248 replies to this topic

[Jack Spang]

I'd be happy with Forsythe but they did offer him the job a few years back and he turned it down. Ken Follett would be a bloody good choice too. Eye of the Needle was the first book I read of Follett's and what a brilliant book it is! He was only 27 when he wrote it. He never lets up on the suspense. Am almost through Jackdaws which is also a cracking read!

[Ouroboros]

I'm betting on Forsythe like a lot of the other people here. To be honest, I've only read "The Day of the Jackal," and that was about eight years ago. that was pretty good, though the lack of a strong central character threw me a bit (I was only about twelve or thirteen at the time).

You know who would be a good Bond writer, except that he's pretty new to the game? Barry Eisler. He's a fantastic American thriller writer, and his books read a lot like dark Bond adventures. I highly recommend them to all 007 fans. Start with "Rainfall." His emphasis on unarmed combat would fit right in with the feel "Casino Royale" is going for.

Another name on the rise is Ted Bell. His books are pretty Bondian, although they don't really float my boat. But like I said, I'm betting on Fred.

[Trident]

You know who would be a good Bond writer, except that he's pretty new to the game? Barry Eisler. He's a fantastic American thriller writer, and his books read a lot like dark Bond adventures. I highly recommend them to all 007 fans. Start with "Rainfall." His emphasis on unarmed combat would fit right in with the feel "Casino Royale" is going for.

Barry Eisler? I just researched on amazon and his own homepage. Really sounds interesting (though I'm not into Lustbader thrillers; for some reason they always bored me after a few pages). I'll check "Rainfall" out soon. Thanks for the recommendation!

[tdalton]

I'd be happy with Forsythe but they did offer him the job a few years back and he turned it down.

The press release did say that they had the new author in mind for quite some time, which would lead me to believe that they had at least considered the author for the job, or had actually offered him the job once. This would fit the description of Forsythe that you have stated above. I would certainly be happy with that choice, as I thoroughly enjoyed The Day of the Jackal.

[spynovelfan]

I doubt Forsyth would do it - that's like a rumour that Brad Pitt will be Bond. It'll never be someone that big, because there's nothing in it for them. All Forsyth would do would be risking being remembered as the guy who wrote a crappy Bond continuation. Even if it's good, it could eclipse his other work. Anyone that successful wants to be remembered in their own right. I'm not saying it's impossible, but I think it is extremely unlikely, on a par with Connery coming back as a villain or Honor Blackman playing M.

It will far more likely be someone like John Gardner: not a household name, but someone who will have had some fairly big successes in their career. John who? Oh, yeah, the Boysie Oakes series, okay. A bit like Daniel who? Oh, he was in that Tomb Raider film. Charlie who? Oh, the bloke who did The Fast Show. Chris who? Oh, right, Soundgarden, gotcha. My money is on it being either someone who has been nominated for an Ian Fleming Silver Dagger recently, or someone who will be writing an introduction for the new Penguin editions. David Wolstencroft seems to be to be a very good choice. David who? Oh, the guy who wrote Spooks/MI-5. Deaver, Eisler and Dibdin all also look to fit the profile. None are household names, but they are all marketable as 'very well-known and highly respected authors'. I don't think it's going to be Frederick Forsyth, Jack Higgins, Tom Clancy or anyone along those lines.

[Trident]

I doubt Forsyth would do it - that's like a rumour that Brad Pitt will be Bond. It'll never be someone that big, because there's nothing in it for them. All Forsyth would do would be risking being remembered as the guy who wrote a crappy Bond continuation. Even if it's good, it could eclipse his other work. Anyone that successful wants to be remembered in their own right. I'm not saying it's impossible, but I think it is extremely unlikely, on a par with Connery coming back as a villain or Honor Blackman playing M.

It will far more likely be someone like John Gardner: not a household name, but someone who will have had some fairly big successes in their career. John who? Oh, yeah, the Boysie Oakes series, okay. A bit like Daniel who? Oh, he was in that Tomb Raider film. Charlie who? Oh, the bloke who did The Fast Show. Chris who? Oh, right, Soundgarden, gotcha. My money is on it being either someone who has been nominated for an Ian Fleming Silver Dagger recently, or someone who will be writing an introduction for the new Penguin editions. David Wolstencroft seems to be to be a very good choice. David who? Oh, the guy who wrote Spooks/MI-5. Deaver, Eisler and Dibdin all also look to fit the profile. None are household names, but they are all marketable as 'very well-known and highly respected authors'. I don't think it's going to be Frederick Forsyth, Jack Higgins, Tom Clancy or anyone along those lines.

