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U.K. cover to High Time to Kill, the James Bond continuation novel by Raymond Benson
This week marks the 25th anniversary of the publication of High Time to Kill, the third Raymond Benson James Bond continuation novel.
Benson (b. 1955), an American, was hired to be the new Bond continuation author in 1995 after John Gardner had finished his long run. Benson earlier had written the reference book The James Bond Bedside Companion.
Besides doing novels, Benson penned a number of Bond short stories, some of which were commissioned by Playboy and TV Guide. Glidrose (later Ian Fleming Publications) had approval for publication as well as titles of the Benson novels. The author could suggest titles but he didn’t have the final say.
High Time to Kill stands out among the Benson stories because of its details about mountain climbing. A henchman in the novel was named after Benson’s friend (and proofreader) Paul Baack.
In that respect, Benson followed in the footsteps of Ian Fleming, who named characters after friends of his. “Aieeeeee!” the literary Baack yelled as he fell to his death. (I’m not sure I got all the “e’s” right.)
Ian Fleming Publications, in an email, published a statement from author Kim Sherwood about her new 00-agent book, A Spy Like Me.
A few highlights:
–Plot synopsis: The book concerns “a Breguet montre à tract, otherwise known as a ‘blind man’s watch’ and the agents in my story follow it into the heart of a terrorist plot that could not only cripple the Western world but potentially spell the ruin of the Double O section.”
–Agent lineup:
Joseph Dryden, 004, is following the money, tracking the sale of rare artifactsthat funnels money to the terrorist organization. (snip)
Johanna Harwood, 003, has been sidelined following the events of her last mission. But now she has a new mission of her own: find James Bond. (snip)
Conrad Harthrop-Vane, 000, the blue-eyed boy, is dispatched to Oman to track the blind man’s watch and navigate a world of luxury and deception.
–Difference compared with Sherwood’s first 00-agent book: “Unlike the first part of the trilogy, Double or Nothing, this book is written in present tense. I wanted to communicate a feeling that everything is constantly in motion.”
A Spy Like Me went on sale in the U.K. today, April 25. It went on sale in the U.S. on April 23.
Kim Sherwood’s second Double O universe novel, A Spy Like Me, officially went on sale in the U.S. today. It’s scheduled to go on sale in the U.K. on April 25.
“Johanna Harwood, Agent 003, is on the hunt – for revenge and for James Bond…,” Ian Fleming Publications said in a Jan. 29 list of its publication plans for this year.
The author has been promoting the new book on social media. Here is an example:
Jumping for joy! #aspylikeme is out in America today. Only in my wildest dreams could I have imagined writing #jamesbond & publishing in 🇺🇸 – that today brings both those things is absolutely amazing 🤩 Thank you @WmMorrowBooks & @TheIanFleming If you see it in stores take a pic! pic.twitter.com/52hli9qS4d
Robert MacNeil, a long-time television journalist, died this week at the age of 93. During his day job, he covered the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in 1963 and hosted the MacNeil/Lehrer Report (later the PBS News Hour) for years.
MacNeil also had a spy entertainment footnote: He hosted PBS’s presentation of the Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy miniseries in 1980. The miniseries debuted in 1979 in the U.K.
MacNeil made clear in his introductions that he was a big fan of David Cornwell/John Le Carre. In one of his Tinker Tailor introductions, he took a dig at Ian Fleming and James Bond. Bond was a cardboard figure, as MacNeil told it. Le Carre wrote well-developed, complicated characters.
Essentially, MacNeil mirrored a decades-long debate. In 2017, there was a debate in London about whether Le Carre or Fleming was the better spy novelist.
Personal note: That Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy miniseries is when I discovered Le Carre. I then bought some of the author’s novels. They’re all quite good. But I never liked how some Le Carre fans (such as MacNeil) felt the need to slam Fleming and Bond.
For more about MacNeil’s career, you can view obituaries by The Washington Post and The New York Times. These are gift links meaning there should be no paywall issues.
Bond with his caddie Hawker in the film version of Goldfinger (1964)
To mark the 65th anniversary of the publication of Ian Fleming’s Goldfinger novel, Ian Fleming Publications today announced a partnership with Penfold.
Bond, in his golf match with Auric Goldfinger, played a Penfold golf ball. To play up that angle, IFP is coming out with products from Penfold. One is a golf journal, the other is a writer’s pouch.
Here is an excerpt from the announcement.
The Ian Fleming Golf Journal is handbound and made in Stamford, England. Keep track of your golf rounds and stats, and write your own story on the lined pages, inspired by Ian Fleming’s own adventures.
