14 replies to this topic

[zencat]

Here's a treat. Not often you read an interview with a member of the Fleming family. One major revelation -- Talk of the Devil will eventually be made available as a single volume. Also nice that he was asked about the next continuation author, even if it got a "no comment."

http://whenfallsthec...of-ian-fleming/

[Tybre]

Nice to see a Talk of the Devil will sooner or later be available on its own. Certainly be an interesting read, if nothing else. Also nice to see the "no comment". No comment, at least in my experience, means there's shiz goin on we can't discuss yet, ignoring legal situations, mind. A bit curious as to this Frederick Forsyth's works now. Think I'll go hit him up on Amazon in a sec.

Anywho, thanks for the link Nice interview

[Qwerty]

Great interview!

Fergus Fleming talks James Bond and beyond

Single volume of Fleming's Talk of the Devil coming soon, no comment on next 007 author...

[Trident]

'No comment on the next Bond author' means there is something not to comment on. Had IFP decided to leave the series alone there wouldn't be a point in not saying so outright.

[zencat]

'No comment on the next Bond author' means there is something not to comment on. Had IFP decided to leave the series alone there wouldn't be a point in not saying so outright.

Let's hope so. I really want some lit Bond news. Depressing not having something to look forward to.

[Trident]

'No comment on the next Bond author' means there is something not to comment on. Had IFP decided to leave the series alone there wouldn't be a point in not saying so outright.

Let's hope so. I really want some lit Bond news. Depressing not having something to look forward to.

Frankly, I really don't see that happening, IFP not carrying on with their efforts. The main difference between IFP and the late Glidrose would seem to be that the later copyright holders carefully consider their options and try to open up different lines of interest, different approaches to their property. The days of inflationary output slavishly clinging to one single formula are quite definitely over.

Yes, this means less for us to look forward to. But it also means a broader scale, different angles and on the whole a different quality of the output as well as re-editions of several Fleming works long since out of print. All very good things in my book.

Apart from that, I'm sure IFP will not neglect the original Bond. It may yet take some time, but sooner or later there will be another new Bond.

[Revelator]

It's good to hear that an available and (hopefully) affordable edition of Talk of the Devil will finally be released. Frankly that should have happened during the man's centenary year--it was and remains a far more important thing than more shoddy Bond continuation novels. Now let's hope for more Fleming material to come: the various Bond scraps, State of Excitement, the TV show scripts that became FYEO, and the Thunderball treatments.

[[dark]]

Very cool to hear Talk of the Devil will be made available as a single book. It'd be great to see it match the recent Diamond Smugglers/Thrilling Cities reissues.

[Byron]

Very cool to hear Talk of the Devil will be made available as a single book. It'd be great to see it match the recent Diamond Smugglers/Thrilling Cities reissues.

The only thing worrying me is that the Thrilling Cities and Diamond Smugglers re-issues have sold less than 100 copies each. Definately not "thrilling" sales figures for IFP. Bad news for us Fleming purists (myself, David Schofield, TDalton, Silhouette Man, Fleming Fan and the like) because if they are not going to turn a profit, Talk of the Devil may be financially non-viable and never released in an affordable version. This Fergus chap also seemed fairly non-committal as to a possible release date, note there was no "next year sometime" or similar indication. So there seems no hurry on their behalf to bring TOTD out.

As for the next original story, my gut feeling is that they are currently grasping at straws as to what to do next. My only hope is that they do not go down the path of "flavour of the month" author pens aweful travesty of a Bond novel in 4 weeks!

[Trident]

It's good to hear that an available and (hopefully) affordable edition of Talk of the Devil will finally be released. Frankly that should have happened during the man's centenary year--it was and remains a far more important thing than more shoddy Bond continuation novels. Now let's hope for more Fleming material to come: the various Bond scraps, State of Excitement, the TV show scripts that became FYEO, and the Thunderball treatments.

Right said, 'Talk of the Devil' would have been the thing to publish for the centenary. Certainly more so than DMC. With the other material, TV scipts ect, I'm not sure to what extent they really qualify for publishing. Might well be most of it either is a confusing jumble of brainstorming notes or was already cannibalised by Fleming.

One thing though that intrigues me for some time is a 'Thunderball' treatment using Bond's inner monologue to describe himself and his work. That would give us an idea what a first person Bond novel could have been like.

Very cool to hear Talk of the Devil will be made available as a single book. It'd be great to see it match the recent Diamond Smugglers/Thrilling Cities reissues.