That about sums up my thougths concerning Forsyth. Most likely too big a name for IFP.

But then, they seem to go for just a single novel for a very big event. Might (just might) convince IFP to aim a little higher than they usually do, couldn't it?

And I think, even such a big name as Forsyth (or Higgins, for that matter) could be tempted to join the crew, if he is given entirely free reign. And I honestly hope that the writer of the 2008-novel has such freedom.

Btw: Jack Higgins:

Can't help it, but I feel pretty sure he has at least once been approached. Of course, I can't prove it, but how could Glidrose/IFP missed him as possible target?

If so, and he turned down, that might have been due to his success in the 80's. Well, lately he hasn't had such big sales. In fact, I think his biggest success was "The Eagle Has Landed" and that was from 1975 (not counting the special and revised edition of 1983)! Quite some time ago now, isn't it? So, I'm not entirely sure if Higgins still is that big a name among thriller writers today. Maybe he has joined the Jack-who?-region about 1999 and would fit the range IFP targets for a little bit better now?

Edited by Trident, 31 July 2006 - 02:45 PM.

[spynovelfan]

Double post.

[spynovelfan]

Sorry, forgot to mention that Wolstencroft, as well as creating SPOOKS, also had a very well received spy thriller out in 2004, GOOD NEWS BAD NEWS, and his latest, CONTACT ZERO, is out now in hardback. Here's an excerpt:

http://www.davidwols.../czexcerpt.html

CONTACT ZERO was on the shortlist for the 2006 Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, and Wolstencroft, as already mentioned, is writing one of the Penguin intros (THUNDERBALL). The winner of the Steel Dagger this year was Nick Stone, who is also writing one of the intros, was educated at Cambridge, grew up in Haiti, and is also a pretty obvious candidate, I'd have thought. But I can more easily imagine Wolstencroft's bio on the frontispiece, and anyone who has seen SPOOKS should be able to see the potential.

Forsyth has created one thriller, THE DAY OF THE JACKAL, that everyone - even people who never read thrillers - knows and has either read or seen the film of. It's a bona fide classic, and is a much greater acheivement than writing a Bond continuation would be. So while it might just about be possible, I do seriously doubt that he'd want to do it, because he must see himself, if not as the equal of Fleming in the genre, as pretty close to it. Higgins arguably is the same with THE EAGLE HAS LANDED, but somehow that book hasn't garnered quite the classic status of JACKAL, perhaps because the film wasn't as arty. I also imagine Glidrose would have at least considered Higgins before, but suspect he wasn't interested. In the 60s, Higgins wrote a series of Bond clones about an MI6 agent called Paul Chavasse, which are solid, tough, but slightly forgettable. I think either he or Forsyth are not that desirable. We'd get the equivalent of TV movies to the Eon films: both Forsyth and Higgins are much more straightforward, and their strengths are in situations and research. JACKAL and EAGLE, like Ken Follett's EYE OF THE NEEDLE, have very exciting premises based on real historical events. This is not needed for Bond. While the attention for any book by Higgins or Forsyth (or Follett) would be huge, and it would be a guaranteed best-seller and I suspect film (what is the position on that, I wonder - what do Eon make of this centenary project idea, and is it a way of IFP getting something to them?), I wonder if either would turn in a really great Bond adventure.

[Trident]

Forsyth has created one thriller, THE DAY OF THE JACKAL, that everyone - even people who never read thrillers - knows and has either read or seen the film of. It's a bona fide classic, and is a much greater acheivement than writing a Bond continuation would be. So while it might just about be possible, I do seriously doubt that he'd want to do it, because he must see himself, if not as the equal of Fleming in the genre, as pretty close to it. Higgins arguably is the same with THE EAGLE HAS LANDED, but somehow that book hasn't garnered quite the classic status of JACKAL, perhaps because the film wasn't as arty. I also imagine Glidrose would have at least considered Higgins before, but suspect he wasn't interested. In the 60s, Higgins wrote a series of Bond clones about an MI6 agent called Paul Chavasse, which are solid, tough, but slightly forgettable. I think either he or Forsyth are not that desirable. We'd get the equivalent of TV movies to the Eon films: both Forsyth and Higgins are much more straightforward, and their strengths are in situations and research. JACKAL and EAGLE, like Ken Follett's EYE OF THE NEEDLE, have very exciting premises based on real historical events. This is not needed for Bond. While the attention for any book by Higgins or Forsyth (or Follett) would be huge, and it would be a guaranteed best-seller and I suspect film (what is the position on that, I wonder - what do Eon make of this centenary project idea, and is it a way of IFP getting something to them?), I wonder if either would turn in a really great Bond adventure.