(snip)
The Ian Fleming Writers Pouch takes inspiration from his writing adventures, and the luxury fabrics he favoured. A multi-use pouch for your writing or golf accessories.
Fleming was an avid golfer. His Goldfinger novel describes all 18 holes of the match, making it his longest 007 novel. The film version in 1964 greatly condensed the sequence.
The Bond Experience channel on YouTube came out with this video about the new products.
The Sun, the U.K. tabloid, which has floated various possibilities for actors to play James Bond, caused a stir this week when the tabloid claimed Aaron Taylor-Johnson had been offered the part.
But there are reasons to be cautious.
Director? The original story in The Sun made no mention of a director. Some previous Bond films (Peter Hunt with On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, John Glen with The Living Daylights, Martin Campbell with GoldenEye and Casino Royale) were onboard before a Bond actor was cast.
There has been no confirmed director for Bond 26.
Script? The very first Eon Productions 007 script was Richard Maibaum’s 1961 draft of Thunderball before Eon changed gears to Dr. No (because of Thunderball legal issues). That draft was written *before* Sean Connery was cast as Bond. Maibaum’s description of Bond was taken directly from Ian Fleming.
The Sun’s story this week says a script is being written, suggesting there isn’t an actual script at this point.
Dynamics of making a Bond movie: The SpyHards podcast had a recent interview with Jeff Kleeman, a studio executive who worked on the first three Pierce Brosnan Bond movies. He said, from the studio perspective, you had to pursue lining up a Bond actor, a script *and* a director. Without getting all three lined up, it’s hard to get a Bond movie made.
Dynamics (Part II): Eon Productions can’t get a Bond movie made without the studio (now the Amazon-owned MGM). Amazon-owned MGM can’t make a Bond movie without Eon. It’s an unusual dynamic that doesn’t apply to most movie franchises.
The Sun has been all over the place since mid-2022: The Sun has a shaky reputation and its Bond “reporting” from 2022 to the present isn’t something to crow about.
New audiobook editions of three James Bond novels are coming out in the U.S. starting next week and in the U.K, in 2025, Ian Fleming Publications announced.
The first to come out is a new audio version of You Only Live Twice, Ian Fleming’s 1964 novel, IFP said. It is due out on March 19 and will be issued by HarperCollins. The release coincides with the 60th anniversary of the novel’s publication. An excerpt from the announcement:
In celebration of its 60th anniversary, the first new recording to be released in the US will be You Only Live Twice, available on March 19th. Voiced by Eleanor Matsuura (best known for her roles in The Walking Dead & Spooks), travel to Japan, meet Kissy Suzuki and discover the terrifying Garden of Death.
Audio versions of Casino Royale and Live And Let Die, the first two Bond novels, are scheduled for March 26, IFP said.
“Casino Royale will be voiced by Richard Armitage (The Hobbit, The Stranger), with Live and Let Die read by Adjoa Andoh (Bridgerton, The Witcher),” according to the announcement.
If there’s a red-headed stepchild in the world of James Bond, the 1954 CBS production of Casino Royale would be it.
The television Bond is mostly ignored. When it does come up in fan conversation, it’s the subject of derision.
An American as James Bond? Outrageous — although Eon Productions, which makes James Bond movies, seriously considered the notion twice, for Diamonds Are Forever (John Gavin was signed before Sean Connery was enticed back) and again for Octopussy (James Brolin was screen tested before Roger Moore was enticed back).
And he’s called Jimmy Bond! Outrageous — although Bond never calls himself Jimmy, other characters do. The only time he refers to his own name, he is making a telephone call and says, “This is James Bond.” Actor Barry Nelson also is clearly billed as playing James Bond in the end titles.
The television production, part of CBS’s Climax! anthology series and airing live on Oct. 21, 1954, is more like a televised play. While Ian Fleming’s first novel was short, it still covered too much ground to be covered in a 60-minute time slot. Excluding commercials and titles, only about 50 minutes was available to tell the story.
Antony Ellis and Charles Bennett, who adapted the novel for television, certainly took plenty of liberties with the source material.
Two Fleming characters, Vesper Lynd and French agent Rene Mathis, are merged into one character, Valerie Mathis (Linda Christian), a woman from Bond’s past who is working for French intelligence. Meanwhile, Bond is changed from being a British agent to an American one. Felix Leiter is changed to a British agent and his name is now Clarence Leiter (Michael Pate).
Presumably, the idea of an American Bond stemmed from how this was airing on U.S. television. At this point, Fleming and Bond weren’t huge names among the American public.
