William Boyd To Write Official Novel

Moore ThanMoore Than EnglandPosts: 3,173MI6 Agent
Booker nominated author William Boyd is taking on the mission to write a new James Bond novel.

The as-yet-untitled book will appear in 2013 the 60th anniversary of the super-spy's first literary outing, in Ian Fleming's Casino Royale.

Boyd has revealed that his story will mark a return to "classic Bond" and will be set in the 1960's.

He is the third author in recent years to be invited by the Ian Fleming estate to write an official Bond novel.

"For me the prospect appeared incredibly exciting and stimulating - a once-in-a-lifetime challenge. In fact my father introduced me to the James Bond novels in the 1960s and I read them all then - From Russia With Love being my favourite."

The FULL article
William Boyd takes James Bond back to 1960s in new 007 novel
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17677611
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Comments

  • Mr BeechMr Beech Florida, USAPosts: 1,749MI6 Agent
    Thanks for posting!
  • 00-Agent00-Agent CaliforniaPosts: 453MI6 Agent
    I'm glad to here another novel is in the works, but I am not sure about it being set back in the 60's. I felt that Deaver's novel set in the present day worked better than Faulk's book which was also set back in the 1960's.
    "A blunt instrument wielded by a Government department. Hard, ruthless, sardonic, fatalistic. He likes gambling, golf, fast motor cars. All his movements are relaxed and economical". Ian Fleming
  • BodieBodie Posts: 211MI6 Agent
    Afraid I can no longer get excited anymore about an author with a good pedigree doing a Bond continuation novel.

    I was excited when I heard that Sebastain Faulks was to write one and we got Devil May Care. Was excited when I heard Geoffrey Deaver was to write the next one and we got Carte Blanche. Both equally disappointing.

    At least this one will be set in the 60's which I think for a Bond Novel is a good thing.
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,238MI6 Agent
    I've not read his stuff, not aware of it. He either has the Fleming voice, or not. I don't know what the point of Deaver's reboot was, as Boyd won't be following it (all that guff about his parents maybe being spies). The current team seem to lack any long-term plan or vision.
    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • David SchofieldDavid Schofield EnglandPosts: 1,528MI6 Agent
    The current team seem to lack any long-term plan or vision.

    Add to that appreciation and understanding.

    Seems they just blindly flail about trying to milk Uncle Ian's creation. Chucking out another Young Bond series too, apparently...
  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,175MI6 Agent
    The current team seem to lack any long-term plan or vision.

    Add to that appreciation and understanding.

    Seems they just blindly flail about trying to milk Uncle Ian's creation. Chucking out another Young Bond series too, apparently...

    I'd third that.
    I'm not familiar with William Boyd either. This jumping around back and forth shows no consideration to the 'fan' and would confuse the occasional reader. While I have some sympathy for Boyd's idea that Bond is essentially a Cold War character, I wasn't averse to a modern update; it was the nature of the update which rankled - a little too much back story, Deaver left no stone unturned. I'd enjoy a '60s Bond, but not how Faulks wrote it - six weeks of unedited slap-dash re-hash hit-and-hope rubbish.
    Ah well. Roll on 2013.
  • emtiememtiem SurreyPosts: 5,686MI6 Agent
    chrisno1 wrote:
    I'm not familiar with William Boyd either. This jumping around back and forth shows no consideration to the 'fan' and would confuse the occasional reader.

    Oh I don't know; Bond is Bond. These books are separate entities: their different approaches don't upset me. It's not terribly coherent perhaps, but it doesn't make them unreadable.