Ok, convinced. Forsyth, Higgins, Follett would all probably mean a serious amount of PR, but not necessarily a memorable novel. I'd have second thoughts about them anyway because their heros usually don't capture my entire attention (at least not as Bond uses to) and that's something I look for in a book that features Bond.

As far as the equivalent of TV movies to EON films is concerned, I wouldn't be disappointed if such equivalent could resemble something like 24, although this is far from Bond in almost every way. Somehow, I still keep the faith that the 2008-novel will really aim for a more memorable plot than the ones we have had since Colonel Sun. Maybe it's just wishful thinking but I can't imagine yet another Bond-against-madman/nazi/SPECTRE-clone-saving-the-world-plot for IFP's big event. Somehow I think, this will be different. And maybe even final. So, I doubt the chances for EON making a movie out of it.

Another name that has puzzled me lately (although another too-big-name): Nelson DeMille. I've read his "The Lion's Game" some time ago and it really was quite good IMHO. Nearly 900 pages but one (at least me, that is) didn't have the impression it was too long, although it covers only a few days of actual storyline. Made me think whether he couldn't do a decent job with a Bond novel?

I'll take a look at Wolstencroft when I'm ready with Eislers first one. Thanks for the tip!

[spynovelfan]

Well, Eisler's also on the list, of course, as he's doing a Penguin intro.

De Mille can write exciting thrillers, but again, doesn't strike me as a good match for Bond. Been a while since I read any of this stuff, though. I doubt it's going to be final, somehow - as Higson has managed to create gold from the dismal prospect of a teen Bond, against all odds, it seems insane to kill off the adult one. Not sure EON would be too pleased, either. Although perhaps they'll do it as Fleming did (ie, not really). I agree that just another world domination plot won't really cut the mustard. That's why I think you need someone with a bit more oomph and style to them than the big airport thriller writers. They specıalıse in hugely complicated stories with multiple characters, and bring in all sorts of massive events: this character heads up a secret unit, this one becomes president, this beautiful female reporter uncovers a link with the Triads, this terrorist plans to blow up sixteen planes while standing inside the Oval Office. It doesn't really work with Bond, not just because of Fleming, but because of the set-up. You need to have that one man at the heart of it all.

[Trident]

I agree that just another world domination plot won't really cut the mustard. That's why I think you need someone with a bit more oomph and style to them than the big airport thriller writers. They specıalıse in hugely complicated stories with multiple characters, and bring in all sorts of massive events: this character heads up a secret unit, this one becomes president, this beautiful female reporter uncovers a link with the Triads, this terrorist plans to blow up sixteen planes while standing inside the Oval Office. It doesn't really work with Bond, not just because of Fleming, but because of the set-up. You need to have that one man at the heart of it all.

Yes, very much so. Not too many different characters, plotlines, perspectives. And Bond at the center of action and events, otherwise it just wouldn't make a Bond thriller. Maybe a good, solid thriller, but just not the Bond brand.

I just finished "Without Fail" by Lee Child. Pretty good. Of course one book alone isn't the best base to judge from, but I think it's a shame Child isn't in the running. IFP could have done worse than hiring him, I'm convinced.

Well, now I'm looking forward to Eisler, I'm eager to meet John Rain. As I understand it, he has a good chance to be the one. I wonder if we will see another Bond adventure in the far east as this seems to be Eislers preferred setting? Or could it be that it isn't really a continuation but the story of Bond's odyssey from Japan to Russia? And his capturing there?

Edited by Trident, 31 July 2006 - 03:13 PM.

[spynovelfan]

Or could it be that it isn't really a continuation but the story of Bond's odyssey from Japan to Russia? And his capturing there?