Anyway, to get things going, Act I opens with Bond being shot at outside a casino. It’s not terribly convincing, mostly because of the limited resources of the production, which was broadcast live. Bond ducks behind a column and the audience can see squibs going off to simulate gun fire.
Shortly thereafter, Bond makes contact with Leiter, who explains to Bond (and the audience) how the agent’s mission to bankrupt Le Chiffre (Peter Lorre) in a high stakes game of baccarat. No M, no briefing from M.
At one point, Leiter says Bond’s nickname is “card sense Jimmy Bond,” while Valerie calls Bond “Jimmy.” However, she also calls him “James Bond” when introducing the agent to Le Chiffre ahead of the big baccarat game.
Peter Lorre is the first actor to play a Bond villain referring to the agent constantly as “Mr. Bond,” something that would be repeated throughout the Eon films.
There are some bits from Fleming’s novel, particularly during Bond’s card game with Le Chiffre. Even here, Ellis and Bennett do some tinkering. After Bond is cleaned out, he gets additional funds not from Leiter, as in the novel, but from Valerie. What’s more, Bond’s torture is considerable milder than the novel or 2006 feature film. The ending from Fleming’s novel isn’t used and things end happily.
This version of Casino Royale’s main value is that of a time capsule, a reminder of when television was mostly done live. Lorre is suitably villainous. If you find him fun to watch on movies and other television shows, nothing here will change your mind.
Barry Nelson’s Bond won’t make anyone forget the screen 007s. Still, Nelson was a pro who had a long career. He does the best he can with the material and production limitations. He even gets to deliver the occasional witticism. (“Are you the fellow who was shot?” Leiter asks. Bond replies, “No I was the fellow who was missed.”)
UPDATE: Casino Royale was the third broadcast of the Climax! series. The first was an adaptation of The Long Goodbye, with Dick Powell reprising the role of Philip Marlowe. So in two of the first three broadcasts, Climax! tackled novels by Raymond Chandler and Ian Fleming.
One of the keys to 1964’s Goldfinger was adapting an 18-hole golf match between James Bond and Auric Goldfinger.
The golf match was one of the reasons why Goldfinger was Ian Fleming’s longest Bond novel. Paring it down would help make the film version the shortest 007 movie until 2008’s Quantum of Solace.
The most significant change: we’re only shown the 17th and 18th holes of the match, plus what happens on the putting green of the 16th. Going into the last two holes everything is “all square,” so there’s plenty of tension for what’s to follow.
Other changes: in the novel, Goldfinger’s caddy is “an obsequious, talkative man called Foulks whom Bond had never liked.” In the film, it’s Goldfinger’s lead henchman Oddjob and the golf match is the audience’s first full look at him; earlier, we had only seen Oddjob’s hand as he struck Bond down from behind as well as the villain’s shadow.
Also, in the novel, Bond’s caddie Hawker discovered how Goldfinger was cheating. Bond asks Hawker how he could possibly know. “Because his ball was lying under my bag of clubs, sir,” Hawker tells Bond. “Sorry sir. Had to do it after what he’s been doing to you. Wouldn’t have mentioned it, but I had to let you know he’s fixed you again.”
For the film, screenwriters Richard Maibuam and Paul Dehn have Bond discovering the cheating and making Hawker the Greek chorus telling us how smart 007 is.
Finally, in one line in the film, Goldfinger says that golf “is not yet the national game of Korea.” In recent decades, Korean golfers such as K.J. Choi, Bae Sang-moon, and Kim Si-woo have joined the PGA tour.
British film historian Adrian Turner examined the writing of the film version of Goldfinger. One of the film’s most iconic scenes had its origin with the sentence, “That buzz saw must go.” It was followed by this observation: “It’s the oldest device in cheap melodrama.”
That was part of a memo by screenwriter Richard Maibaum, who described a sequence in Ian Fleming’s 1959 novel where Bond was nearly cut in two by, you guessed it, a buzz saw. “I am dreaming up a machine that utilizes the new laser beam. It was featured in Life magazine,” the memo reads, according to Turner’s 1998 book about the making of Goldfinger.
Another problem with the novel’s sequence is the reason Goldfinger spares Bond’s life. He decides to hire our hero as his secretary. Both Maibuam and Paul Dehn, who would write the later drafts, felt this simply didn’t work. Both men labored to come up with a semi-plausible explanation why Goldfinger didn’t just kill Bond on the spot. Decades before Austin Powers jokes (“Just shoot him!”), both screenwriters were sweating bullets on how to solve the problem.
In the end, Dehn’s final version has Bond pulling a bluff under the most difficult of conditions.
The Spy Command 