    The one I do want is the fantasy 'War Bond' series by Higson. He's the only writer to successfully get the Fleming feel; and he didn't even have to write any spy books! Young Bond's further adventures in the war would be a great read, but not to be (from Mr Higson anyway).
  • DETROIT TRADECRAFTDETROIT TRADECRAFT Posts: 4MI6 Agent
    I am terribly terribly disappointed with the new Bond novel being set in the 1960s. Sadly, Ian Fleming is dead and the 60s are gone, but James Bond lives… and it should be in the present As Fleming intended. Ian Fleming could have placed James Bond into the World War II era but instead he placed him into his present time. Why have the Jason Bourne novels been able to successfully transplant their character into the present. Whereas Bond’s recent outings have been struggling, lacking the creative cutting edge and contemporary narrative of the original. In my opinion it's because the Ian Fleming estate is asleep at the wheel, they appear more concerned with nostalgic tie-ends rather than a compelling vision for James Bond.
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,699MI6 Agent
    I have never read anything by William Boyd, but I am hopefull. "Devil may care" had too many references to Fleming`s works and was perhaps written too quickly. I liked the book anyway and I think Boyd might write something in the same vein, and I will probably buy it.
  • scaramanga1scaramanga1 The English RivieraPosts: 845Chief of Staff
    Personally I always welcome a new Bond novel -sure continuity is long lost but being able to escape into the Bondian world via a novel is always pleasurable - yes I may criticize at some things or feel that I may have written it a bit differently -but at the end of the day a new story/adventure/mission helps keep the thrills coming and a character that I admire available to the public. I welcome this new novel and the fact its set in the 60s.
  • Moore ThanMoore Than EnglandPosts: 3,173MI6 Agent
    Here is a video featuring William Boyd. He talks (amongst other things) about Ian Fleming, his experience in writing espionage novels and some of the detail that will be included in his Bond novel.

    William Boyd on writing the James Bond 007 novel
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekRFeGsOjCg&feature=player_embedded#!
    Moore Not Less 4371 posts (2002 - 2007) Moore Than (2012 - 2016)
  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,175MI6 Agent
    The Independent ran rather a good article on him. They talked up his novel A Good Man in Africa, which of course was Sean Connery's bag when they made it into a movie, and I was relieved to see he has recently written some very well received espionage novels. I really must start reading more modern stuff, I feel I am missing out - if he's as good as the article suggests why am I not hearing more about him? I suggest it's because he doesn't sell as many copies as Deaver / Child / Larrson etc
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    I've never read anything by him, But he couldn't be any worse than some who have got the gig before. :D
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,699MI6 Agent
    edited April 2012
    Here he talks about his life and his writing process. Interesting, I think:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2D9tSNrVKo

    I find this encouraging. He has studies Ian Fleming, but won't try to copy him like Foulks did. He has written suspense/espionage thrillers. He allways spends time researching before writing a novel, but is allready familiar with the cold war and the world of espionage. He doesn't rush his writing the way Fauks did. he knows the time period. I'm optimistic. Other than Vietnam and obviously the cold war, what interesting things occured in 1969?

    - The space race is in full swing

    - Richard M. Nixon succeeds Lyndon Baines Johnson as the 37th President of the United States of America.

    - Fourteen men, nine of them Jews, are executed in Baghdad for spying for Israel.

    - In Toulouse, France the first Concorde test flight is conducted.

    - Operation Breakfast, the secret bombing of Cambodia, begins.

    - British troops arrive in Northern Ireland to reinforce the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

    - United States National Guard helicopters spray skin-stinging powder on anti-war protesters in California.

    - Serious border clashes occur between the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China.

    - Negotiators from the Soviet Union and the United States meet in Helsinki, to begin the SALT I negotiations aimed at limiting the number of strategic weapons on both sides.

    - The Piazza Fontana bombing in Italy (Strage di Piazza Fontana) takes place. A U.S. Navy officer and C.I.A. agent called David Carrett is later investigated for possible involvement.

    Of cource, boyd could just simply write about a villan who wants to get very rich by commiting a horrible crime .... :)
  • zaphodzaphod Posts: 1,183MI6 Agent
    Bodie wrote:
    Afraid I can no longer get excited anymore about an author with a good pedigree doing a Bond continuation novel.

