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Yes, you are a great and prolific writer on all things Bond. :)
Love it, thankyou!
Anyway, my signed edition came yesterday from Ian Fleming.com, and included a promotional beermat and a card. The cover art is very reminiscent of the last two Horrowitz Bond books I think. I like it.
It'll be a while before I get round to reading it, as I haven't read the previous one, (which I only recently bought).
I haven't heard of any Waterstones special editions or anything. I assume anyone on here that's got this, has the same edition as mine.
I thought that the added beermat and card were nice little promotional items and they came as a surprise to me. The last time I can think of anything like that being included with a new Bond continuation novel was the Avante Carte paper credit card promotional insert that came with some editions of John Gardner's Scoripus (1988). I believe they were handed out with purchases at book signings and some were even signed by Gardner himself.
I think that, like the young Bond or Moneypenny diaries, I don't feel like it's as important to immediately get my nose into it in the same way as a full-on Bond book. And a lot of that is because when Horowitz, (or whoever) comes out with a new James Bond adventure, it's got the added interest of let's see what they've done with the character. You know, how does this new Bond compare to Fleming's Bond? Is there anything jarring? (didn't Gardner have him listening to Jazz, or was it Benson?), are there any homages to Fleming's Bond? (plenty in the AH novels). Do we feel the Fleming spirit was captured? These are things I like to ask when I read a new Bond book.
With James Bond missing, and this new (astoundingly diverse) 00 team leading the action, that specific area of Bondian interest simply isn't there for me. I suspect it's the same for a lot of us.
But KS is a great writer, and I'm looking forward to kicking my pre-conceptions and ancient attitudes around the playground a bit so I can enter the new 00 world in earnest.
I suppose that was always to be expected to a certain extent but I do find a little bit of a shame that people don't give the spinoffs a chance. I get that people want to see James Bond as the protagonist and I do too but we've got 70 years worth of that, I like a bit of variety to shake things up.
And I am going to sound like an evangelist but screw it, I think Kim's books are excellent and I'm a little over half way through A Spy Like Me but she captures Fleming arguably better than Horowitz because she has to create the feeling without Bond being there. But what I think is so great about the Double O duology atm is that it's about Bond, but not with Bond. We get to see him through the eyes of others. It's so supremely respectful of the Fleming canon with how it weaves in its references but still allows the new characters to shine and tell its own story. And I love all of her characters but Johanna Harwood is for my money one of the best female characters in franchise, if not the best character in the franchise. If I thought she was great in DoN, she gets even better in ASLM.
But I guess I'd better drop my mic there before get into any specifics and I should go and actually finish it.
Yea, a great read is a great read. And Fleming's finest hour (FRWL) doesn't feature Bond for the first third of the book if I remember right.
Well said. I like a bit of change, once in a while. At least Kim Sherwood is a Bond fan. And it’s nice to read Bond story with no input from Purvis and Wade. Not bashing them. I’m just happy that other people can write Bond without me worrying if Bond will go rogue. Please let us know what you think @CharmianBond and @ColonelAdamski I’m ok with spoilers.
Similarly, in TSWLM Bond doesn't appear until two- thirds of the way through the novel.
Dear Reader,
Welcome to new subscribers of girl with the golden pen! It’s great to have you here.
What a whirlwind month! I’ve signed nearly 1,000 copies of the book in five cities for amazing audiences and I couldn’t be more grateful. If you’d like a personalised signed copy, the next person to upgrade to paying subscriber will nab the last giveaway! And if you’d like a signed copy + signed merch, join as a founding member!
Think of this newsletter as the special features section on a DVD, delving into the making of A Spy Like Me in locations Venice, Paris and London – plus all the scoop on signings, the book launch & more in this month’s Grand (Book) Tour!
When the Flemings first commissioned me to expand the world of James Bond with a trilogy, I thought about the nature of a middle book as a bridge or tunnel between one and three. That notion connected in my imagination with the smuggling pipelines Fleming uses as structural devices in Diamonds are Forever (1956) and Goldfinger (1958). This link helped me create the villains for A Spy Like Me. As I have an ensemble cast of Double Os, a network of criminal pipelines smuggling everything from diamonds to art to people would set up an exciting multi-strand plot with distinct yet connected adventures for each agent.
This was back in the first lockdown, and as I had plenty of time on my hands, I took a university course in art and antiquities crime (naturally) from the University of Glasgow to learn more about how looting and smuggling from conflict zones funds terror. If Double or Nothing introduced readers to private military company/terrorists-for-hire Rattenfänger, A Spy Like Me follows the money, as MI6 attempts to smash The Grey Group, a smuggling ring funding terror.
