Ian Fleming Publications Ltd has chosen international bestselling thriller writer, Jeffery Deaver, to write a new James Bond book.
The novel, currently known as Project X, will be published around May 28, 2011 in the UK and Ireland— for Ian Fleming's birthday. And on June 14, 2011 in the USA and Canada. It will be published by Jeffery
Deaver's publishers Hodder & Stoughton in the UK and Simon & Schuster in the US.
007 came to life fully-formed in 1952 when Ian Fleming wrote Casino Royale. Since then over 100 million James Bond books have sold worldwide.
In 2004, Deaver won the Crime Writers' Association's Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for his book Garden of Beasts. In his acceptance speech he talked about his life-long admiration of Fleming's
writing.
Corinne Turner, Managing Director of Ian Fleming Publications Ltd, was in the audience. She explains, 'I'd always enjoyed Jeffery Deaver's thrillers, but I particularly liked Garden of Beasts: it demonstrated
that he was not only a master of the contemporary American thriller but could also write compelling novels of period suspense within a European setting. I didn't know anything about the author himself
and expected a fairly low key response from him when he received our award.
'I was surprised and delighted when he spoke very fondly of Ian and about the influence that the Bond
books had had on his own writing career. It was at that point that I first thought that James Bond could have an interesting adventure in Jeffery Deaver's hands.'
Deaver comments, 'I can't describe the thrill I felt when first approached by Ian Fleming's estate to ask if
I'd be interested in writing the next book in the James Bond series. I began reading them when I was about nine or ten, ignorant of the Cold War politics they explored but enthralled by their sense of
adventure and derring-do. I continued to read and reread them, which was fortunate because as a teen and adult I found, of course, nuances, that were invisible to a child.'
He continues, 'The Bond books were important parts of my life – both literarily and personally. They
appealed to me as wonderful stories but they also stood as singular examples of a thriller writer's craft. I learned, through osmosis as well as design, much technique from Mr. Fleming's work; compactness,
attention to detail, heroic though flawed characters, fast-pacing, concrete imagery and straight-forward prose.'
Unlike Sebastian Faulks' centenary novel, Devil May Care, Project X will be set in the present day. Jeffery Deaver has started work on the book and his title is yet to be revealed.
David Rosenthal, Executive vice-president and Publisher of Simon & Schuster, comments, "For Simon & Schuster, Deaver and Bond are a peerless combination: clever, suspenseful and sophisticated. Jeff
Deaver will produce a popular entertainment of the highest order."
The original Fleming novels are published worldwide by Penguin Books.
A Statement From Jeffery Deaver
When first approached by Ian Fleming's estate and the publishing company that oversees his work to ask if I'd be interested in writing the next book in the
James Bond series, I can't describe the thrill I felt.
My history with Bond goes back fifty years. I was about eight or nine when I picked up my first Bond
novel. I was a bit precocious when it came to reading, but I have my parents to thank for that. They had a rule that I was not allowed to watch
certain movies, but I could read anything that I could get my hands on. This was ironic since, in the 1950s and early '60s, you'd never see sex or violence on the screen. So, I was allowed to read every
Bond book my father brought home or that I could afford with my allowance.
I felt Fleming's influence early. My first narrative fiction, written when I was eleven, was based on Bond. It
was about a spy who stole a top-secret airplane from the Russians. The agent was American but had a British connection, having been stationed, like my father, in East Anglia during WWII.
I can still recall the moment when I heard on the news that Fleming had died – I was in my mid-teens. It was as if I had lost a good friend or uncle. Nearly as troubling was the TV anchorman who reported that
Bond, too, would die in the final pages of the last book, The Man with the Golden Gun. I was in agony
until I could buy it the moment it was released. I read it in one sitting and learned the truth - at least I'd only have to mourn the loss of one of my heroes, not two.
I have won or been nominated for a number of awards for my thriller writing but the one that I'm the most proud of is the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, presented in conjunction with the UK's Crime Writers'
Association, for my thriller Garden of Beasts. The award is in the shape of a commando knife that Fleming is said to have carried in his days working for the Naval Intelligence Division during the Second
World War. The imposing award sits in the middle of my mantelpiece at home.
I don't want to give much away about the new book yet, except to say that it takes place in the present
day and that the story occurs over a short period of time and finds Bond in three or four exotic locations around the globe.
The novel will maintain the persona of James Bond as Fleming created him and the unique tone the author brought to his books, while incorporating my own literary trademarks: detailed research, fast
pacing and surprise twists.
As far as any parallels between Bond's life and mine, there are a few, I'll admit. I enjoy fast cars – I've
owned a Maserati and a Jaguar, and I now take my BMW M3 or Infiniti G37 to the track occasionally. I'm a downhill skier and scuba diver. I enjoy single-malt scotch and American bourbons—not vodka,
though if I recall from my reading of the Bond books, the spy himself drank whisky considerably more often than his "shaken, not-stirred" martinis.
-- photo credit Janie Airey
The Bond Books
Over 100 million Bond books have been sold (and over half the world's population has seen a Bond film!)
Ian Fleming wrote 14 James Bond books: Casino Royale (1953); Live and Let Die (1954); Moonraker (1955); Diamonds Are Forever (1956); From Russia with Love (1957); Dr. No (1958); Goldfinger (1959); For your Eyes Only (1960); Thunderball (1961); The Spy Who Loved Me (1962
); On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1963); You Only Live Twice (1964); The Man With The Golden Gun (1965) and Octopussy and the Living Daylights (1966)
Fleming's other works include the children's favourite, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1964), which was made into a film and stage musical, The Diamond Smugglers (1957) and a collection of travel
writings called Thrilling Cities (1963)
The Ian Fleming centenary was celebrated on 28th May 2008 with the publication of Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks. This publication formed the centrepiece to a year of celebrations
which included a star-studded gala at the London Palladium, a BBC documentary presented by Joanna Lumley, an exhibition at the Imperial War Museum and a charity golf tournament held in
aid of the British Heart Foundation
Charlie Higson is author of the Young Bond books which are published by Puffin
Samantha Weinberg, writing as Kate Westbrook, is the author of the Moneypenny Diaries
Other previous authors of official James Bond novels include Kingsley Amis, John Gardner and Raymond Benson
