To a certain extent the whole book is structured like that when James starts off, and he’s got to work his way through these series of disasters and problems, and eventually he arrives at the island and then he has to do the whole thing again in miniature in the Avenue Of Death."

Charlie Higson signing the 1500 copies of Hurricane Gold

After the success of Double or Die’s "name the book" promotion, the publishers decided to go all out for Hurricane Gold. The book itself would be solid gold in color, even down to the page edges. A selection of 1500 copies would be signed and numbered by Charlie Higson and distributed to independent bookstores with the promise that somewhere in the batch would be the desirable "007" edition. (It was ultimately discovered in a small bookshop in Lytham St Ann's in Lancashire, and sold on eBay for a tidy £156.50...to me.)

The gold book

Furthermore, the publisher commissioned "jeweler to the stars" Theo Fennell to create a 24-caret solid gold copy of the book, which opened up to reveal an inner compartment with an inlay of ebonized wood containing a secret message from Charlie Higson. This special Gold Book would be displayed at the Ian Fleming Centenary exhibition at the National War Museum in 2008.

The Hurricane Gold launch event would even out shine the Double or Die launch. Once again Waterston's Piccadilly would host the event dubbed "Gold Thursday." For a day leading up to the launch, actors dressed in gold costumes and face paint were planted around London with copies of the book in hand. Things kicked off behind closed doors with a photocall where Higson posed with the golden actors and members of Puffin's Young Bond publishing team.

Then, approximately 100 Young Bond fans, many dressed in gold clothes and cowboy hats, arrived to be greeted by the golden actors while Mariachi music played and hors d'oeuvres of tortilla chips and golden cupcakes where served. Charlie Higson made his entrance dressed in a gold jacket and tie, then read an excerpt from the book in which Young Bond attempts to negotiate the flooding streets of a Mexican village behind the wheel of a super-charged 1933 Duesenberg SJ, truly one of the novel's most exciting sequences. After a Q&A, during which Charlie teased the possibility of a Young Bond short story and also delivered a Book 5 bombshell (video below), he signed copies of Hurricane Gold in gold pen.

Hurricane Gold shot to #2 on the UK bestsellers chart, but was held at bay by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows which kept a strangle hold on the #1 spot. Still, Hurricane Gold sold an impressive 6056 copies in only a half week of sales and proved another monster hit for Puffin.

The backlist was also proving to be gold, with Puffin releasing the first four books as hardcover "Limited Collectors Editions" signed and numbered by Charlie Higson and housed in attractive slipcases. A signed Collectors Box Set of the first three paperbacks was released exclusively through Borders, and all the titles were released as audiobooks with Charlie Higson reading the abridged versions and actor Nathaniel Parker doing the unabridged versions. There was also talk of releasing the series in Adult Editions, a plan which, unfortunately, never came to fruition.

The success of the series was also having a liberating effect on Charlie Higson himself. "It’s interesting, as the books go on, I’m less worried about pleasing the kind of James Bond purists," Higson told me in an interview on CommanderBond.net shortly after the UK release of Hurricane Gold. "Over here in England, Young Bond is very much seen by the kids as character in his own right. They’re not constantly relating it back to James Bond and the adult Bond and all that. They enjoy the books for what they are, and the character in the books for who he is. And that sort of gives me a little bit more freedom."

But then Higson gave a taste of what was to come next. "That being said, book number five probably will be the most similar in themes and plot elements to a Fleming book. And it certainly moves much more into the world of the Secret Service."

Continue to Part V

Charlie Higson delivers his Book 5 bombshell

Cover art for the Norwegian Hurricane Gold paperback

Our friends at Ian Fleming Publications have provided us with full cover art for the just released Norwegian paperback edition of Charlie Higson’s fourth Young Bond novel, Hurricane Gold (Farlig gull). I've always loved this artwork, and I think it looks so much better without the reflective coating that was used on the UK paperback.

Published by Aschehoug with a translation by Heidi Grinde, Farlig gull finds young James Bond battling American gangsters deep in the jungles of Mexico. Along the way he teams with a Bond Girl named Precious Stone and tangles with a deadly villainess named Mrs. Glass.

