Gardner's World: John Gardner's James Bond Continuation Novels (1981-1996) General Discussion Thread
Silhouette Man
The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,360MI6 Agent
As today, 20 November 2023, marks what would have been John Gardner's 97th birthday I thought it was time we had a general discussion thread on the longest serving and most prolific James Bond continuation author. Between 1981 and 1996 John Gardner (1926-2007) wrote 14 original adult James Bond continuation novels and two film novelisations, namely Licence to Kill and GoldenEye. So this is the thread to ask any general questions about John Gardner's 15 year tenure as Bond author from 1981 to 1996 or to post any observations about his novels, novelisations, plots, characters, themes and so on.
"The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
Comments
Here's a US radio interview with John Gardner from 16 October 1984 to get the ball rolling and a rare chance to hear JG in conversation:
That's a great interview. Gardner sounds much more 'playful' than I expected, although I wouldn't call him amusing. I would have wanted something a bit more in depth about his system of research, his technique for routine writing, etc, but it is a good interview nonetheless. Amazing he had to write something for Glidrose / IFP before being formerly offered the Bond gig, like sitting an entrance exam. Also amazed - speak of exams - that he went to Cambridge university off the back of being an army officer. That in itself was considered qualification enough in those days.
Thanks for posting and starting the thread.
I'm glad you enjoyed the interview, @chrisno1. Yes, John Gardner definitely had a fun side. This can also be seen in his writing. I like how he laughs as he's saying something sometimes - it's an endearing quality. I remember hearing him being interviewed by Simon Mayo on BBC Radio 5 Live on 23 July 2002 to promote his first Suzie Mountford novel, Bottled Spider, and being able to tape the end of it. He did the same thing there too and was quite wry in his answers. I suppose Glidrose saw reviving the Bond continuation after a break of over a decade to be a big deal and so they required their prospective author to submit an outline and sample chapters. As he said in interviews, Gardner found this rather a chore as normally he tended to write novels from an idea or character or whatever and then developed the story as he went along. He said that he felt his Bond novels would've been much better if he'd been trusted like a seasoned spy novelist to just get on with it and write the novels in his usual way of working.
As regards being an army officer being enough to admit you to university, yes, you could do things like that back then. You certainly couldn't do it today. Being in the services was like a skeleton key that opened a lot of doors. I suppose the prevailing view was that if you went to fight and risk your life in a World War for your country the least that they could do afterwards was to offer you a step up the ladder to try to improve your life through advanced academic study. It's like how people used to become barristers without studying Law. The past is a foreign country, as they say. Gardner's degree at St John's College, Cambridge was an MA in Theology. He obviously had the intelligence to go to university to study, if not the academic pieces of paper to back it up. Here is a follow up US radio interview with Gardner (again by Don Swaim) from about a year later on 21 November 1985 where he briefly discusses Bond, his writing method, real espionage and his then new novel, The Secret Generations:
donswaim.com/JohnGardner1985.mp3
Another very good interview, not so much for Bond devotees, but interesting to hear Gardner talk about his writing processes and the sheer volume of work he gets up to. Writing from 10 - 1pm, then from 2- 7pm, then if there is no TV continuing on until he drops - and no holidays - no wonder he made himself ill. I am a failure at routine, but I do prefer mornings to write from about 10 - 2pm, lunch, then a review of what I have written. That the most I can handle.
Yes, it is a good interview. Not so much for Bond, as you say, but more for learning about his writing habits and routine. Gardner clearly put a lot of effort into his writing and really stuck at it. It's not surprising as between 1963 and his death in 2007 he wrote a total of 55 books, the first being an autobiography called Spin the Bottle, followed by 52 novels and 2 short story collections. That's a lot of work over a space of 44 years! Gardner is certainly one of the more prolific Bond authors and he's in the Guinness Book of Records as having written the most Bond novels. That's more than even Bond's creator, Ian Fleming. Gardner said that he drove himself into the ground writing the Bond novels as well as his own spy novels at the same time and that he was literally dying by the time he wrote his last Bond novel, Cold (1996). Gardner also stated that he felt that he was underwriting the Bond novels as he paid for the research travel costs out of his own pocket. Hopefully some day soon Gardner's substantial contribution to keeping the literary Bond flame alive will be better appreciated.
I think most established authors pay for research through the advance so I am not sure Gardner is being fair to Glidrose/IFP on that score. I do wish sometimes he had not written as many OO7 novels as the quality post Icebreaker is very up and down, sometimes inside individual books. Death is Forever springs to mind on that score with its jokey dialogue and characters yet vicious action - methinks it needed a thorough polish to meld the two.
And yes 55 novels in a little over 40 years is a lot. When I first started writing Fan Fiction, I managed 6 novels and 8 short stories in 3 years. I was exhausted. Now I write my own books I write much slower now, although my reviews and studies have taken over somewhat.
Yes, I'd say you're right about established authors such as Gardner getting an advance to cover such expenses as travel and research. Perhaps Gardner felt that the deal should've been better than that from Glidrose, I'm not sure. Writing so many Bond continuation novels (one a year mostly, apart from 1985 when there was none and 1989 where there were two books) probably did take a toll on Gardner as a writer and on the quality of some of the later novels which he had to churn out to meet quite tight deadlines. It's interesting that in the radio interview posted above he says that he doesn't think he'll be asked to do more after Bond book number 6 (which became No Deals, Mr Bond) was completed when he wasn't even half way through the amount of Bond novels he'd actually go on to write. Perhaps Glidrose "made him an offer he couldn't refuse", Godfather-style?
I used to write far more when I was still studying at university and writing long essays and problem question answers for my Masters in Law. Since then I find that I write much less now and it's all much slower in coming together. I am working on a new Bond blog article I hope I can get finished before the end of the year. I have it plotted out; it's just a matter of getting the notes and scribblings down on the page and assembled into a readable article. You are a prolific writer in my opinion and you certainly produce much more than I do these days, so take heart from that, @chrisno1. 🙂