Breaking news: Ian Fleming Publications has announced Anthony Horowitz is writing the next James Bond continuation novel- AND- the book will include unseen material by Ian Fleming. Horowitz is celebrated around the world for his excellent YA spy series featuring Alex Ryder, as well as his recent Sherlock Holmes novel, The House of Silk. Horowitz also wrote the screenplays for Midsomer Murders and Foyle's War. The Alex Ryder series was immensely fun to read and showed a great balance between entertaining adventure and nuanced characters. I can't wait to see what the author does with 007. The book will be set in the 1950s, which is also great news to my ears! Even though I understand the motivation to make Bond current, I find stories set during the Cold War far more compelling. The new novel is due out in September, 2015. And yes, you read correctly... I did mention unseen Ian Fleming material! According to Fleming's great-niece, Jessie Grimond: "In the 1950s Ian Fleming wrote several episode treatments
for a James Bond television series. But it never came to be made and he
ended up turning most of the plots into the short stories that are now in the
collections For Your Eyes Only and Octopussy and The Living Daylights.
However, there are a few plot outlines which he never used and which, till now,
have never been published, or aired. Given that Anthony is as brilliant a
screenwriter as he is a novelist, we thought it would be exciting to see what
he would do with one of them." This is outstanding news for followers of Ian Fleming! IFP adds: "The treatment which will act as a starting point for Anthony
Horowitz’s Bond novel is titled Murder on Wheels, and follows Bond on a mission
in the world of motor racing. Other familiar Fleming characters which
feature in the TV treatment include ‘M’ and Miss Moneypenny." Sounds like a great setup for Horowitz to channel Fleming, who was famous for his savory descriptions of action on the motorway (my favorites include Moonraker and From A View to a Kill). Congrats to IFP and Anthony Horowitz on their new project! Learn more: Ian Fleming Publications, Anthony Horowitz.