Hurricane Gold was first published in the UK in 2007.

'Hurricane Gold' released in the U.S.

Charlie Higson's fourth Young Bond novel, Hurricane Gold, is released today in the U.S. by Disney Hyperion. The book is a hardcover with dust jacket artwork by Kev Walker (who also illustrated the SilverFin Graphic Novel).

Hurricane Gold -- which was first released in the UK in 2007 -- finds young James battling gangsters in the jungles of Mexico. Says author Charlie Higson, “I’ve always loved Mexico and wanted to write something about Mexico. I love the food and the music and growing up on all those cheesy westerns and 1930s thrillers that are set there. So it was just quite fun for me. ... I made sure it’s fairly non-stop action from the beginning.”

Read the full Charlie Higson/Hurricane Gold interview HERE.

The final Young Bond novel, By Royal Command, will be released in the U.S. in May 2010.

In the eye of Hurricane Gold

On Tuesday, April 7, James Bond returns to the USA in Charlie Higson’s fourth Young Bond novel, Hurricane Gold. What follows is an excerpt from our interview with Charlie on the eve of the book’s UK release.

TBB: Hurricane Gold is set entirely in Mexico, which is a great choice because James Bond has never been to Mexico.

CH: I was actually torn between Mexico and North Africa as a location. But then I read somewhere that Fleming was never keen on North Africa and always dismissed it as a location for Bond. I don’t know what his objections were but he didn’t like the idea of North Africa. So I thought well, Mexico. And then I can start in Mexico and end up in the Caribbean. Geographically it makes sense. I thought I really had to have something in the books of the Caribbean because it was such a big deal for Fleming. And I’ve always loved Mexico and wanted to write something about Mexico. I love the food and the music and growing up on all those cheesy westerns and 1930s thrillers that are set there. So it was just quite fun for me.

TBB: Unless it’s a surprise, can you tell us what the title Hurricane Gold refers to?

CH: Well, as with all the other titles, it came very late in the day after many, many different titles. In fact, my working title for the book was “Lagrimas Negras”, which was very quickly rejected by the publishers as being incomprehensible to English readers. As I said, we went through lots of titles. There was originally in the book a big sequence that was set in a gold mine. But I changed that because I felt in Blood Fever we’d kind of done the silver mine thing. So in the end I changed it to an abandoned oil field, which there were a lot of in the 1930s in Mexico. There was a big oil boom there.

But the publishers had got very excited about the idea of gold. And obviously there was a lot of stuff about the Mayans and Mayan gold in the book. And they said “we’d love to have gold in the title somewhere” because they were working on this concept of making a gold book (ED NOTE: The all-gold edition of Hurricane Gold was released by Puffin in the UK). These days, you’ve got to think about marketing even as you’re writing the book. And there is a hurricane early on in the book. So those were the two themes. Then I was kind of knocking around and I thought “Hurricane Gold” actually sounds quite good. It’s quite a nice combination for a title. So I suggested that to them and they jumped at it, at which point, as with SilverFin, I had to go back and work it into the book a bit.

But I did—I came up with an ancient Mayan saying, which I created, which is the concept of “hurricane gold”, which is a great treasure which if you hang on to it, it will destroy you and all your family and bring your house down about your head. And that’s kind of the theme of the book is this secret that everybody’s fighting to get hold of which is destroying anybody who does get hold of it. So if you read to the end of the book the title does makes sense. And I quite like when you do get a kind of theme or something you can think up, even after you’ve written maybe the first or second draft, and then you can go back and work it in. It gives an extra dimension to the book.

TBB: I know you test your books out on your boys as you write them. What’s their reaction to Hurricane Gold and do they have a favorite Young Bond novel? Or maybe a favorite gruesome death?