The only thing worrying me is that the Thrilling Cities and Diamond Smugglers re-issues have sold less than 100 copies each. Definately not "thrilling" sales figures for IFP. Bad news for us Fleming purists (myself, David Schofield, TDalton, Silhouette Man, Fleming Fan and the like) because if they are not going to turn a profit, Talk of the Devil may be financially non-viable and never released in an affordable version. This Fergus chap also seemed fairly non-committal as to a possible release date, note there was no "next year sometime" or similar indication. So there seems no hurry on their behalf to bring TOTD out.

As for the next original story, my gut feeling is that they are currently grasping at straws as to what to do next. My only hope is that they do not go down the path of "flavour of the month" author pens aweful travesty of a Bond novel in 4 weeks!

Less than 100 copies? Surprising, I would have thought certainly more. But then again, I think the exorbitant price tags will have scared off a good deal of the initial interest in these volumes. I don't suffer from the delusional state these would have been roaring bestsellers the way DMC was. But a more moderately priced edition would certainly have seen more than a mere hundred buyers.

The problem in marketing these works is, they really aim at only a small target readership. There certainly must be ways to promote them to a larger audience, but right at the moment I cannot think of one that wouldn't also estrange the purists for whom these books represent true treasures of Flemings work.

On the flavour of the month author, I think that would have happened a bit sooner, right after DMC stormed bestseller rankings and before bad word of mouth could have damaged the hype. Not so much has happened since then, so I think we can safely assume IFP are considering very carefully where to go from here and whom to take on board for the trip.

Should I guess, I'd say they don't plan for anything in adult Bond before 2013, the 60th anniversary of 'Casino Royale'. From what we've seen lately, IFP seem to like a far horizon for their original publications. Taking into account the commitment of the one person most likely to have an ongoing relationship with Bond and IFP, Charlie Higson, that would seem to fit him very well, as he's certainly up to his ears in work for some time, maybe as long as well into 2012.

The most likely scenario in my opinion would be it's not even decided yet what audience a possible second Higson stint with Bond would be directed at. War Bond as a theme would be certainly adult material, but for a number of reasons we may not get something like that from Higson. Not right at the start at least.

Another possibility would be IFP approaching others, perhaps persons who previously declined for contract reasons not giving them the time for another commitment. Given the fact many established writers have contracts for three to five books in a given period, IFP would have to queue up (and keep their interest in a specific person well below the radar until the deal is signed).

So I would not necessarily expect news about further Bond continuations any time soon.

[David Schofield]

I am not as pessimistic as Byron about the appearance of TALK OF THE DEVIL when compared to the poor sales of DIAMOND SMUGGLERS and THRILLING CITIES.

Most Fleming purists would have had copies of the last two already - perhaps like myself spent VERY good money to enure they had good condition first edtions of both - and so were unlikely to need to buy the IFP editions. Further, anyone merely curious could pick up a serviceable copy from abebooks.com with relative ease.

TALK OF THE DEVIL, however, seems to contain all new, unpublished Fleming, so even non-fans boys would be interested in a release. Logic, of course, would have been a mass release to tie in with the Centenary.... but hey, there you go, so don't hold your breath its immenent now (Me, I waiting for the Limited Edition SIGNED by Ian Fleming before I buy, though. ).

As for the Forsyth name-drop, Freddie is the perfect - and therefore most obvious - candidate. Similar bon-viveur to Fleming, similar "values", painstaking, VERY keen on research so no Faulks-like continuity -ups, and hugely successful writer. IFP MIGHT want him. But it doesn't mean they're going to get him. Next year, or the year after, or ever. Sadly.

Nothing reassuring or discouraging here, I'm afraid.

[Trident]

As for the Forsyth name-drop, Freddie is the perfect - and therefore most obvious - candidate. Similar bon-viveur to Fleming, similar "values", painstaking, VERY keen on research so no Faulks-like continuity -ups, and hugely successful writer. IFP MIGHT want him. But it doesn't mean they're going to get him. Next year, or the year after, or ever. Sadly.

Nothing reassuring or discouraging here, I'm afraid.

I didn't take that Forsyth suggestion seriously. Much like leCarré, simply too generic, mentioned a zillion times.

[Tybre]

The most likely scenario in my opinion would be it's not even decided yet what audience a possible second Higson stint with Bond would be directed at. War Bond as a theme would be certainly adult material, but for a number of reasons we may not get something like that from Higson. Not right at the start at least.

