The 'Devil' down under

Sebastian Faulks bestselling James Bond novel, Devil May Care, will be released in paperback in Australia on June 29, 2009.

The cover art, as revealed on Penguin's Australian website (left), is slightly different from the UK paperback.

Charlie Higson's fifth Young Bond novel, By Royal Command, will also see its paperback release in Australia on the 29th.

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.

Daniel Craig on filming 'Devil May Care'

Promoting the upcoming DVD release of Quantum of Solace, Daniel Craig spoke with the Herald Sun about how Sebastian Faulks' Devil May Care might be translated to the screen.

Says Craig, "Have you seen that terrific series Mad Men? It’s great and I look at that guy (Jon Hamm) and he’s got such a great look. If you were doing the film of Sebastian Faulks’ Bond book (Devil May Care) that look would be perfect. If you were doing a one off film I would say that’s the way you would go."

So does this mean we might we see Daniel Craig's 007 in the true world of Fleming's Bond? Unfortunately, no. After suggesting this very appealing idea, he gets back on message and shoots it down.

"But that’s not where we are. The intention was always to make more than one of these so we have to move it forward because in two years time when hopefully we’ll do another one, we’ll still be pushing it forward. If we’d have gone for some cute idea of what it was in the past, some kind of retro thing, it just wouldn’t move it on."

Frankly, I don't think Craig's heart in in this second statement. I think he'd love to prowl through Fleming's world as 007. Craig is correct in pointing out Mad Men as a way to make period seem fresh and new. But Eon appears to be dead set against ever moving James Bond back into his glory says (as IFP has done, with tremendous success, in the books).

But it took filmmakers over 30 years to finally send Sherlock Holmes back to the Victorian era. Holmes was presented as a contemporary figure in film well into the 1930s (battling gangsters and wielding high tech gadgets). It wasn't until The Hound of the Baskervilles (1939) that Holmes was finally done in period, and it's not a coincidence that this was the first hit Holmes film that laid the templet for all that followed.

I do hope at some point in the future we will see a period James Bond film, even if it's just a one off.

'Devil May Care' nominated for Galaxy British Book Award

Sebastian Faulks' Devil May Care has been short listed for the Sainsbury's Popular Fiction Award, part of the Galaxy British Book Awards, 2009 ("the Oscars of the Book World"). The nominees are:

Azincourt	Bernard Cornwell	HarperCollins
Devil May Care	Sebastian Faulks	Penguin 007
The Outcast	Sadie Jones	Vintage
Thanks for the Memories	Cecelia Ahern	Harper
Things I Want My Daughters to Know	Elizabeth Noble	Penguin
This Charming Man	Marian Keyes	Penguin

The awards are decided by online votes, so CLICK HERE to vote for Devil May Care!

New Young Bond U.S. paperbacks released

Disney Hyperion has released the paperback edition of Charlie Higson’s 3rd Young Bond novel, Double or Die, along with refreshed paperbacks of SilverFin and Blood Fever with new cover art by Kev Walker.

All three U.S. paperbacks match nicely in size and style. Double or Die contains a preview of the next Young Bond novel, Hurricane Gold (due for release in hardcover next month).

All the Young Bond U.S. releases are available now at Amazon.com:

SilverFin (New Cover)
Blood Fever (New Cover)
Double or Die (Paperback)
Hurricane Gold (Hardcover) - April 7, 2009

'Devil May Care' powers Pengiun profits

The Scotsman reports that "sales of the new James Bond novel Devil May Care have helped book publisher Pearson remain as 'hardy and aggressive' as the book's central character in the face of tough economic conditions.

Sebastian Faulks' Bond update, published by Pearson title Penguin, was the fastest-selling hardback fiction novel in Penguin UK's history, and the third-bestselling in the UK in 2008."

Penguin will release the paperback edition of Devil May Care on May 28, 2009. Children's division Puffin Books will release the paperback edition of Charlie Higson's latest Young Bond bestseller, By Royal Command, on the same day.

James Bond operates 'The Girl Machine'

CommanderBond.net has revealed details of Titan Books next collection of classic James Bond comic strips, The Girl Machine. The collection will contain the title story as well as "Beware Of Butterflies" and "The Nevsky Nude."

First published in 1973, "The Girl Machine," finds 007 and Bond Girl Zebeide Rashid traveling to Hajar to free an imprisoned Emir. In "Beware of Butterflies" Bond is once again teamed with agent Suzi Kew to influtrae an Eastern European spy ring. "The Nevsky Nude" finds 007 uncovering a SMERSH operation in Sussex.

The Girl Machine is now available for pre-order at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. Release date is July 23, 2009.

Story info from The Bond Files by Andy Lane and Paul Simpson.

Raymond Benson's 'Choice of Weapons'

Great news. Pegasus Books will publish a second anthology of Raymond Benson's 007 work, tentatively titled Choice of Weapons (excellent Bond title, IMO).

The collection will include the novels Zero Minus Ten, The Facts of Death, The Man With The Red Tattoo, and the short stories Live At Five and Midsummer Night's Doom. Tentative publication date is late spring or early summer 2010.

For more news about Raymond Benson's current and upcoming original work, visit his official website.

'Devil May Care' promotion wins award

Lucy Chavasse and Jill Cotton of the PR firm Coleman-Getty have won The Bookseller award for Hardback Fiction for last year's spectacular launch of Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks.

They will now go forward for The Galaxy British Book Awards ‘Nibbie' for the best campaign of the year, to be announced in April.

Congratulations!

TALK OF THE DEVIL

Talk of the Devil is a collection of rarely-seen journalism and other writing by Ian Fleming. It belongs to a special edition of his complete works published in 2008 by Queen Anne Press to commemorate the centenary of his birth. The edition is intended to celebrate Fleming not only as the creator of Bond but as an accomplished and vivid journalist, distinguished bibliophile and literary publisher.

No uniform edition of Fleming’s complete works has appeared before. Talk of the Devil, the last of eighteen volumes, is edited by his niece Kate Grimond and nephew Fergus Fleming.

“In preparing this volume our goal has not been to assemble every overlooked scrap of Ian Fleming’s writing, far less to make a definitive collection of his journalism. Instead we have tried to create a book that does justice to its author. The contents have been selected for their rarity, their historical and biographical value and the glimpses they give of his opinions and enthusiasms. Our overriding policy has been that they should be of interest and entertainment.

A few items have never been published, others have already appeared in print - as, for example, the articles that Ian Fleming wrote during his long association with the Sunday Times. In the latter case we have followed the original typescript rather than the published version, and where good lines were edited out we have put them back in. The title is taken from a notebook in which Fleming listed names and phrases that caught his fancy. Talk of the Devil, which was an early contender for Diamonds are Forever, caught our fancy too.”

At more than 400 pages Talk of the Devil is the longest work ever to bear Ian Fleming’s name.