    I was excited when I heard that Sebastain Faulks was to write one and we got Devil May Care. Was excited when I heard Geoffrey Deaver was to write the next one and we got Carte Blanche. Both equally disappointing.

    At least this one will be set in the 60's which I think for a Bond Novel is a good thing.

    I understand your feeling. I heard an interview on the radio with Boyd who was keen to point out how seriously he is taking it whereas Faulks was always slumming it a bit. Boyd is a class act unlike Deaver in my view and I am quietly optimistic that even if we don't get a Masterpiece like Colonel Sun we will at least get a worthwhile addition. As it's set in 69 we may even get the world weary slightly past his best Bond having to dig really deep...here's hoping.
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,699MI6 Agent
    edited April 2012
    I have just finished reading "Restless", my first by William Boyd. He was completely unknown to me when it was annoced that he will write the next Bond novel. "Restless" was the only novel by Boyd in the local library, but luckily it was one of his spy novels. The plot alternates between 1939-41 and 1978. In the early years of the war Russian immigrant Eva Delectorskaya is recruited into British Secret Service. Her work focuses on propaganda and media manipultaion and sends her to Belgium and pre-Pearl Harbour America. In 1978 her daughter Ruth lives in Oxford where she teaches English to foreigners, including a charming Iranian.
    I liked reading "Restless". I found the characters interesting and the plot solid. The descriptions of food and clothes reminded me of Fleming. There were only a couple of outbursts of violence in the novel, but they were well written and the last one was both brutal and origional. My main complaint is that sense of danger and looming threath was weak or even sometimes lacking in the first half of the book.
    In my opinion Restless is competently written, even good. Not a masterpiece, but no reason to worry about the upcomming Bond novel.
    I will read his effort and I look forward to it, but my favourites are still Phillip Kerr and Alan Furst.
  • Polar Bear 0007Polar Bear 0007 CanadaPosts: 129MI6 Agent
    Thank you for the comments Number24- they are very encouraging!

    Everything about the Boyd project sounds positive and I am very excited about Bond picking up where he left off in 1969.
    This is where we leave you Mr. Bond. (Pilot, Apollo Airlines)
  • Napoleon PluralNapoleon Plural LondonPosts: 10,238MI6 Agent
    Beaten to the punch by Number24!

    I am 50 pages into Restless, after one day's reading. It's a 300 page novel, so 50 pages a day and it's done in a week.

    The writing immediately strikes one as superior to Deaver's, or Faulks' as far as the genre is concerned. That said, some of the descriptive passages in the first chapter get on my nerves a bit, like they're there for the sake of it. It's misplaced because the opening is in the first person, where lengthy descriptions don't feel right usually. Then it flits back to 1939, and the third person.

    It won the Costa Award, like my last read, Pure by Andrew Miller. Good, but you feel the writing with each could be a bit better, a bit more dense. I will enjoy it, it's pacily written, but I'll feel no desire to re-read it for the sheer sensuality of the language.

    Not sure the sex side of things will be adequately addressed - or undressed - either. It's not a turn-on read, no dark side to it in that sense.
    "This is where we leave you Mr Bond."

    Roger Moore 1927-2017
  • Moore ThanMoore Than EnglandPosts: 3,173MI6 Agent
    William Boyd was speaking at the Hay Festival. He revealed that James Bond will be a middle-aged man, a middle-aged spy. The novel is set in 1969, with Bond aged 45. He also revealed that M and Moneypenny are going to appear. "I'm a realistic novelist and what interests me about Bond is the human being. There will be no mountains filled with atom bombs or global plagues, no gadgets, no superpowers or preposterous enemies - there will be an entirely believable psychopath, not a preposterous psychopath. And similarly with love affairs - in my novel they will be entirely believable."