What would happen, though? We know he gets brainwashed, so other than seeing that, what's the plot?

Ah, but there's the rub.

[Trident]

What would happen, though? We know he gets brainwashed, so other than seeing that, what's the plot?

That's the 100.000,- $ (or whatever the deal is worth) question, isn't it?

There is about a year to cover from Bond's capture in Vladivostok to the beginning of TMWTGG. Bond states he got a bang on the head there and suddenly remembered that he wasn't a Japanese. And then was forwarded to the KGB and to Moscow and later Leningrad. Certainly Bond didn't go along quietly? Perhaps he managed to escape for a time? Or did he manage to organise a kind of mental defense, however weak, against the drill of The Institute?

Granted, all that leads very far away from the usual events Bond encompasses. Hardly any place for gambling, gunplay or sex (if Bond doesn't manage to seduce a female guard/doctor/shrink), all the more room for lots of sadism (and maybe a nip at some bathtub vodka). It would resemble a mixture of Franz Kafka meets The Prisoner meets The Great Escape meets The Archipelago GULAG. And would most likely become a veritable drama, even more so as the futility of Bond's efforts is already determined. Still, it would be entirely new, yet not necessarily a bad book.

But most likely nothing of that sort will ever be published by IFP.

Edited by Trident, 31 July 2006 - 05:05 PM.

[Loomis]

Plenty of scope for a sequel to Fleming's YOLT. As I posted a while back on the "Fill in the Fleming gaps" thread:

I love that idea, spy, but I would include Bond. I'm picturing a real epic, crosscutting between:

- Another agent impersonating Bond for a mission, and perhaps stumbling across a few surprising things in 007's background hitherto unknown to anyone.

- M and co. in London, organising this new mission while trying to figure out exactly what's happened to the missing 007 and what the repercussions of his disappearance may be (some theorise that he's defected, say to agents of communist China operating out of Japan) and "our (new) man in Japan" is told to be ready for a possible assassination attempt on him should he show his face again.

- The impostor's mission, which can go horribly wrong (proving to the reader that, in Jim's words, only James Bond is James Bond).

- Bond in Japan and the Soviet Union.

- Henderson plotting revenge against Tiger Tanaka, whom he believes has had Bond liquidated as a security precaution.

- Kissy Suzuki giving birth to her child.

Also bring in other characters, for instance a sadistic Chinese colonel called Sun Liangtan (okay, I know he's not a Fleming character). And Irma Bunt? What happens to her?

Anyway, "something like that" is the new Bond novel I'd love to see in 2008.

[Trident]

Oh, have to track down that thread! Sounds interesting!

[spynovelfan]

There is about a year to cover from Bond's capture in Vladivostok to the beginning of TMWTGG. Bond states he got a bang on the head there and suddenly remembered that he wasn't a Japanese. And then was forwarded to the KGB and to Moscow and later Leningrad. Certainly Bond didn't go along quietly? Perhaps he managed to escape for a time? Or did he manage to organise a kind of mental defense, however weak, against the drill of The Institute?

Granted, all that leads very far away from the usual events Bond encompasses. Hardly any place for gambling, gunplay or sex (if Bond doesn't manage to seduce a female guard/doctor/shrink), all the more room for lots of sadism (and maybe a nip at some bathtub vodka). It would resemble a mixture of Franz Kafka meets The Prisoner meets The Great Escape meets The Archipelago GULAG.

Yes, or Manning Coles. The 1940 novel DRINK TO YESTERDAY - set in World War One - ends with British agent Tommy Hambledon, who is under cover as a German, disappearing at sea, presumed dead. In the next book, PRAY SILENCE (titled A TOAST TO TOMORROW in the US), which was published the same year, we learn that Hambledon was taken for a German on the strength of his papers and shipped 'home'. He has amnesia, so he also thinks he's German. Sound familiar at all? Hambledon - or Klaus Lehmann, as he thinks he is - eventually becomes Chief of Police in Berlin, just as Hitler is coming to power. Then he remembers who he is, and contacts British intelligence.

These were two extremely successful novels during the war. I wonder if 1. This is where Fleming got the idea for a British agent getting amnesia while on a mission and ending up believing he is his cover (which is also, of course, the plot of THE BOURNE IDENTITY). And 2. If that's why he didn't continue the story in Russia - because it would risk being rather too similar to PRAY SILENCE.

