Fleming on the Continuation Authors

AlphaOmegaSinAlphaOmegaSin EnglandPosts: 10,924MI6 Agent
What do you think Fleming would make of those who carried on the Torch for the Bond Novels? Would he approve of them? Or would he have had some Objections to them?
1.On Her Majesties Secret Service 2.The Living Daylights 3.license To Kill 4.The Spy Who Loved Me 5.Goldfinger

Comments

  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    Amis, As they were friends, I'm sure he'd have been amused.
    Gardner, I think he'd have respected the first few,might have
    Regarded the later ones as workman like, a couple
    I'm sure he'd have regarded as poor.
    Benson, I doubt Fleming would have liked any of his basic
    Pulp fan fiction efforts.

    I'm not counting wood as they were film tie in novels.
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • AlphaOmegaSinAlphaOmegaSin EnglandPosts: 10,924MI6 Agent
    I agree with you on the Benson's -{ Whilst being enjoyable, they read more like Fanfiction.
    1.On Her Majesties Secret Service 2.The Living Daylights 3.license To Kill 4.The Spy Who Loved Me 5.Goldfinger
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    I'm as thick as Sh*t, so a book must be bad if even a lump like me
    Can think it's bad ! :))
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • AlphaOmegaSinAlphaOmegaSin EnglandPosts: 10,924MI6 Agent
    :)) :))
    1.On Her Majesties Secret Service 2.The Living Daylights 3.license To Kill 4.The Spy Who Loved Me 5.Goldfinger
  • David SchofieldDavid Schofield EnglandPosts: 1,528MI6 Agent
    Fleming would have liked Amis, as has been mentioned. Would probably have glowed with pride that someone like Amis was taken with his work.

    The others? Well, depends how much IF was being paid; there is a group of us lit. Bond fans who hold to the theory that IF, had he lived, might have "franchised off" JB in the late 60s because he himself couldn't be arsed anymore, so long as he was well paid for the privilege. What's so different about the continuations?*


    * may also explain the lasses of IFP milking JB for all its worth regardless of the quality of the end product... :o
  • AlphaOmegaSinAlphaOmegaSin EnglandPosts: 10,924MI6 Agent
    I don't think it was so much as 'Not being arsed anymore' but due to Ill Health.
    1.On Her Majesties Secret Service 2.The Living Daylights 3.license To Kill 4.The Spy Who Loved Me 5.Goldfinger
  • David SchofieldDavid Schofield EnglandPosts: 1,528MI6 Agent
    I don't think it was so much as 'Not being arsed anymore' but due to Ill Health.

    You should note two things:

    1 My comment "had he lived" presumes Fleming's health was not an issue.

    And, if you disregard the above

    2 That Fleming had said he was "out of puff" with Bond long before his health deteriorated.

    -{
  • AlphaOmegaSinAlphaOmegaSin EnglandPosts: 10,924MI6 Agent
    Doh! :))
    1.On Her Majesties Secret Service 2.The Living Daylights 3.license To Kill 4.The Spy Who Loved Me 5.Goldfinger
  • Silhouette ManSilhouette Man The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,646MI6 Agent
    I don't think it was so much as 'Not being arsed anymore' but due to Ill Health.

    You should note two things:

    1 My comment "had he lived" presumes Fleming's health was not an issue.

    And, if you disregard the above

    2 That Fleming had said he was "out of puff" with Bond long before his health deteriorated.


    -{

    Well at least for TMWTGG anyhow.
    "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    Although it must be a tough gig to have to write
    a Bond every year. Would anyone know did J Gardner
    carry on with his own writing, while doing Bond or did he
    only write the Bond novels ?
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,057Chief of Staff
    Gardner continued to write other novels, quite a few of them, while writing his Bonds.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    Thanks Barbel, often wondered if they took up all his time. -{
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • David SchofieldDavid Schofield EnglandPosts: 1,528MI6 Agent
    I don't think it was so much as 'Not being arsed anymore' but due to Ill Health.

    You should note two things:

    1 My comment "had he lived" presumes Fleming's health was not an issue.

    And, if you disregard the above

    2 That Fleming had said he was "out of puff" with Bond long before his health deteriorated.


    -{

    Well at least for TMWTGG anyhow.

    FRWL and thereafter, with differing degrees.
  • AlphaOmegaSinAlphaOmegaSin EnglandPosts: 10,924MI6 Agent
    Although it must be a tough gig to have to write
    a Bond every year. Would anyone know did J Gardner
    carry on with his own writing, while doing Bond or did he
    only write the Bond novels ?

    And he continued through poor Health as well.
    1.On Her Majesties Secret Service 2.The Living Daylights 3.license To Kill 4.The Spy Who Loved Me 5.Goldfinger
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    :)) We all think we have a Bond story in us, maybe two ;) but to
    Have to come up with a new story every year must be incredibly
    Stressful.
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • David SchofieldDavid Schofield EnglandPosts: 1,528MI6 Agent
    Yeah. Easily the equivalent of a shift at the pit face. ;)
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    No son of mine will go down pit, You'll be a poet like me
    And your grandfather ! :))
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • AlphaOmegaSinAlphaOmegaSin EnglandPosts: 10,924MI6 Agent
    The old Ways? :))
    1.On Her Majesties Secret Service 2.The Living Daylights 3.license To Kill 4.The Spy Who Loved Me 5.Goldfinger
  • David SchofieldDavid Schofield EnglandPosts: 1,528MI6 Agent
    Well, they can't go down the pit anymore that's for sure.

    Have to become writers or actors instead. Which is good as Dave Morrissey was bitchin a short while back about there not being enough working class actors about. Though a few million quid a role'll soon change that.
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    Oh, I don't think that's true. The whole country is going down the pits ! :))
    With university fees etc, only the rich can become actors. ;)
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • David SchofieldDavid Schofield EnglandPosts: 1,528MI6 Agent
    Yup. Some how in last 31 years someone's spent all the cash, 'cos then there were no fees and some of us even got a full grant :o ;)
  • Miken AyersMiken Ayers Posts: 41MI6 Agent
    If they were selling I don't think he would've minded. From everything I've read and heard in interviews Fleming wrote the novels just to establish the Bond concept so he could license it out and get paid while everyone else did the work. Throughout the 50s that itself was a bit of a task to the point adaptations or original scripts by Fleming even fell through.

    Also once EON started making the film's he encouraged them to take whatever liberties they needed to make it work for the broadest audience possible. Up to and including stressing not to make the movies too British, so only British people would go and see them.

    So as long as there's enough Bond in the stories to where Ian Fleming would get a check, I believe all would be well.
  • David SchofieldDavid Schofield EnglandPosts: 1,528MI6 Agent
    Miken is, I'd say, pretty much spot on.

    As long as the money rolled in so IF could indulge his pleasures and drown in martinis, all would be fine with whatever was done with Bond.

    The only riders I'd add is that I doubt Fleming would have been too comfortable had Bond taken on a life of his own to such extent that he - IF - was almost forgotten.

    And I think he'd have liked the idea of holding the power of veto so no new writer could do anything Fleming found ridiculous. Such as some smart-arse coming up with the idea that Blofeld was really a sibling of JB, blood or not....
  • dlb007dlb007 Posts: 30MI6 Agent
    Although it must be a tough gig to have to write
    a Bond every year. Would anyone know did J Gardner
    carry on with his own writing, while doing Bond or did he
    only write the Bond novels ?

    Gardner was quite busy during the 80s. Not only did he pen the continuation novels, but he continued to work on his exceptional Herbie Kruger series, and began The Railton series around 1985.

    I highly recommend them both.
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