It's official: Charlie Higson is the next JAMES BOND

Yes, it's true. Young Bond author Charlie Higson will play "James Bond" in 2013!

RadioTimes reports that Charlie Higson has adapted the Miss Marple adventure A Caribbean Mystery for ITV1, and will have a cameo role as unassuming American ornithologist, James Bond.

Of course, this is nod to the real James Bond, author of Birds of the West Indies, whose name was "borrowed" by Ian Fleming for his fictional super spy.

A Caribbean Mystery finds Agatha Christies "spinster sleuth" investigating the death of a guest at a lavish hotel on the tropical island of St Honore. It will be broadcast on ITV1 in the UK in 2013.

Directed by Charlie Palmer, A Caribbean Mystery will feature Julia McKenzie as Miss Marple. Supporting players include Robert Webb, Montserrat Lombard, Daniel Rigby, Hermione Norris, MyAnna Buring, Warren Brown, Antony Sher and Higson, Charlie Higson as JAMES BOND.

First photo of the new Bond. (Note character name on window card.)

Speaking of Higson, the latest book in his popular Enemy series, The Sacrifice, has just been released by Puffin Books in the UK.

Thanks to marktmurphy at the CBn Forums for the alert. Follow Charlie Higson on Twitter @monstroso.

Second CHITTY sequel published today in the UK

The second sequel to Ian Fleming's Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is released today in the UK.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang And The Race Against Time by Frank Cottrell Boyce is the follow up to his Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again released last year. The book is again illustrated by Joe Berger and picks up with the Tooting family stranded in the Cretaceous period.

Warning: May contain dinosaurs!

From the cover art, it appears the traditional Chitty car is back. In the first book the engine of Chitty inhabited a magical VW Bus.

Purchase Chitty Chitty Bang Bang And The Race Against Time at Amazon.co.uk.

It isn't due for release in the U.S. until March 2013.

BOND ON SET: FILMING SKYFALL released

Bond on Set: Filming Skyfall has been released by DK Books. The book is a collection of candid behind the scenes photographs from the set of the latest Bond film by official photographer Greg Williams.

Previous "Bond on Set" books have covered Die Another Day, Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.

The photos are terrific, but I miss "making of" books that actually tell the story of the filming (you know, with words). Licence To Kill, GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, and The World Is Not Enough all had nicely informative official "making of" books. And, of course, the unofficial The Making of On Her Majesty's Secret Service by Charles Helfenstein is the greatest of all the Bond "making of" books, IMO.

But if you crave behind the scenes pics, then this is a must buy.

Purchase Bond on Set: Filming Skyfall from Amazon.com (U.S.) and Amazon.co.uk (UK).

Related: IFP confirms no Skyfall novelization (dang it).

CATCHING BULLETS – MEMOIRS OF A BOND FAN out now

Catching Bullets - Memoirs of a Bond Fan by Mark O'Connell has been released by Splendid Books. The book is described as "Fever Pitch meets 007 - a personal trawl through growing up as a gay Bond fan in the 1980s." It's getting great early reviews and contains a Foreword by Mark Gatiss, an Afterward by Maud Adams, and a Prelude by Barbara Broccoli.

From the offbeat vantage point of a movie-obsessed teenager whose grandfather was chauffeur to legendary 007 producer Albert R. Broccoli, CATCHING BULLETS – MEMOIRS OF A BOND FAN is a love-letter to James Bond, Duran Duran title songs and bolting down your tea quick enough to watch Roger Moore falling out of a plane without a parachute. 

 When Jimmy O'Connell took a job as chauffeur for 007 producers Eon Productions, it would not just be Cubby Broccoli, Roger Moore and Sean Connery he would drive to James Bond. His grandson Mark swiftly hitches a ride on a humorous journey of filmic discovery where Bond movies fire like bespoke bullets at a Reagan-era Catholic childhood marked with divorce, a closet-gay adolescence sound-tracked by John Barry and an adult life as a comedy writer still inspired by that Broccoli movie magic. 

“Mark O’Connell is a great new writing talent and we are delighted to be publishing his first book,” says Splendid Books’ Editorial Director Shoba Vazirani. CATCHING BULLETS is very funny and he brings a genuinely new insight into the Bond film phenomena.

“The book is a fascinating journey, in which Mark reconsiders all the Bond films as they fire into his and everyone’s cinema-going memories.”

You can purchase Catching Bullets - Memoirs of a Bond Fan at Amazon.com (U.S.) and Amazon.co.uk (UK).

Pegasus NO DEALS MR. BOND U.S. paperback ships early

The new U.S. paperback edition of John Gardner's No Deals Mr. Bond from Pegasus has been released early. Originally scheduled for October 15, Amazon shows the book as in stock now.

Scorpius was also announced for October 15. So far that release date is holding. My question/concern is whether Pegasus will actually release all the Gardner books in the U.S. as Orion has done in the UK. So far they've not announced any books beyond Scorpius. Also, Orion's UK editions are now listing on the U.S. Amazon.

Visit our special Gardner Renewed page for links and release date updates for all the Gardner-Bond reprints in the U.S. and UK.

Thanks to Neil Bulk for the alert.

UPDATE: Word is Scorpius is now shipping as well.