If we're talking War Bond, they could pull a Jedi Trial. While on the whole Jedi Trial wasn't an outstanding book (none of the twenty or so Star Wars books I own really are) the large segment in the middle of the book that depicts a battle being fought in the Clone Wars over a fairly barren planet is positively brilliant, because the book was co-written by a former Marine who served in Nam and a former Sergeant Major in the Army (doesn't say where, if anywhere, he saw action) who briefly worked as an analyst for the Department of Defense after leaving the Army. Men who had actual experience with war and could depict it realistically, but were also talented enough writers to keep it entertaining. So basically, find a couple of ex-military men who are good writers, or find a couple of ex-military men and bring in a good writer, like Higson, to touch up their work and make it more readable. War Bond really has the potential to be something fantastic, and quite frankly I would welcome it more than another 007, senior agent of SIS, saves the world again book.

[Mark_Hazard]

Less than 100 copies? Surprising, I would have thought certainly more. But then again, I think the exorbitant price tags will have scared off a good deal of the initial interest in these volumes. I don't suffer from the delusional state these would have been roaring bestsellers the way DMC was. But a more moderately priced edition would certainly have seen more than a mere hundred buyers.

The problem in marketing these works is, they really aim at only a small target readership. There certainly must be ways to promote them to a larger audience, but right at the moment I cannot think of one that wouldn't also estrange the purists for whom these books represent true treasures of Flemings work.

I think the problem is that they didn't market or promote them. Those of us who frequent the sites knew of their publication, but talking to my local WHS (yes, I know they're nothing like they once were) and Ottakers it would appear that they did not deal directly with IFP and their wholesalers didn't either, which left buying it online, which not everyone is happy with - I prefer to buy books at my Ottakers and buy books online only when there is no alternative (as with TC ad TDS) or the book is older than book shops tend to carry.

Sorry, for Ottakers read Waterstone's - I still haven't got used to the take-over.

[Trident]

The most likely scenario in my opinion would be it's not even decided yet what audience a possible second Higson stint with Bond would be directed at. War Bond as a theme would be certainly adult material, but for a number of reasons we may not get something like that from Higson. Not right at the start at least.

If we're talking War Bond, they could pull a Jedi Trial. While on the whole Jedi Trial wasn't an outstanding book (none of the twenty or so Star Wars books I own really are) the large segment in the middle of the book that depicts a battle being fought in the Clone Wars over a fairly barren planet is positively brilliant, because the book was co-written by a former Marine who served in Nam and a former Sergeant Major in the Army (doesn't say where, if anywhere, he saw action) who briefly worked as an analyst for the Department of Defense after leaving the Army. Men who had actual experience with war and could depict it realistically, but were also talented enough writers to keep it entertaining. So basically, find a couple of ex-military men who are good writers, or find a couple of ex-military men and bring in a good writer, like Higson, to touch up their work and make it more readable. War Bond really has the potential to be something fantastic, and quite frankly I would welcome it more than another 007, senior agent of SIS, saves the world again book.

Realistically and entertaining, that's a pretty hard thing to do with war stories. If we take Jack Higgins or, better even, Alistair MacLean, then the emphasis is clearly on adventure, much like in Bond. Realistic, that would be the 24 minutes of 'Saving Private Ryan' on Omaha Beach, a confusing succession of horrible slaughter, a giant mincer endlessly feeding on crying, screaming, wailing humans. I don't think it's entirely impossible to have a measure of realism in War Bond, but it would have to be very, very carefully introduced and considerably toned down. From a character arch point-of-view it would ideally come with most impact towards the end of the story. Maybe Berlin in 1945, as Bond mentioned in TMWTGG?

Less than 100 copies? Surprising, I would have thought certainly more. But then again, I think the exorbitant price tags will have scared off a good deal of the initial interest in these volumes. I don't suffer from the delusional state these would have been roaring bestsellers the way DMC was. But a more moderately priced edition would certainly have seen more than a mere hundred buyers.

The problem in marketing these works is, they really aim at only a small target readership. There certainly must be ways to promote them to a larger audience, but right at the moment I cannot think of one that wouldn't also estrange the purists for whom these books represent true treasures of Flemings work.

I think the problem is that they didn't market or promote them. Those of us who frequent the sites knew of their publication, but talking to my local WHS (yes, I know they're nothing like they once were) and Ottakers it would appear that they did not deal directly with IFP and their wholesalers didn't either, which left buying it online, which not everyone is happy with - I prefer to buy books at my Ottakers and buy books online only when there is no alternative (as with TC ad TDS) or the book is older than book shops tend to carry.

Sorry, for Ottakers read Waterstone's - I still haven't got used to the take-over.

Strange that IFP didn't invest more into marketing for those. I should have thought the media blitz for DMC has shown how to get back every penny spent there at least 8 to 10 times. I can only suspect IFP tested the market and found the potential target readership wouldn't be so much larger with giving the books a proper shove.