    The FULL article.
    Hay Festival 2012: James Bond to be middle-aged
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/hay-festival/9323091/Hay-Festival-2012-James-Bond-to-be-middle-aged.html
    Moore Not Less 4371 posts (2002 - 2007) Moore Than (2012 - 2016)
  • chrisisallchrisisall Western Mass, USAPosts: 9,061MI6 Agent
    Sounds good, if a bit less outrageous than I usually expect & enjoy from a Bond story. Still, I'm brimming with enthusiasm!!
    Dalton & Connery rule. Brozz was cool.
    #1.TLD/LTK 2.TND 3.GF 4.GE 5.DN 6.FYEO 7.FRWL 8.TMWTGG 9.TWINE 10.YOLT/QOS
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    "I'm a realistic novelist and what interests me about Bond is the human being. There will be no mountains filled with atom bombs or global plagues, no gadgets, no superpowers or preposterous enemies - there will be an entirely believable psychopath, not a preposterous psychopath. And similarly with love affairs - in my novel they will be entirely believable."

    I think all the writers after Fleming have said similar things.
    Mabey someone should give mountains filled with atom bombs & global plagues, a Go. :))
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • LoeffelholzLoeffelholz The United States, With LovePosts: 8,988Quartermasters
    Don't know how I feel about this; I'm torn. Never read William Boyd, so perhaps I ought to look in on him. Devil May Care was a sharp disappointment; I enjoyed Deaver a bit more, and could go for more present-day Bond. This bouncing back and forth--- from period novels to present day, and back---essentially demands that Bond readers not entertain any notions of literary continuity, which rankles a bit.

    But of course I'll read it ;)
    Check out my Amazon author page! Mark Loeffelholz
    "I am not an entrant in the Shakespeare Stakes." - Ian Fleming
    "Screw 'em." - Daniel Craig, The Best James Bond EverTM
  • Number24Number24 NorwayPosts: 21,699MI6 Agent
    edited August 2012
    I wrote this review for the "Last book read" thread, but I think it might also have a home here:

    Waiting for sunrise - by William Boyle
    "[But] below the surface the river is flowing, dark and strong."
    "What river?"
    "The river of sex"

    In this dialogue they are talking about the city of Wienna, but they might as well be talking about the novel itself. William Boyle is of course hard at work now writing his James Bond novel. Waiting for Sunrise is a spy novel too. To be honest you could read the first half of the book before you realise it is a spy novel. Up till then the Ian Fleming story it resembles most is Quantum of Solace. It starts in Wienna in 1913, the year before the Great War. Lysander Rief is an English actor who is in Wienna to undergo psycoanalysis to cure his unability to ejaculate. Rief is engaged to Blanche, an actress back in London, but starts an affair with Hettie Bull. Ms Bull is an artist who is living as an ex-pat in the city. She is also a patient with the same doctor Lysander is seeing, and she is treated with cocaine. Many in the field used the drug as medicine at the time, including Sigmund Freud. Completely out of the blue Lysander is arrested for raping Hettie Bull and getting her pregnant. The way he gets out of that bad situation captures the attention of inteligence personel at the British embasy and that changes the cource of his life dramatically.
    I noticed the same thing in Restless, the first William Boyle novel I read, too - he takes his sweet time before he lets the plot kicks into gear and a real sense of threath and danger is introduced to the story. I hope he manages to do that far earlier in his James Bond novel. Don`t get me wrong, I never found Waiting for Sunrise dull. I liked the book and thought is was exciting. Boyle writes plot well, but also characters (esp female). He must do a lot of research and his descriptions are very good. This way he keeps the reader hooked, also in the time before the war and spy work enters the story. The action scenes are few and far apart, sudden and quickly over. They are also fairly brutal. Unlike Deaver and even Fleming, William Doyle isn`t "just" a suspence writer. He writes in other generes too, mosty what you might call human drama. (That is my impression at least, I have only read two of his spy novels.) This may very well be a strength when writing Bond, there is no danger of him getting lost in gadgets, pointless action scenes and convoluted plot twists (yes, I`m thinking of Jeffery Deaver). But Doyle mustn`t forget he is writing a Bond novel. He must introduce mortal danger earlier in the plot and probably write a couple of longer, more elaborate action scenes. If he can do that, we may give us the best Bond novel since Colonel Sun.
  • Moore ThanMoore Than EnglandPosts: 3,173MI6 Agent
    If the article from The Book Bond is correct, William Boyd's Bond novel (containing 432 pages) will be released on the 3rd October in the UK, priced at £18.99.

