Keeping 007 Alive offers a behind-the-scenes look at the writers who have shaped James Bond’s literary world beyond Fleming.
James Bond is many different people. Was the romantic lothario in Living Daylights the same as the vengeful mercenary in Licence to Kill, despite both iterations being played by Timothy Dalton? Was the soulful lead in Goldeneye the same as the machine-gun toting, cigar-smoking womaniser in Die Another Day (both faces worn by Brosnan)? Or was the lean sleuth in Dr No the same man as the paunchy, holiday jaunting spy in Diamonds Are Forever? (We will leave Never Say Never Again out of the equation; all three are Sean Connery flicks.)
Much as there is no Pink in Floyd, so is there no definitive portrayal of Bond. In that regard, Moonraker is as valid an artistic statement as a No Time To Die; Tomorrow Never Dies is as important to the canon as On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. A similar argument could be made for the books, considering how much more relaxed Bond seems by You Only Live Twice than he did in From Russia, With Love and Goldfinger.
“Fleming was writing them in the pre-internet days,” author Charlie Higson explains, “with no thought that people would actually sit down and study these books, make timelines, make it all work out, or write academic papers on them. He would have been absolutely delighted but amazed that the world of Bond studies exists now.”
This treatise informs Mark Edlitz’s writing: Keeping 007 Alive: Conversations with James Bond Continuation Authors is a dialogue between the writers, pinpointing their philosophies and perspectives on the Bond saga. Higson was offered a novel opportunity to re-invent Bond for the teenage market: 2005 work Silverfin followed the character during his public school years.
“My Bond went to Eton; his mother was Swiss; his father was Scottish, and they died in a climbing accident,” Higson reasoned. “I knew that I had to somehow deal with the incident between him and that maid at the school.”
Higson’s book coincided with Anthony Horowitz’ Alex Rider series, and considering Fleming’s imprint on Rider, it only made sense that Horowitz was given a chance to write a Bond novel. He admits that he revised every one of Fleming’s works to get a flavour of the writing style. Indeed, he based his character on the first “six or seven” books that intrigued Horowitz as a younger reader.
Raymond Benson, like Horowitz, swore by Fleming’s iteration of the character. His Bond smoked, womanised and enjoyed many of the vices society deemed uncouth during the 1990s. To my mind, he pushed the envelope even further than Fleming ever did: In one of his works, Benson permitted Bond to bite the backbone of a rat, in order to create a weapon of some kind. Bloody good stuff!
Sebastian Faulks, Jeffery Deaver and William Boyd also contributed interviews to Edlitz’s publication. Samantha Weinberg took a different approach in her writing, penning the fictitious diaries Moneypenny kept closely to her person.
Weinberg saw something deeper in the character than the popular notion that the secretary older woman who fancied the secret agent: “She was much more knowing than people think.”
Any one of these authors made a good stab at Bond, but it’s hard to say whether any of them- let alone Fleming, Connery or Harry Saltzman – had the final say on what Bond should or shouldn’t be.
How Eon will proceed with the series is anyone’s guess. Personally, I think it’s high time we had an anime Bond, or a proper prequel in the style of Higson’s Silverfin. But no matter where they go with the franchise, the stories will linger, prosper and continue. Edlitz has also ensured the character’s survival with this essential read.