Venice
With my villains in place, I next looked for locations, and realised that Venice was home to a very James Bond cocktail: art, culture, glamour and geopolitics. Venice is an iconic location in the Bond world, beginning with short story ‘Risico’ and developed in films From Russia With Love (1963), Moonraker (1979) and Casino Royale (2006). ‘Risico’ became a key influence on A Spy Like Me, and you’ll find a minor character from Fleming’s story taking on a more significant role in the novel.
I decided to set a key sequence during the preview of the Venice Biennale, the world’s biggest art show, which transforms the whole island into a gallery. My sister Rosie and I first attended the preview of the Biennale in 2022 to research the novel, mixing with royalty, heads of state, artists, journalists and curators as I imagined Joseph Dryden (004) and Conrad Harthrop-Vane (000) tracking down an antiquities smuggler in a game of cat and mouse across the city. It became the first ever newsletter from a girl with the golden pen.
Now, I traced those steps again, invited by The Biennale to celebrate the publication of the book. A week before A Spy Like Me came out, I arrived into Venice by train, just like Bond in ‘Risico’, where Fleming perfectly captures the drama of entering a floating city:
But at last there was Mestre and the dead straight finger of rail across the eighteenth-century aquatint into Venice. Then came the unfailing shock of the beauty that never betrays and the soft swaying progress down the Grand Canal into a blood-red sunset... That evening, scattering thousand-lira notes like leaves in Vallombrosa, James Bond sought, at Harry's Bar, at Florian's, and finally upstairs in the admirable Quadri, to establish to anyone who might be interested that he was what he had wished to appear to the girl – a prosperous writer who lived high and well.
I followed in Bond’s footsteps, squeezing onto a vaporetto and then losing the crowds to follow narrow streets and cross pink bridges over turquoise canals. I made sure to visit Harry’s and Florian’s, just to keep my cover as a writer living high and well intact.
The Biennale is split across the Gardens and the Arsenale, the secretive shipyard that once powered an empire. As you might know, my sister Rosie is an artist, and she’s written a beautiful newsletter on this year’s show, ‘Foreigners Everywhere’, which spotlights indigenous and marginalised artists from around the world.
If you enjoy tracking down Bond sites, I’ve written about the specific Venice locations in A Spy Like Me for Trip Fiction, so keep an eye out for that.
There were so many special moments shared with Rosie in Venice: late night ice cream walking around the squares; falling in love with new artists (my favourite discoveries were Louis Fratino and Salmon Toor), camouflaging with the newly multicoloured Central Pavilion; a city-wide photoshoot; attending cocktails with the President of the Biennale and gifting my book to the Director before enjoying the best view of the city; and ducking into a vintage shop in a rainstorm and finding a 1940s dress I wore to the launch.
Paris
Paris is Johanna Harwood’s childhood city, and in A Spy Like Me a clue in the search for James Bond takes 003 home. Inspired by joining the James Bond France Fan Club’s cruise on the Seine with the iconic women of Bond in 2022, I decided to take Harwood on a floating gambling cruise before she has a run-in with her mother. Read about that day with Carole Ashby and the whole gang here!
Paris is another key location in the Bond world, beginning with Ian Fleming’s short story ‘A View to a Kill’, where Bond sticks to his rule of staying in a railway hotel. Arriving by train in the early hours of the morning, I questioned my decision to take Fleming’s advice and book a hotel squeezed by the railway tracks, but I was glad in the morning as we woke up in the centre of the City of Light.
Venice to London via Paris may seem a circuitous route, but the chance to retrace 003’s footsteps was provided thanks to an invitation from my favourite bookshop, Shakespeare & Co, to sign A Spy Like Me. My husband Nick first took me to Shakespeare & Co when I was twenty. To meet the Literary Director there, author Adam Biles, and see a stack of my books waiting on the famous typewriter table simply blew my mind.
Then we headed over to Smith & Sons, the most beautiful WH Smith you’ve ever seen, now independent. Smith & Sons championed Double or Nothing with a window display and it was lovely to say thank you and sign another stack of A Spy Like Me.
What do you do with a day in Paris? You eat, of course. We said hello to the Seine, the Louvre, and Rosie took one for the team and devoured bagels, cakes, eclairs, biscuits and crepes. Then it was time to hop on the Eurostar home.
London
In most stories, London is where Bond receives his mission from M, takes leave from Moneypenny and goes on a quest to face the monster. In short story ‘Property of a Lady’, Bond’s mission stays in London, as he exposes a Communist plot making use of Sotheby’s to pay off an agent, the seed for film Octopussy (1983), and Licence to Queer’s brilliant Jim Fanning Friday charity fundraisers.