CH: (Laughs) They like all the deaths. Yes. I mean, actually funny enough, the bit that still really sticks in their mind—certainly with the two youngest ones, because they were very young when they read it—is the opening sequence of SilverFin with the eels and the mutant man in the loch, which does seem to freak out quite a lot of kids, that chapter, which is kind of nice. No, they don’t have a favorite particularly. And yeah, luckily they did really like the new one. I made sure it’s fairly non-stop action from the beginning. It’s a kind of… not exactly a roller-coaster ride, but the central image—theme—of the book is this rat run, a homage, if you like, to Doctor No and his… I don’t know how he describes it, but his kind of “corridor of pain” that James Bond has to work his way through. The guy who runs this island has his own equivalent. It’s much bigger and more elaborate.

TBB: Is that the Avenue Of Death?

CH: It’s the Avenue Of Death, yes, which is a series of passages with traps and dangers you have to work your way through. And so to a certain extent the whole book is structured like that when James starts off, and he’s got to work his way through these series of disasters and problems, and eventually he arrives at the island and then he has to do the whole thing again in miniature in the Avenue Of Death. So I did make sure that it was pretty rollicking action from the beginning so my kids don’t get bored. Because I remember when I was reading Blood Fever to them, we were about halfway through, and one of them said to me: “Dad, when’s the story going to start?” And I was thinking, “What are you talking about? We’re halfway through the book. It’s been nothing but plot.” But what they actually meant was, “When’s there going to be another fight?” As far as they’re concerned, that’s what story is. It’s a lot of fighting—loosely separated with a bit of talking and some scene-setting. So I kind of felt, Let’s start the story on page one in Hurricane Gold and then push it through. So it’s a good reaction. Jim, my twelve-year-old, said a really nice thing to me. When I finished it, he was silent for a moment, and then he said, “Oh, I wish I could have adventures like James Bond.” And that’s exactly the response I want to have from kids—just think “What a great adventure! Wouldn’t that be fun to do!” So luckily, yeah, they do still enjoy the books. I have made sure that there’re a lot of very grisly and gruesome deaths in the book that will stick in a child’s mind.

TBB: The girl in the book is named Precious Stone, which I think is a dynamite name. How do you come up with a Bond Girl name that’s outrageous but not Austin Powers parody?

CH: It’s very tricky, and I’ve noticed on the websites it does kick up a storm of discussion about “Is this a crap name or not?” I don’t know. Any of the Fleming names you could have put them down on paper, if you’d never read the book and knew nothing about Bond, and said “This girl is called ‘that’”, you’d think “Well, I’m not sure about that as a name”. But once you read the book and you accept it and she becomes a character then you buy into it. I think if in the process of the book the character works and the girl becomes interesting, you can, if you want, call her anything you like. But, yeah, it’s hard to think of those names. Especially as I can’t do anything sexual—which Fleming was fond of—because of who I’m writing for.

Actually in the first draft of the book she wasn’t called Precious, she was called Amaryllis Stone. I like the name Amaryllis and, obviously, there was a Fleming connection. A cousin, I think she was a cello player, who is alluded to in From A View To A Kill rather cheekily by Fleming. So yeah, there is a member of the Fleming family called Amaryllis and I just thought it was a great name to use. But the character in the book starts as a real bitch, a real nasty piece of work. Spoilt. But as she goes through these adventures with James—they’re kind of thrown together—she toughens up and you realize that underneath it all, she’s quite tough. By the end, the two of them are, taking on the world together.

But IFP were a little worried. They thought, “Well, you know, she does start a slightly unpleasant character. Might it upset the family?” So, I wasn’t totally wedded to the name, so I thought, “Well, I’ll try and think of another name.” And she already had the surname of “Stone” so I thought “Well, actually, Precious Stone is quite a good name, and it’s quite good for the character, this kind of southern belle who lives with her father who absolutely dotes on, and so he’s called her “Precious” and she’s lived up to her name. I think it’s the kind of thing that by the end of the book hopefully you sort of forget what she’s called and just accept the character on the page. And actually, I’m not sure if in the book it’s ever spelled out as “Precious Stone”. She’s always called “Precious”. I think maybe it’s mentioned toward the end what her name is. But we know she’s called “Precious”, and her surname is “Stone”. But she’s always referred to as “Precious” rather than as “Precious Stone”.

