Happy birthday IAN FLEMING (and DMC)

Today makes the 105th birthday of James Bond creator Ian Fleming. Visit the official Ian Fleming Publications website to see how the day is being celebrated with special events and offerings, as well as the official announcement of who will be reading AudioGo's final two Ian Fleming audiobooks.

Today also marks the 5th anniversary of the publication of Sebastian Faulks' Devil May Care. No matter what you thought of the book, you can't say that it wasn't a spectacular day for fans of the book Bond.

May 28, 2008 - Sebastian Faulks delivers his new Bond novel to Waterstones.

LICENSE RENEWED Finnish edition

I'm re-reading John Gardner's first James Bond novel, License Renewed, and I just finished the chapter in which Bond attempts his nighttime escape from Murik Castle in his Saab. It made me think of this cover, so I've plucked it off the shelf and gave it a scan for us. This is the Finnish first edition hardcover featuring a close but not quite 007 movie logo and a (red?) Saab. I love it.

All the John Gardner James Bond novels were recently reprinted. Visit The Book Bond's special Gardner Renewed page for links to all the Gardner-Bond reprints in the U.S. and UK.

John Gardner's OTHER FELLOW returns to print

When John Gardner wrote his 14 book James Bond series in the 1980s and 90s, he also penned an original series of espionage novels featuring his own MI6 agent, Herbie Kruger. Gardner's five Kruger novels were: The Nostradamus Traitor (1979), The Garden of Weapons (1980), The Quite Dogs (1982), Maestro (1993) and Confessor (1995).

Now Bello, as imprint of Pan Macmillan, have brought John Gardner's five long out-of-print Herbie Kruger novels back to readers as new trade paperbacks and ebooks.

You can purchase all five Herbie Kruger books direct from the Pan Macmillan website or Amazon.co.uk.

These new Bello print and eBook editions are not available U.S. and Canada. However, you can get new Kindle editions in the U.S. from Mysterious Press/Open Road via Amazon.com.

Thanks to Sarah at Four Coleman Getty.

SOLO U.S. temp cover gets a make-over

U.S. publisher HarperCollins has revamped their temporary cover art for Solo, the new James Bond novel by William Boyd. As you can see below, they've jettisoned their own design and now are using artwork that matches the UK temp art by Jonathan Cape (except with the U.S. release day, October 8, 2013).

Old U.S. temp cover (left) and the new (right).

Yeah, it's definitely an improvement. But it's always nice to have variant artwork on each side of the Atlantic, so I hope they didn't do this just for me. :p

Solo will be released by Jonathan Cape in the UK on September 26, 2013 (Amazon.co.uk) and by HarperCollins in the U.S. on October 8, 2013 (Amazon.com).

SOLO's international publishers (so far)

Here is a list of foreign language publishers (so far) for Solo, the upcoming new James Bond novel by William Boyd. No word on specific release dates for these international editions.

France
Editions du Seuil

Italy
Einaudi

Brazil
Objetiva

The Netherlands
Uitgeverij Atlas Contact

Germany
Berlin Verlag

Spain
Alfaguara

Poland
Foksal

Solo will be released by Jonathan Cape in the UK on September 26, 2013 (Amazon.co.uk) and by HarperCollins in the U.S. on October 8, 2013 (Amazon.com).

Thanks as always to Phoebe at IFP.