Just a thought. Rather off-topic, sorry.

[Trident]

There is about a year to cover from Bond's capture in Vladivostok to the beginning of TMWTGG. Bond states he got a bang on the head there and suddenly remembered that he wasn't a Japanese. And then was forwarded to the KGB and to Moscow and later Leningrad. Certainly Bond didn't go along quietly? Perhaps he managed to escape for a time? Or did he manage to organise a kind of mental defense, however weak, against the drill of The Institute?

Granted, all that leads very far away from the usual events Bond encompasses. Hardly any place for gambling, gunplay or sex (if Bond doesn't manage to seduce a female guard/doctor/shrink), all the more room for lots of sadism (and maybe a nip at some bathtub vodka). It would resemble a mixture of Franz Kafka meets The Prisoner meets The Great Escape meets The Archipelago GULAG.

Yes, or Manning Coles. The 1940 novel DRINK TO YESTERDAY - set in World War One - ends with British agent Tommy Hambledon, who is under cover as a German, disappearing at sea, presumed dead. In the next book, PRAY SILENCE (titled A TOAST TO TOMORROW in the US), which was published the same year, we learn that Hambledon was taken for a German on the strength of his papers and shipped 'home'. He has amnesia, so he also thinks he's German. Sound familiar at all? Hambledon - or Klaus Lehmann, as he thinks he is - eventually becomes Chief of Police in Berlin, just as Hitler is coming to power. Then he remembers who he is, and contacts British intelligence.

These were two extremely successful novels during the war. I wonder if 1. This is where Fleming got the idea for a British agent getting amnesia while on a mission and ending up believing he is his cover (which is also, of course, the plot of THE BOURNE IDENTITY). And 2. If that's why he didn't continue the story in Russia - because it would risk being rather too similar to PRAY SILENCE.

Just a thought. Rather off-topic, sorry.

Maybe a little off-topic, but still damn interesting nonetheless. I've never heard of Coles, will have to give these books a try one day.

At any rate, there seems to be at least the possibility for the 2008 novel to bridge a gap or two in Bond's adventures. I found the other thread Loomis mentioned extremely entertaining and thought-provoking. The new continuation author could certainly do worse than read a couple of the ideas mentioned therein and here.

[spynovelfan]

At any rate, there seems to be at least the possibility for the 2008 novel to bridge a gap or two in Bond's adventures. I found the other thread Loomis mentioned extremely entertaining and thought-provoking. The new continuation author could certainly do worse than read a couple of the ideas mentioned therein and here.

Yes, here's that thread, Mr Wolstencroft:

http://debrief.comma...amp;hl=liangtan


I've just seen that, according to Spanish Wikipedia, I've apparently written a continuation novel!

http://es.wikipedia....wiki/James_Bond

And no, I didn't put that entry in myself. Still, I'm not going to correct it - I quite like the look of it. And at least it shows that people read CBN all over the place.

[David Schofield]

I find all the discussion about filling in Fleming gaps fascinating - but totally unstimulating.

Perhaps I may be known as too much of a chronologist as regards Fleming, but all the hints about other missions Fleming gives - even the YOLT to TMWTGG period - should be left well alone. They are far too restrictive to start with and are best left for us to speculate over, rather than be educated about.

For any established author to pick up hints dropped by Fleming would be a particularly poison chalice. Must he work strictly within them, can he alter them? And if he did use them, we established fans might likely gang up and say, hang on a minute, that's not what Fleming intended, nor, particularly, if they were changed might we accept the novel as outside canon.

I think the new guy for some of the reasons above will leave well alone Fleming's hints - he wants, surely, to write HIS Bond novel - and start with a blank sheet sometime after CS (though I doubt that will get a mention and will be merely implied/open to interpretation). I can't see any new author - particularly a more established one (consider Gardner v Benson) being prepared to be sadled with too much baggage beyong Bond himself, a few existing backgroung characters and a certain plot type.

[spynovelfan]

Good points, David. I agree that some avenues are better left unexplored. I have little desire to find out, for example, how Bond got his car, and I didn't like those elements in SILVERFIN. It's all rather fannish, isn't it?

