I had to populate that world with creatures of my imagination, not just the ones Fleming had.’įleming wrote his first Bond novel, ‘Casino Royale’ 60 years ago in 1953 and penned 13 more before he died 11 years later at the age of 56.īut to keep the literary James Bond brand alive, his estate has invited various authors to continue the Bond story. I had to come up with two very interesting women for him (Bond) to meet and to have a relationship with.

‘I am interested in the man, the human being… I had to invent a villain and various antagonists. … That was Fleming’s genius,’ Boyd said at the London Book Fair. He has flaws, he has weaknesses, he makes mistakes. While stressing the lasting influence of Fleming’s work, Boyd described ‘Solo’ as one of his books which happens to have Bond as a character. ‘Solo’ will be published in Britain on September 26 by Jonathan Cape – Fleming’s original publisher – and available from HarperCollins, a subsidiary of News Corp, in the United States and Canada from October 8. There are no gimmicks, it’s a real spy story… there is a very precise reason why I chose that year,’ Boyd added, declining to comment further. ‘He goes on a real mission to real countries and the world he’s in is absolutely 1969. And he’s fully prepared to take the consequences of his audacity,’ Boyd said. ‘Events conspire to make Bond go off on a self-appointed mission of his own, unannounced and without any authorization. The plot of the book focuses on Africa, but spans Europe and the United States, as it reveals a realistic, 45-year-old Bond based on the wealth of biographical detail taken from the original Ian Fleming novels, British author William Boyd said. LONDON (Reuters) – The latest James Bond novel is titled ‘Solo’ and will see the world’s most famous fictional spy go on an unauthorized mission at the height of the Cold War, the author of the book said on Monday.

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