It will be released in UK bookshops in September
A new adventure starring James Bond will be in bookstores in September 2013 announced the Ian Fleming Foundation, which manages the estate and copyright of the work of the British author-father of the legendary spy. The title and the plot of the new novel are still being kept secret, however, the Foundation revealed that “we will have a return to the era of classic Bond, starring a 45-year-old 007, in 1969".
Sixty years have passed this year since the publication of the first story starring James Bond. British Ian Fleming (1908-1964), journalist, officer and writer, he was already mature when the first novel in the series first came out, the Casino Royal the 1953. Until his death 11 years later, had written in total 12 novels and two collections of short stories starring the secret agent James Bond.
The success of the novels was extraordinary and the film industry took full advantage of it. The first film starring Sean Connery as James Bond, "Doctor No", it was filmed 1962. Since then the publishing and film versions of the hero march together, reinforcing each other. "Skyfall", the last film in the series, met with unprecedented critical and box office success. Critics called it the best James Bond film while some theorists called it a cinematic essay on dystopia. Something of a subversive story, something the masterful direction of Sam Mendes, something we're used to the blond Daniel Craig in the role, something about the inspired choice of the rest of the cast... the film grossed over one billion dollars worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing James Bond film of all time.
From his side, the Ian Fleming Foundation has every interest in keeping alive interest in the adventures of James Bond, that have sold more than 100 million copies worldwide. After the death of its author, Bond has been resurrected several times by other writers in the manner of Ian Fleming, but the venture is not always successful. Writers without much experience and personal style are more willing to imitate Fleming, but if they are inept the result is unnerved and flabby. Competent writers with several titles of their own guarantee better writings, but they hardly avoid the temptation to experiment with Fleming's hero by giving him extensions that may surprise the audience unpleasantly, such as American thriller writer Geoffrey Deaver who wrote Carte Blanche (2011), the 37th James Bond story in a row, bringing the hero into the 21st century.
The new adventure will be signed by the 61-year-old British William Boyd, an accomplished writer who has also tried his hand at the crime novel. Three of his novels are published in Greek, the atmospheric period novel The Blue Afternoon (Oceania, 1997) and the police The threat (Oceania, 2007) and Local storms (Metaichmium, 2010). Winner of the Whitbread and Somerset Maugham Awards, he is also adept at screenwriting – a particularly important quality in this particular case.
Formerly "recruited" by the Foundation were the prose writers Kingsley Amis, Christopher Wood, John Gardner, Raymond Benson and Sebastian Fox who wrote the - admittedly successful- Devil May Care (2008) to celebrate their anniversary 100 years since Fleming's birth.
About the authorship assignment, Boyd had stated in April 2012 that he immediately accepted the proposal because he considered it a “fantasy, exciting challenge". He said, in fact, that he was acquainted with Fleming, since he had used him as a character in his own novel Any Human Heart (2002) which was nominated for the Booker Prize.
Boyd will prove to be a more suitable successor to Fleming than the previous ones; Corinne Turner, director of Ian Fleming Publications, considers Boyd combining, like Fleming, literature with appeal to a wide audience and that he writes the kind of novels that Ian Fleming would write today, if he lived.
Fanatics of the Bond novel can hope for a well-written one, complexity, multi-layered hero, much more interesting than the "cartoon character" presented by the movies – at least that's what William Boyd promised.
The novel will be published in English by Jonathan Cape in September in the UK and by HarperCollins in October in the US.
Source : tovima.gr
