Having posted the
John Gardner U.S. hardcovers last month, I figured I'd continue with the John Gardner UK hardcover first editions from Jonathan Cape and Hodder & Stoughton. Certainly not as uniform as the U.S. set, but some nice covers.
Licence To Kill,
GoldenEye,
SeaFire, and
COLD are the standout rarities in this batch.
Licence To Kill was actually printed in the U.S. by Mysterious Press and distributed in the UK by Severn House in very limited quantities in April 1990, a year after the paperback release. The First Edition print run of
GoldenEye is said to have been in the 2000 copy range. It went into subsequent printings very quickly.
SeaFire was remaindered in the UK so almost all copies were price clipped and it's tricky to find a copy with the price intact.
Because
SeaFire was not a big seller,
COLD was printed on a demand basis. The bulk of the orders came from public libraries and these editions were bound in with plain boards of a different color. Only about 900 copies were printed and about 500 of these were library editions. Unless you pre-ordered this book, you were unlikely to get one. It's the rarest of all the Gardner hardcovers.
Publication:
Licence Renewed – Jonathan Cape, May 21, 1981.
For Special Services – Jonathan Cape, September 9, 1982.
Icebreaker - Jonathan Cape, July 7, 1983.
Role of Honour - Jonathan Cape, October 4, 1984.
Nobody Lives For Ever - Jonathan Cape, May 22, 1986.
No Deals, Mr. Bond - Jonathan Cape, May 21, 1987.
Scorpius - Hodder & Stoughton, June 2, 1988.
Win Lose or Die - Hodder & Stoughton, August 1989.
Licence To Kill – The Mysterious Press, April 1990.
Brokenclaw - Hodder & Stoughton, August 2, 1990.
The Man From Barbarossa – Hodder & Stoughton, August 18, 1991.
Death Is Forever - Hodder & Stoughton, July 2, 1992.
Never Send Flowers - Hodder & Stoughton, July 15, 1993.
SeaFire - Hodder & Stoughton, August 1994.
GoldenEye - Hodder & Stoughton, November 1995.
COLD - Hodder & Stoughton, May 2, 1996.
Charlie Higson's five Young Bond novels with the newly refreshed cover art are now shipping from Amazon.co.uk. These new editions of SilverFin, Blood Fever, Double or Die, Hurricane Gold, and By Royal Command are published by Puffin Books. The official release date is April 5.