    BOYD'S BOND HITS AMAZON
    http://www.thebookbond.com/2013/01/boyds-bond-hits-amazon.html

    Amazon UK
    https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0224097474/ref=as_li_ss_til?tag=theyoungbondd-21&camp=2902&creative=19466&linkCode=as4&creativeASIN=0224097474&adid=0BKE2Q8EBHVKSQJAAYPE&
    Moore Not Less 4371 posts (2002 - 2007) Moore Than (2012 - 2016)
  • Moore ThanMoore Than EnglandPosts: 3,173MI6 Agent
    Teaser cover art for the US edition of William Boyd's upcoming Bond novel has appeared on Amazon (US). Boyd's novel will be published by Jonathan Cape in the UK on September 26th and HarperCollins in the US and Canada on October 8th.

    U.S. teaser art revealed for the NEW BOND NOVEL
    http://www.thebookbond.com/2013/02/us-teaser-art-revealed-for-new-bond.html
    Moore Not Less 4371 posts (2002 - 2007) Moore Than (2012 - 2016)
  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,644MI6 Agent
    Thanks for all of the updates so far, Moore Than. I have a good feeling about William Boyd's new James Bond novel, this time! :)
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • Moore ThanMoore Than EnglandPosts: 3,173MI6 Agent
    edited February 2013
    Thanks for all of the updates so far, Moore Than. I have a good feeling about William Boyd's new James Bond novel, this time! :)

    I have another update. I think you will have a good feeling about this.

    William Boyd's new Bond novel will be published by Jonathan Cape on the 26th September in the UK. The build up begins with the launch of an official website http://www.jamesbondthenewmission.co.uk/ dedicated to the new book, where fans can register to hear the latest news about the new book as it's released.

    THE NEW MISSION
    http://www.thebookbond.com/2013/02/the-new-mission.html
    Moore Not Less 4371 posts (2002 - 2007) Moore Than (2012 - 2016)
  • AlphaOmegaSinAlphaOmegaSin EnglandPosts: 10,924MI6 Agent
    Will the new Novel be a Literary Reboot or a follow on from the previous Novels?
    1.On Her Majesties Secret Service 2.The Living Daylights 3.license To Kill 4.The Spy Who Loved Me 5.Goldfinger
  • chrisno1chrisno1 LondonPosts: 3,175MI6 Agent
    That's good news. Pity they can't tell us the title yet.
    Set in 1969, hmmm. If Boyd goes galavanting back into Bond's history I hope he doesn't forget about Colonel Sun (like Faulks did - DMC was set in the year of CS publication) I rather hope he might forget about DMC...
  • LordShimboLordShimbo ManchesterPosts: 1MI6 Agent
    I've read Restless, Devil May Care and Carte Blanche, as well as (obviously) all the Fleming novels. I think the danger with William Boyd is that the novel's pace will just not be fast enough for Bond. Like Sebastian Faulkes, Boyd is a literary novelist 'slumming' (floundering might be a better word) in genre fiction.

    The World War 2 sections of Restless were OK, but the sections set in the 70s were boring filler. The ending also made very little sense - Boyd is not the world's greatest on plot mechanics, which is ominous for a Bond author.

    IIRC Faulkes admitted that he only agreed to do Devil May Care if he was allowed to write it in six weeks, and it shows, particularly in the final third of the novel. I just hope Boyd doesn't follow that example. It's entirely possible that he can write a good Bond novel if he puts his mind to it, unlike Jeffrey Deaver.
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