TBB: I think it’s a great name, and Precious wasn’t an uncommon name in the ’30s…

CH: No. Exactly.

TBB: The character of Jack Stone, the World War I ace? Is he based on anything in real life?

CH: Nothing specific, no. In fact, when I started, he wasn’t a World War I flying ace, he was a kind of oil magnate. But in the writing of it, I wanted to slightly change where he was coming from. There’s quite a lot of themes in the book about what happens to heroes when they’re not needed anymore, and it became quite interesting in terms of the whole sort of myth of Bond—you know, how someone in wartime can be a great hero, doing great things, and then if you do those same things in peacetime… because in wartime to be a hero, you’ve got to kill a lot of people. So this is someone who was a big star, big hero, did all the kind of air shows after the war and all that sort of barn-storming stuff and then is quietly forgotten by the world and his money disappears. So he has to… well, you’re going to have to read to find out what happens to him.

But there’s a lot of discussion about “What is a hero?” and what happens when a country doesn’t need its heroes any more and forgets about them. I read quite a lot about the air aces. Most of them were killed before they were about 20. They were about 18 or 19 year olds when they were air aces.

TBB: A very interesting character for James Bond to encounter…

CH: He is—and as the book goes on one realizes that Jack Stone is not all that he seems. And there’s a lot of stuff about the relationship between Precious and her dad, and, of course, James Bond not having a father, he’s sort of jealous, I suppose, in a way, of her relationship with her father.

###

Hurricane Gold will be released by Disney-Hyperion on April 7 and can be pre-ordered now on Amazon.com.

Award winning portrait of Charlie Higson by Anton Artemenkov is used with permission. 

Gold Book will have a new home this summer

The Young Bond Dossier reports that the solid gold version of Charlie Higson’s Hurricane Gold, currently on display at the Imperial War Museum in London, will have a new home for the summer. From 31st July to 6th August the gold book will form part of the activities of ‘SAS Seven Stories’ in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Seven Stories is the first museum in the UK wholly dedicated to the art of British children’s books. ‘SAS Seven Stories’ will celebrate adventures and espionage in children’s books with fantastic ‘Become Bond’ building trails and special events with authors Joshua Mowll and Justin Richards from Friday 31st July – Thursday 6th August.

More details to come.

Final HURRICANE GOLD U.S. cover art is here!

Thanks to our friends at Disney Publishing, today we can show you the final cover art for the U.S. hardcover edition of Charlie Higson’s Hurricane Gold, due for release on April 7, 2009.

This spectacular artwork is by artist Kev Walker who most recently illustrated SilverFin The Graphic Novel and provided cover art for new U.S. paperback editions of SilverFin and Blood Fever due out in March.

Prototype art for Hurricane Gold, first revealed back in June, showed Bond with Precious Stone in the jungles of Mexico. But in keeping with the new unified “Bond vs Villain” theme, Precious has been replaced with the brain-damaged henchman Manny the Girl.

The Hurricane Gold hardcover is available for pre-order on Amazon.com along with all the new Young Bond releases for 2009:

Closer look at the HURRICANE GOLD prototype cover

Publisher Disney Hyperion have posted on their website Kev Walker’s prototype artwork for the U.S. hardcover edition of Hurricane Gold, due for release April 7, 2009. This is a much larger image than what was revealed on the official Young Bond site back in June.

Mind you, this is not the final art (as it says on the cover itself). The final art will reflect the “Bond vs. Villain” theme as seen on Double or Die and the new paperback editions of SilverFin and Blood Fever due for release next year.

Still, this is beautiful work by Walker (who’s work can be seen in the new SilverFin Graphic Novel) and it’s nice to get a closer look. We hope to bring you the FINAL cover sometime this month.

The Hurricane Gold hardcover is available for pre-order on Amazon.com.