If I were doing it, I might use a couple of Fleming hints from outside his novels - the notebooks, for instance - or develop something very minor. But recreating missions mentioned in passing might fall flat in just the way you say. However, I wouldn't want to set it in the present day, and I don't think it will be: with all the continuations and the age thing, it's a real mess to sort out, and I think especially with a Fleming anniversary, it makes far more sense to set it in Fleming's period. Higson has the previous years (although I'd love to see Bond at the Battle of the Bulge), and Fleming's series ended rather unsatisfactorily. I'd be very tempted to do something that happens in between. But that's just me.

[David Schofield]

If I were doing it, I might use a couple of Fleming hints from outside his novels - the notebooks, for instance - or develop something very minor.

There might be mileage in those, Spy.

Isn't there a cracking one in the notes about Bond waking up in a suburban type atmosphere, hearing alarm clocks go off, see people get ready for the commute to work, etc, and feel totally revolted by it and delighted he's not part of it?

That image could work well in a late 60s setting - and be a very nice nod to Fleming and a chance to make widly public some of his great stuff that few know about.

Whether an established writer might want to crib is a mute point. Are you familiar with Robert B. Parker endeavouring to finish Raymond Cahndler's Poodle Springs story from Chandler's surving single chapter? The styles - or rather Parker's need to mimic Chandler - didn't mes well.

[spynovelfan]

Yes, I know the scene you mean, David:

'In the early morning, at about 7.30, the stringy whimperings of the piped radio brought visions of a million homes waking up all over Britain... of him, or perhaps her, getting up to make the early morning tea, to put the dog out, to stoke the boiler. And then will this shirt do for another day? The socks, the paints? The Ever-ready, the Gillette shave, the Brylcreem on the hair, the bowler hat or the homburg, the umbrella and the briefcase or the sample case? Then "Dodo", the family saloon out on the concrete arterial, probably with her driving. The red-brick station, the other husbands, the other wives, the clickety-click of the 8.15 round the curve by the gold course. Hullo Sidney! Hullo Arthur! After you Mr Shacker... and the drab life picking up speed and flicking on up the rails between the conifers and the damp evergreens. Bond switched on his electric blanket and waited for his hot water with a slice of lemon and contemplated the world with horror and disgust.'

http://www.007foreve...fleming007.html

But I was thinking much more along the lines of the very short notes Fleming wrote to himself for plot ideas:

'Fight in a fun fair with a man on the rollercoaster being shot at by another on the Big Wheel.'

Might be fun to write that scene. Or you could do have a villain named 'Szasz': Fleming noted it down as a good villain's name.

http://www.007foreve...fleming003.html

People often mistakenly say that COLONEL SUN was inspired by Fleming ideas. It might be quite a good piece of marketing to be able to say that the villain is titled from Fleming's own notebooks. Just a thought. Fleming's not going to write it.

[David Schofield]

People often mistakenly say that COLONEL SUN was inspired by Fleming ideas. It might be quite a good piece of marketing to be able to say that the villain is titled from Fleming's own notebooks. Just a thought. Fleming's not going to write it.

Yes, that's the Fleming stuff, Spy. I just think it deserves to see the light of day generally - and would show a tremendous contrast between theb world Bond lives in and the lifestyle he has adopted for himself, and, dare I say it, the "real" world.

On the villain issue, wasn't Fleming going to use Zagraphos (sic) as a villain according to the notes?

[spynovelfan]

Check out the first link in my post above for the Zographos stuff, David. Both have seen the light of day, courtesy of John Pearson.

[Trident]

Ok, if we leave aside the possible filling of gaps in Fleming's timeline, there is still something I always wanted to read. It's that crazy idea of Amis, an old (not just older, really old, as in say, 55? 60? 70?) Bond going out on his last unexpected mission. I found Amis suggestion a bit too blatantly based on Sherlock Holmes, the KGB Colonel (or was that General) Moriarvski and the business with the two of them falling down some waterfall. But the idea has somehow captured my imagination and I can't seem to be able to stop it echoing in my mind. What could the story be like? How could Bond be set into action again?

Is Bond already retired? Or did he take the post of Bill Tanner (something that would seem natural in my opinion; I never imagined Bond as a possible M)? How does he cope with getting older? With taking responsibility as Chief of Staff? Is he content with his role as a mere observer? Does he still long for action? Does he keep in shape? All these questions keep puzzling me and I would like someone to write an answer to these riddles.

