James Bond Bedside Companion returns in 2012

The James Bond Bedside Companion is returning the “first or second week of January” in e-reader form, author Raymond Benson announced on his Facebook page. An audiobook and print edition will be out “in the coming weeks,” Benson said, without providing specifics. Presumably, the book is becomng available again because of next year’s 50th anniversary of 007 film series.

The book was originally published in 1984 and updated in 1988, years before Benson was hired to write James Bond continuation novels by Glidrose, now Ian Fleming Publications. The book examined the Bond films up until that time, plus Ian Fleming’s original stories and the continuation novels written by Kingsley Amis and John Gardner.

CLICK HERE to see a post on The Book Bond Web site that includes an image of the new cover.

UPDATE: If you CLICK HERE, you can view a 2004 interview on the Commander Bond Web site that John Cox, now webmaster of The Book Bond Web site, did with Benson. The subject of Bedside Companion comes up, including how Benson’s views toward Gardner’s work evolved after the original 1984 publication of the 007 reference book.

Whither the literary 007?

Today’s Guardian carries a rather snidely-worded essay about the “surprisingly long list of authors who have written official 007 sequels.”

While taking time out to individually slag Kingsley Amis, John Gardner*, Raymond Benson, Sebastian Faulks, and Jeffrey Deaver, the article does hint at some corporate-level kibitzing — with the James Bond character and the individual continuation novels — by the Fleming family and the UK and US publishers. (This is something we’ve heard about [albeit secondhand] from John Gardner, and [directly] from Raymond Benson. Much like the Eon films, it would appear that the literary James Bond is also a factory-built product.)

You can read the post by James Harker, (the Guardian Student Writer of the Year 2010, whatever that means), JAMES BOND’S CHANGING INCARNATIONS , at the Guardian website. There is a “comments” section available for readers to chime in with their own opinion on the matter.

* To give the devil his due, the piece says Gardner’s 007 novels are “readable.”

Raymond Benson’s “James Bond: Choice of Weapons”

Cool title for this collection of three of Raymond Benson’s best James Bond novels. Available in August.

James Bond: Choice of Weapons