Precious GOLD

The Young Bond Dossier reports that Puffin has released a Hurricane Gold Limited Collector’s Edition in the UK. Limited to 999 copies (which means there is a copy #007 out there), the hardcover book is signed and numbered by author Charlie Higson and comes in an attractive slipcase.

The Hurricane Gold Limited Collector’s Edition is a Waterstone’s exclusive and retails for £25. It can be purchased online at Waterstones.com and Hatchards.

Galaxy Plus releases Large Print Hurricane Gold

Specialty publisher Galaxy Plus has released a Large Print edition of Charlie Higson’s fourth Young Bond novel, Hurricane Gold. The book is an oversized trade paperback with cover art similar to the UK paperback, but with no golden effect, making the book orange in color, and Charlie’s name is in red instead of white

The Galaxy Plus Large Print Hurricane Gold contains the complete text (excluding the By Royal Command extract) with enlarged type for those who have difficulty with standard font sizes.

Galaxy has now released all the Young Bond novels in Large Print editions.

Galaxy Plus is one of the most prolific publishers of large print books and unabridged audiobooks in the world with over 3000 titles encompassing a wide range of best-selling authors. Galaxy titles can be ordered at BBC Audiobooks.

YOUNG BOND centenary week events

Bondmania swept London last week as the first adult James Bond novel in 6 years, Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks, was released to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Ian Fleming’s birth. But Young Bond was also part of the celebration with the release of a sparkling paperback edition of Hurricane Gold. Charlie Higson may not have rode down the Thames in a catsuit, but he did embark on a book tour while stores across the UK held Young Bond quizzes and special Young Bond Mini Adventure challenges.

Charlie kicked off the week with an appearance at the Imperial War Museum’s special Ian Fleming exhibition, For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond. Noting that he labors for a year over each Young Bond installment, Charlie joked, “there’s this man called Sebastian Faulks who claims to have written a Bond novels in just six weeks.”

Charlie joined fellow Bond authors Sebastian Faulks and Samantha Weinberg (The Moneypenny Diaries) at the spectacular Devil May Care launch party on May 27. Held at the exclusive private club FIFTY, the party was also attended by Devil May Care cover model Tuuli Shipster and a host of notables and celebrities, including members of the Fleming family.

On launch day, May 28, Charlie appeared at the Hay Festival in Wales while back in London magician David Crofts entertained children and hosted a Young Bond costume contest at Waterstones Piccadilly. Waterstones had a full stock of signed copies of Hurricane Gold waiting for those Bond fans who had queued up in the pre-dawn hours to buy a special limited edition of Devil May Care (including yours truly).

The following day, Charlie appeared at Waterstone’s in Bristol, which also hosted a Young Bond Mini Adventure Challenge. Friday found Charlie signing copies of the book in Norwich where, according to the Evening News, some fans showed up in their own suave James Bond suits.

The Young Bond Dossier was on hand during Charlie’s appearance at Waterstones in Milton Keynes on Saturday, May 31. Charlie signed copies of Hurricane Gold for a long queue of enthusiastic fans while the brave took on a rolling rock wall challenge set up in front of the store. Free bookmarks promoting the next Young Bond novel, By Royal Command, were also available. After the signing, Charlie signed the store’s entire stock of Young Bond novels in record time.

Charlie concludes his book tour today with a signing at WHSmith in Manchester. He will then complete the circle and return to the Imperial War Museum this Tuesday for a panel discussion about “Writing Bond”.

What a week for Bond fans!

HURRICANE GOLD paperback released today

Charlie Higson’s fourth Young Bond bestseller Hurricane Gold is released in paperback today (which also happens to be the 100th anniversary of the birth of James Bond creator Ian Fleming).

Even those fans who picked up the hardcover last September will want to grab a copy of the new paperback as it contains an exclusive extract from the next Young Bond novel By Royal Command (due out September 4) and a special five-page preview of SilverFin The Graphic Novel (due out October 2).

Author Charlie Higson will kick off today’s release with an appearance at the Hay Festival in Hay-on-Wye at 2:30. He will then embark on a UK book tour with stops in Bristol, Norwich, Milton Keynes, and Manchester (click for full schedule and store details).