As A Spy Like Me sees MI6 confronts high end smuggling, I had an opportunity to use the Sotheby’s connection. Researching the novel in 2022, I was given a tour by the head of Clocks and Watches.
Seeing the Sotheby’s Rolex collection, I was:
a) terrified I would drop something
b) inspired to consider our fascination with time in the world of Bond, which became a key theme for A Spy Like Me, linking to the question of how to make the time spent bridging books one and three matter.
So I was excited on publication day to return to Sotheby’s for celebratory cake and a photoshoot with Rosie. Check it out here. That night, I celebrated publication at a charity fundraiser for Hay Festivals outreach programmes hosted by Stonehage Fleming, where the rooms have some familiar names… One dreads to think what happens in the Blofeld office. Then it was time for the launch itself, a collaboration between 007GB Fan Club, IFPL and Harper Collins. Sign up as a paying subscriber for a behind-the-scenes look below!
From Kim, With Love x
And I’ve been editing Book 3 in the Double O series – more on that below.
Visit Trip Fiction for a rundown of the Venice locations in A Spy Like Me, featuring incredible photographs by my sister, brilliant artist Rosie Sherwood. Here’s a couple to give you a taste!
Visit Crime Reads for my essay on Women in the World of Bond
Join me at Golden Hare bookshop here in Edinburgh for a talk on adventurous women
Join me at Harrogate Crime Festival on 20th July, where I’m thrilled to be sharing a stage with Mick Herron and other spy writing luminaries
Join me at Edinburgh International Book Festival on the 16th of August for a special Double O event
The last event might be something special.
https://crimereads.com/how-ian-fleming-wrote-casino-royale-and-changed-spy-fiction-forever/
Some interesting articles. She is truly a fan.
Scottish Crime Book of the Year
A SPY LIKE ME becomes the first Bond continuation novel to be listed for an award + genre debates, my James Bond bookshelf & writing talismans
KIM SHERWOOD
JUN 28
Dear Reader,
I’m thrilled to say A SPY LIKE ME has been longlisted for the McIlvanney Prize for Best Scottish Crime Book of the Year!
I’m honoured to appear on a list with crime fiction legends like Val McDermid and Chris Brookmyre, plus my pal, the marvellous Charles Cumming. It’s especially exciting to see A SPY LIKE ME here as this is a series I’ve dreamed of writing since I was a kid and first fell in love with James Bond.
We think A SPY LIKE ME is the first 007 continuation novel for adults to be listed for an award, something I’m very proud to contribute to the James Bond legacy. (Though as a Bond continuation novelist I’m in illustrious company, so we might well be wrong, let me know if a prize has slipped through the net!)
Thank you Bloody Scotland, the crime writing festival behind the prize, and all the booksellers, librarians, bloggers and broadcasters who helped shape the longlist. You can read more about the prize here.
This means that my novels have now been listed or won prizes for literary fiction, historical fiction and crime fiction, which is pretty mind-blowing.
It’s also a nice thought because when I was studying creative writing, I was told it would be impossible to write across so many genres: I’d need a pseudonym, I was too-this or too-that, I’d never find an agent that way.
I’ve always admired multi-genre authors like Kate Atkinson, Michael Chabon, David Mitchell, Kazuo Ishiguro. A genre is made up of a set of conventions, whether it’s literary fiction or science fiction – partly constructed for the purposes of marketing, and partly a genuine set of expectations readers share, enjoy, and like to see refreshed and subverted. I also love writers who make a genre their own, like Elmore Leonard (though even he moved from westerns to crime) or Georgette Heyer – authors whose voice becomes its own genre. But as a reader whose bookshelf spans from Lee Child to Virginia Woolf, it’s exciting to have found the freedom to cross (and cross-pollinate) genres as a writer. I’m so grateful for all the support from readers who have got me here.
What’s your favourite genre? Do you read across genres? Do you have any genre bugbears – get annoyed at snobbery, or frustrated when sci fi and fantasy are mixed onto the same Waterstones shelf? Let me know in the comments!
Speaking of bookshelves, in my last creative writing video for paying subscribers (about the editing process), you may have spotted the bookshelf behind me. Long-term subscribers will know we bought our first house last year, and I designed deep forest green shelves in my study. A bookshelf is never finished, but I thought I’d share my current Bond shelves with you, and some thoughts on setting up a writing space, below. To read on and gain access to bonus content like this, upgrade to become a paying subscriber for £7 a month or £70 a year.
girl with the golden pen is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
It’s wonderful to see so many new subscribers here, I love having you on the adventure with me!
