In an earlier post I remarked on the idea of a bringing in further authors to continue what Faulks had started. I just saw this piece in the Times by Robert Sellers, author of The Battle For Bond, who quotes Corinne Turner of Ian Fleming Publications about the possibility of future Bond novels.

“We have a number of projects in mind. Nothing concrete to talk about at the moment, but there will be some more novels in the future.”

I don’t think anyone doubted more novels, but it will be interesting to see what does come next considering Devil May Care is supposedly a one-off, the third and final Moneypenny diary has been released, and the fifth and previously-thought final Young Bond novel is due for publication in September. In the same article Higson talks about more Young Bond books, something we’ve already covered here. Anyway, I just wanted to highlight the piece.

Saturday 24 May Radio 4 kicks off their Fleming Centenary celebration. Beginning at 10:30am they will air “The Bond Correspondence” where Lucy Fleming (Ian’s niece) will “embark upon a quest to discover more about her mysterious uncle Ian, creator of James Bond.” Roger Moore will apparently play the voice of Ian Fleming. Sounds cool, but the main feature will be Toby Stephens (Gustav Graves in Die Another Day) playing the voice of James Bond in a dramatization of Dr. No. Doctor No will be played by David Suchet. This begins at 2:30pm.

At some point, I believe they’ll add it to their website. Check here for when that happens. Maybe while everyone enjoys this, I’ll go back and listen to the BBC dramatization of You Only Live Twice with Michael Jayston as 007. I always thought I should post that here for everyone to hear, but I’m not sure it’s legally smart. I’ll look into this.

On Monday 26 May Radio 4 will air a 30-minute segment called “James Bond, the Last Englishman”. This will be hosted by professor David Cannadine who will argue Fleming’s novels are a great response to when Britain was struggling to find a role in the world having just lost an Empire. That airs at 8pm.

The Times gets all the good stuff. Today they published an interview with Faulks on the subject of Devil May Care. There’s a lot of interesting bits throughout. Some of it old that we’ve seen before, some it new. If you read the extract that was published by the Times then you’ll know the villain like many of Fleming’s villains has a physical deformity, which I won’t ruin for you guys out there saving yourself for the big day. But no matter how far-fetched you may feel it is, according to the interview, Faulks’ idea originated from “his schoolboy memories and his father’s talk of a throwback freakishness that afflicted a fellow undergraduate.”

Other points of interest include how Faulks came to the idea of using drugs, specifically opium, as a main plot of the story. The use of France in the opening of the book and the use of the Middle East. Reading that I wonder if Faulks is aware or perhaps even read (at least in part) Fleming’s typescript: State of Excitement: Impressions of Kuwait which was never published.

Something of a semi-review and talk of a follow-up close the interview:

Quick-witted as well as fast-paced, the resulting book blends high-octane thrills with playful allusiveness. (There’s an adroit handling of Bond’s “shaken not stirred” martini preferences, and a wonderfully duplicitous Bond girl.) Will Faulks write another 007 sequel? It seems unlikely. He is, he says, going back to work next month on his novel-in-progress about contemporary Britain. Maybe, he suggests, the Fleming estate should invite a series of other novelists to do one-off Bond continuations. If so, possible contenders will find that Devil May Care has set the bar challengingly high.

Of course never say never, and remember that Faulks did originally turn down doing this one (saying not likely) so who knows. I do, however, like the idea of getting other novelists (preferably well-known) to continue what Faulks has started. That sounds interesting to me. Imagine in maybe 2010 another 1960s Bond, but this time written by Lee Child or Ken Follett (for example, I advocate no particular author at this time). You never know.

Story

I actually enjoyed it. There are a couple of nitpicks I could make, but I want to reserve judgment till I can read more of it in context. Wednesday is almost here.

Pre-order it from Amazon.com

Over at CommanderBond.net our good friend Charles Helfenstein wrote up a really good and interesting piece on a project Fleming and Terence Young (director of Dr. No, From Russia with Love and Thunderball) collaborated on in Fleming’s final days called The Poppy Is Also A Flower.

While we don’t know much about the story of Devil May Care, we do know it involves the heroin trade and poppies in some form as seen from the cover of the UK jacket. Poppies also showed up in Fleming’s Goldfinger in the first chapter. Couple of people have said that Devil May Care is a Bond novel that Fleming may have written had he had lived a little longer. The subject matter certainly is.

Ian Fleming’s Last Story: The Poppy Is Also A Flower

Gold. Everyone’s favorite precious metal is making its way into a single copy of Hurricane Gold, the most recent novel released in the Young Bond series by author Charlie Higson. The book was unveiled today at the Imperial War Museum where it will become part of the Ian Fleming exhibition currently on display.

Learn more and see pictures of it being made at the Young Bond Dossier.

According to theBookseller, the first copies of James Bond’s upcoming adventure by Sebastian Faulks will be escorted down the Thames to a press event on board the HMS Exeter at Tower Bridge. This sounds pretty similar to when Daniel Craig was announced as James Bond. Interestingly, if you read the bio of James Bond from the film Casino Royale, the marketing-created one, it actually says Bond served on the HMS Exeter as an intelligence officer before and during Operation Granby. After the press event, a convoy will deliver the books to Waterstone’s in Piccadilly.

theBookseller calls the launch “massive” and according to Penguin General m.d. Tom Weldon, it will be the “most spectacular in publishing for decades”. That’s a pretty big promise right there. Currently there’s a large countdown to Devil May Care in Piccadilly Circus. You can see it here. Right below what appear to be delicious McDonald’s Chicken McNuggets. (It had to be mentioned)

The press event takes place on May 27th, a day before Devil May Care’s release.

Big thanks to CommanderBond.net

The Times is giving away free Bond novels with their next week’s editions.Starting on Saturday 17 May, all readers will be able to get their hands on Ian Fleming’s final Bond release, Octopussy and The Living Daylights. Following that:

• Monday: Casino Royale
• Tuesday: Live and Let Die
• Wednesday: Moonraker
• Thursday: Diamonds Are Forever
• Friday: From Russia with Love

The final five here will only be available with The Times when you pick up your copy in WHSmith. Pretty good deal.

CommanderBond.net alerts us that the Ian Fleming biopic which was announced to be in the works as far back as 2005 is still full steam ahead by Appian Way, Leonardo DiCaprio’s production company. Called simply “Fleming”, the film may star Leo as Ian Fleming himself. I don’t know how I feel about that, though in recent years I must say I think he’s become a pretty good actor and he did successfully portray Howard Hughes. He did so well in that role that he was nominated for an Academy Award.

His latest version of the screenplay begins on the eve of Fleming’s Jamaica wedding in 1952, just before his first Bond novel, “Casino Royale,” was published (a wedding present to his new wife).

It then flashes back to Fleming’s years as a Reuters journalist stationed in Moscow and then a Commander of Naval Intelligence (MI6 code name “17F”) during World War II who devised innovative spying plots.

Read more at The LA Times.

The Moneypenny Diaries: Guardian Angel has finally been released in the United States. First published in the UK on 10 October 2005, the diary chronicles the life of Miss Moneypenny, M’s secretary. Guardian Angel takes place between On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and You Only Live Twice.

Two further adventures have been written but have yet to be announced for publication in the United States. Secret Servant: The Moneypenny Diaries (published in the UK in 2006) and, The Moneypenny Diaries: Final Fling, which was just released in the UK this month. Two short stories were also published in 2006: “For Your Eyes Only, James” and “Moneypenny’s First Date With Bond”. The trilogy was written by Samantha Weinberg under the pseudonym Kate Westbrook (as editor).

Order it from Amazon.