Edited by Trident, 02 August 2006 - 01:55 PM.

[spynovelfan]

Well, William Boyd's new novel, RESTLESS, is a spy novel. Set in WWII and the 1970s, it deals in part with the British Security Coordination. This was William 'Intrepid' Stephenson's organisation, whose offices in the Rockefeller Center Ian Fleming visited, and where he got the idea for the Japanese cipher clerk killing in CASINO ROYALE (there was a Japanese cipher clerk in the building, but he wasn't assassinated). In this month's British edition of ESQUIRE, Boyd says he started researching non-fiction espionage after getting interested in Fleming in his last novel ANY HUMAN HEART (in which he is a minor character). Boyd has just written an article on the BSC here:

http://books.guardia...1854211,00.html

Not sure if this book makes him more or less likely. On the one hand, it shows he's interested in the genre enough to attempt it; on the other, I wonder if he might not now feel he's been there and done it.

[spynovelfan]

I've just interviewed Boyd. Among other things, he said he felt that Daniel Craig (who starred in THE TRENCH, which Boyd wrote and directed, and SWORD OF HONOUR, which he wrote) will rejuvenate the Bond series and that no actor to take the role since Connery has had such presence.

[Trident]

I've just interviewed Boyd. Among other things, he said he felt that Daniel Craig (who starred in THE TRENCH, which Boyd wrote and directed, and SWORD OF HONOUR, which he wrote) will rejuvenate the Bond series and that no actor to take the role since Connery has had such presence.

Hey, that almost reads like somebody applying for a job, doesn't it? Or like somebody who already is on board? RESTLESS sounds interesting, will give it a try after Eisler and Child.

Edited by Trident, 12 September 2006 - 07:11 PM.

[spynovelfan]

I've just interviewed Boyd. Among other things, he said he felt that Daniel Craig (who starred in THE TRENCH, which Boyd wrote and directed, and SWORD OF HONOUR, which he wrote) will rejuvenate the Bond series and that no actor to take the role since Connery has had such presence.

Hey, that almost reads like somebody applying for a job, doesn't it? Or like somebody who already is on board? RESTLESS sounds interesting, will give it a try after Eisler and Child.

Well, I did ask him what he made of Craig.

I don't think it's going to be Boyd, but I do think he'd have been brilliant, especially if he'd done a period piece. Forgot to mention that he's Scottish, lives in Chelsea and the Dordogne (where he makes his own wine), and is a Commander of the British Empire. Seem to remember he drives an Aston Martin, too. He's about as Bond as a modern British writer could be. RESTLESS is first-class.

[dee-bee-five]

I doubt Forsyth would do it - that's like a rumour that Brad Pitt will be Bond. It'll never be someone that big, because there's nothing in it for them. All Forsyth would do would be risking being remembered as the guy who wrote a crappy Bond continuation. Even if it's good, it could eclipse his other work. Anyone that successful wants to be remembered in their own right. I'm not saying it's impossible, but I think it is extremely unlikely, on a par with Connery coming back as a villain or Honor Blackman playing M.

It will far more likely be someone like John Gardner: not a household name, but someone who will have had some fairly big successes in their career. John who? Oh, yeah, the Boysie Oakes series, okay. A bit like Daniel who? Oh, he was in that Tomb Raider film. Charlie who? Oh, the bloke who did The Fast Show. Chris who? Oh, right, Soundgarden, gotcha. My money is on it being either someone who has been nominated for an Ian Fleming Silver Dagger recently, or someone who will be writing an introduction for the new Penguin editions. David Wolstencroft seems to be to be a very good choice. David who? Oh, the guy who wrote Spooks/MI-5. Deaver, Eisler and Dibdin all also look to fit the profile. None are household names, but they are all marketable as 'very well-known and highly respected authors'. I don't think it's going to be Frederick Forsyth, Jack Higgins, Tom Clancy or anyone along those lines.

My first reaction to that is, "Oh dear God no - not someone like John Gardner". I loathe his Bond books (actually, the first three weren't too awful, I guess). But then I have to remind myself that he wrote one of my favourite thrillers - The Dancing Dodo. What went wrong? How could a competent thriller writer churn out such disappointments? And is there a danger that history might repeat itself?