From Kim, With Love x...
This is a long novel (50 chapters) which goes in all directions. So much so that even the author admitted to having "lost the plot" at one point... It was probably too much for a single novel given the disjointed narration (we move from one character and one place to another without a blink of an eye time).
And it's a shame because there are a lot of good ideas and good scenes in it despite everything (although some don't advance the plot of one single inch) and we find ourselves wanting to know what happens next. Unfortunately some ideas are not assumed as in chapter 45 and there is a constant frustration that the plot is based at all times on a Moneypenny theory/guess which is basically based on NOTHING but which our heroes nevertheless believe of all their heart as if it was a proven fact…
In any case, the ending promises interesting things for volume 3, maybe even why the bad guys do what they do (because we wonder all along in A Spy Like Me).
A SPY LIKE ME out now in paperback!
To mark the occasion, watch my fastest ever interview (150mph on a race track) + Edinburgh Festival & online event cancelled
Kim Sherwood
Aug 29
Dear Reader,
Today is publication day for the UK paperback of A SPY LIKE ME!
To mark the occasion, I’m releasing my fastest ever interview, which took place at over 150 miles per hour on Thruxton race track.
Watch the first clip here, as I tell racer Peter “Snowy” Snowdon how I came to write James Bond while he rockets me around the track in 003’s Alpine. The track experience was filmed with a fish eye camera on the dashboard, so you’ll see us both in the car and the track ahead – and my foot jammed casually into the door to keep me upright…
For the rest of the interview, head over to my Instagram, where I’m releasing the rest of the clips today!
For paying subscribers of girl with the golden pen, there’s a bonus clip below where Snowy gives me a history lesson on the Aston Martin.
Speaking of subscribing, a warm welcome to all you new readers! I’m thrilled to have you here. If you’d like to upgrade from free to paid for £7 a month or £70 a year, you’ll receive exclusive content like today’s bonus video, plus creative writing tips and videos, and insights into my process as I edit the third book in the Double O series. There are three subscription tiers to girl with the golden pen – free, paid and founding member.
If you’d like to become a founding member and receive a personally dedicated and signed copy of A SPY LIKE ME in paperback (plus future proofs and hardbacks), subscribe now for £150 a year. I’m packaging them up next week!
girl with the golden pen is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
It’s incredible to hold the paperback in my hands. This ride sure is going fast. If you spot A SPY LIKE ME in your local bookshop, let me know!
Online launch canceled
I’m sad to say that the celebration planned for Saturday has to be cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances – I’m so sorry to miss the chance to say hello to you! But I’m planning another event for autumn, and in the meantime if you had a burning question you were hoping to ask, please pop it in the comments below or ask me on Instagram!
Edinburgh International Book Festival
Speaking of things moving fast, it’s been about a week since we came home from America (more on that soon) and we hit the ground running with Edinburgh International Book Festival. This was my fourth time appearing at the festival, and I feel incredibly grateful to the programmers for supporting all of my novels, from my debut TESTAMENT to my Double O series.
It was exciting to discover the new venue at the Edinburgh Futures Institute, where the festival staff made the Author’s Yurt feel like a home, as they always do – thanks so much for welcoming us and Pat!
I was lucky to catch the festival in its original iconic home, Charlotte Square, where the Author’s Yurt was still a literal yurt. I remember waiting there for my event, sitting on a hay bale between Ali Smith and Jeremy Corbyn, and thinking things had taken a surreal turn. The magic has just kept coming, and it feels extra special to feel so at home at a festival that’s literally in my home city now.
Another joy of the festival is reuniting with photographer Chris Close, who first took my picture here in 2018, and again in 2023.
This time around we had props! One very fast, very beautiful prop. Here is my first official portrait with Pat, who joined our family after retiring from racing and has already made mine and Nick’s lives so much better. This was Pat’s first book festival, so of course he wore his special collar from the Ian Fleming family, which has a gold tag reading Agent Pat OOK9 – naturally.
In the next picture, I’m posing with Nick’s camera. If you’ve read A SPY LIKE ME, you know there’s an important scene with a camera, which was inspired by Nick’s collection.
It’s really fun meeting up with the same photographer every year, and I love these pictures – thanks Chris!
And I loved every minute of the festival. It was a joy to talk James Bond both on stage and in the signing queue – thanks to everyone who came and waited afterwards! It felt especially meaningful to celebrate the Double O series here, as back in 2022 I interviewed Anthony Horowitz at Edinburgh Book Festival about his final Bond novel, before the release of Double or Nothing and the start of my journey. Taking the baton from one of my childhood heroes is about as special as it gets.