Also to celebrate the release, several UK bookstores will host Young Bond Mini Adventures Challenges (click for details), and Waterstones Picadilly will hold a special Young Bond quiz and costume party today from noon to 4pm.

Today also sees the release of the new adult Bond novel, Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks.

For young and old...Bond is back!

The man with the golden book

A dazzling 24-carat gold-plated copy of Charlie Higson’s fourth Young Bond novel Hurricane Gold was revealed yesterday at a major press event at the Imperial War Museum in London. The event was attended by author Charlie Higson, renowned jeweler Theo Fennell (designer of the Gold Book), and four lucky schoolchildren from nearby Charlotte Sharman School in Lambeth, who got a close-up preview of the gold book before it went into its display case.

The gold book is now a permanent part of the Imperial War Museum’s For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming & James Bond, and forms an integral part of a special Young Bond trail within the exhibition. The gold book takes its inspiration from the rumored treasure in the story and opens up to reveal an inner compartment with an inlay of ebonised wood, containing a very special secret note from Charlie Higson.

The gold book will also feature as a part of Puffin’s advertising campaign for the paperback edition of Hurricane Gold, due for release on Wednesday, May 28, the centenary of the birth of Ian Fleming.

Win a crocodile!

To celebrate the release this month of Charlie Higson’s fourth Young Bond novel Hurricane Gold in paperback, Puffin is giving fans a chance to adopt a genuine West African Dwarf Crocodile from the Whipsnade Zoo!

Click below for details and entry form at the official Puffin website.

HURRICANE GOLD paperback promotional poster

Our friends at Puffin Books have given us an exclusive first look at this spectacular new promotional poster for the paperback edition of Charlie Higson’s Hurricane Gold. The book is set for release on May 28, the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ian Fleming. As previously reported, the paperback will include a preview extract of the fifth Young Bond novel, By Royal Command.

May 28, 2008 is going to be a big day for Bond fans young and old. In addition to the Centenary and Hurricane Gold, the day will also see the release of an all-new adult Bond novel, Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks.

Charlie Higson will launch the paperback Hurricane Gold with a personal appearance at the Hay Literary Festival in Hay-on-Wye. He will then embark on a UK book tour. No word yet on a launch event for Devil May Care, but certainly IFP and Penguin have something cooking for the big day.

Speaking of the big day, I will be traveling to the UK during the Centenary week and will provide full coverage and a gallery of pics of all the exciting Young Bond and Centenary events.

Get ready for Bondmania 2008!

Hurricane Gold paperback will include Book 5 extract

Looks like fans will get a preview of the next Young Bond adventure as early as May 28. That’s the day the paperback edition of Charlie Higson’s Hurricane Gold is released, and according to newly released cover art, the book will include an exclusive extract from Young Bond 5!

While the U.S. paperback edition of SilverFin featured a Blood Fever extract, this is a first for a UK paperback.

Young Bond 5 will be released in hardcover on September 4, 2008. Charlie Higson is currently hard at work on this final Young Bond novel.

Source: The Young Bond Dossier

HURRICANE GOLD chapter numbering error

Here’s one for the collectors.

Trempo over at the always vigilant CBn Forums has discovered an error in the Hurricane Gold UK hardcover. It appears Chapter 17, Manny the Girl (so noted in the Table of Contents) is mis-numbered as Chapter 18 in the body of the book. The following chapter, Change of Plan, is also marked as Chapter 18.

Whoops.

Printing errors such as these can sometimes have an impact on the value of first editions, especially if the error was discovered and corrected before the first print run was complete. There are several minor errors in the Ian Fleming first editions that substantially effect value.

This isn’t the first Young Bond novel error of note. The first edition of SilverFin stated on it’s title page that the next Young Bond novel would be coming out in October 2005, while an advert for the same book in the back showed a January 2006 release. This was corrected in the 2nd edition. Booksellers on eBay and elsewhere note this error as an important identify “point” for a true SilverFin first.