I love chairing at the festival, and this year it was my honour to interview Tony Birch and Zoe Strachan about two important and beautiful books, WOMEN & CHILDREN and CATCH THE MOMENTS AS THEY FLY.
Already counting down the days until next year!
Here’s A SPY LIKE ME in UK paperback on my James Bond bookshelf. If you grab a copy, tag me in your shelfie!
And remember, upgrade to become a paid subscriber and enjoy a bonus clip from me and Snowy below.
From Kim, With Love x
From "Moneypenny:"
Memorandum sent 29/08/2024
Classification: Gold level (For Your Eyes Only)
To our agents in the field,
Today sees the UK paperback publication of Kim Sherwood’s fantastic A Spy Like Me, a fast-paced, globe-trotting thriller that follows a group of elite Double O agents as they race to stop a deadly terrorist plot and track down James Bond. Want to know more about the world of the Double Os? Explore the website www.00section.info
Get your copy
Agents based stateside shouldn’t feel too left out however, as the new audio productions of Ian Fleming’s Octopussy and the Living Daylights performed by Ben Willbond, The Man With the Golden Gun performed by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith and Thunderball performed by Robert Glenister are all now out in the US. They are available for purchase from all major US audiobook retailers, and will be released in the UK in early 2025.
For those of you in Canada, Australia or New Zealand, some good news – Ian Fleming Publications now offers delivery to these countries, so if you’ve been eyeing up a boxset edition of the Ian Fleming paperbacks, or perhaps a signed copy of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, don’t hesitate. Please note that shipping rates are set by the distributor, and are determined by weight.
Speaking of Chitty, something rather wonderful passed over my desk recently – a group known as the ‘Mad Men’ have made a working replica of the iconic film version of Chitty, and have been taking her on a grand adventure through the Alps as part of a campaign to encourage men to get checked for prostate cancer. You can learn more about their process of building Chitty on their website here, and see updates on their journey here.
As Q has yet to supply me with my own flying car (despite repeated requests), it seems I’ll be keeping my wheels on the ground for the foreseeable.
Sincerely,
Miss Moneypenny
Is ASLM is the first Bond continuation novel to get a major award nomination?
Kim's Substack Email.
Scottish Crime Book of the Year finalist
Plus: a flashback to 2010, and making your creative space work for you
Kim Sherwood
Sep 5
Dear Reader,
I’m thrilled to share some exciting news – A SPY LIKE ME is a finalist for the 2024 McIlvanney Prize for Scottish Crime Book of the Year!
It's an honour to appear on a shortlist with the Queen of Crime herself Val McDermid, and to be in the company of Chris Brookmyre, Abir Mukherjee and D.V. Bishop. Plus, I'm delighted to learn I'm Scottish now!
The winner will be announced on Friday 13th (naturally) at the opening of Bloody Scotland festival.
A SPY LIKE ME is the first adult Bond continuation novel to appear on a prize list, something I'm so proud to contribute to the legacy of Ian Fleming.
It’s incredibly gratifying and surreal to find myself on a crime prize list. Here I am in 2010, midway through my degree posing outside a bookshop because of a sign we spotted in the window:
Obviously, being shortlisted for a prize doesn’t make me the Queen of Crime Writing – but to be on a list of luminaries like this, including the actual Queen Val, blows my mind. A girl can dream.
I was on BBC Radio Scotland on Tuesday celebrating paperback publication and it was very hard to keep the shortlist to myself, as it was embargoed until the next day. But you can probably hear the happiness in my voice. Listen here from 2.45pm onwards.
A while ago, I wrote about making the ideal creative space for yourself. For paying subscribers, there’s an update below on decorating my study and finding the mental and physical time and space to write. I’d love to hear how your space is developing!
girl with the golden pen is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
Upgrade to paid
From Kim, With Love x...
Offhand I can't think of any other Bond continuation novel that was put up for a major award nomination, no. I'm happy to be proven wrong on that score but nothing comes to mind.
If I'm not mistaken, Nobody Lives Forever was some best lists of 1986. I could be wrong. Congrats to Kim. This could be the boost that IFP needs for more Bond books.
Yes, it probably was. It'd be hard to believe that none of the continuation Bonds were ever nominated for an award. Many of them were bestsellers and were also critically acclaimed at the time of publication. Maybe there's a slight aversion to shortlisting continuation novels over wholly original works? I'm not sure.