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Hmmm... I don't know what to think about this. Right from the beginning, we've heard virtually nothing. I don't really care (in fact I kind of like how it's been shrouded in more secrecy than it's predecessors) if it's a good book but if it has actually been decided that the reviewers won't be given the chance to read it because some feel that it is poor, then this is a worry.
How on earth do you do that "@ person's name" when addressing someone in particular?
Oh, so you simply just type it! LOL. Thanks.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/magazine/article3870812.ece
I'll try and get my hands on a paper copy and see what's written.
EDIT
I have the paper, the first chapter is printed and the 2nd chapter will be printed on Monday.
Yes, I bought this this morning - it's in The Times magazine for those interested. It also carries a lengthy interview with William Boyd himself.
I'll read it over and get back to you on it. Just home from work.
Ian Fleming 'was sexist, racist and sadistic': New Bond author says his book is well-written... unlike the originals
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2427871/William-Boyd-I-toned-Ian-Flemings-sexist-racist-sadistic-James-Bond.html#ixzz2fY6nLoli
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Thanks @Perdogg, but that does seem to just be a copy of the best bits of the Times magazine interview. The Times Online is pay-to-view unfortunately, but at least there is Mail Online to fill the void.
The guy isnt making it easy for himself. He's already got an uphill struggle to win me round after such comments so the book had better be brilliant.
The predictable bleating that Fleming was a racist because the word 'nigger' happens to appear in his books is starting to wear thin as well.
And a Jensen? Is that really a Bondian car? More the sort of thing a guy who is playing at being Bond would drive. 70's cop show car all the way.
Go get a copy of The Times, Ice and it may set your mind at ease - it's got part of the first chapter there.
Somehow the publishing of both Dr. Sleep & Solo are a week behind the schedule of an Amzon.com, and the books are somewhat more expensive.
Well while waiting I have Jo Nesbo's new book Police to keep me company, a book I know that will not dissappoint me (having read so many positive reviews). So King & Boyd better be good.
I shared completely the concerns of the always intelligent @TheWizardOflce.
That said, having read the interview and extract in today's "Times" they are all but dispelled.
I say "all but" because the choice of Jenson as a Bond car could only be made by a writer that can't drive — as any self respecting petrol head knows, Jensons were so bad they weren't even funny. They couldn't get around the corner without breaking down!
The dreaded car doesn't appear in the opening piece which I have to say reads incredibly well so I remain extremely excited to get my sweaty little paws on it.
One thing however that is seriously starting to rile me is this constant carping about Fleming being a racist. Frankly, it's beyond the pale. Anybody that was of reading age in 1953 would have known that the world was very different back then and so were our terms of endearment and our way of describing other cultures. One simply has to read Rider Haggard, John Buchan, Dennis Wheatley or W.E.Johns to understand this. For Fleming to be singled out as a racist because, unlike the aforementioned, he still sells well is completely unfair and doesn't do his legacy justice.
If I get the chance, I'll challenge Boyd about this at the launch.
much as I would like to completely share your always intelligent concerns I'm afraid this time I have to respectfully disagree. Yes, the cars in question indeed used to suffer from a particular lack of the quality formerly known as reliability. Only, the brand shared that lamentable ailment with next to all British car manufacturers during the sixties and seventies, from Alvis to Reliant. Rolls-Bentleys and Jaguars not withstanding. The saying used to be 'one for the road, one for the garage'.
Now, while you are spot on with your always intelligent observation, in this case your judgement would no doubt greatly profit from a heightened sense for detail. The brand in question is known as Jensen. No idea if the status of self-respecting petrolhead comes with the immediate loss of all orthographic capacity, but the effect here is not exactly confidence building. Please do consider to refer to Jensen when further slurring them. You would not appreciate to be libelled as Bently, would you?
https://www.google.co.uk/#q=photo+of+a+1969+Jensen
As for him criticising Fleming, I don't really care. I just want the book to be good. It always occurred to me that Fleming was slightly more racist and sexist than the norm at that time but maybe I'm wrong.
Quite right sir, I stand corrected!
Albeit, I won't be corrected on the choice of vehicle. Jensens were a complete horror story and a totally inappropriate choice for Bond. Boyd himself can't drive so I think it's a little like a eunoch writing a sex scene.
Their only redeeming feature was their Britishness but back in '69 he had a lot to choose from.
At that point in history we were yet to sell the family silver and Bentley, Jaguar,Rolls and Bristol were all providing very reliable rides. Frankly I'd rather have seen him in any of the aforementioned than that abomination!
Going for the Jensen is its rarity, the fact that it was one of the first cars, if not the first with four wheel drive and traction control gives it some technical chops and it was certainly designed to be a real GT.
Set against it, as Bentley pointed out, is the reliability issue and its reputation as a ride for spivs, cads and bounders.
In fact 007 is not the first super hero to jump behind the wheel of a Jensen. Simon Dutton drove one in his '70s incarnation as The Saint. The Baron drove one and Princess Anne also rested her Royal behind on Jensen leather. Non of which constitute ringing endorsements.
Furthermore, that modern day spiv, cad and bounder Jezzer Clarkson eschews its merits! Not exactly a cracking recommendation either - I was hoping that CB would be Jezzer's last association with Bond!
According to the Times interview with Boyd, all was not sweetness and light and there were creative differences during the writing process.
Evidently part of the deal is you have to submit synopses during the process that are signed off by IFP and they took exception to him casting Bond in the role of assassin until he pointed out that Fleming had used the same mechanic in four of his adventures.
Perhaps IFP haven't read any of the books? This would partly explain their incompetence!
Quite right old chap - the last thing we want is that blabber mouth Clarkson raising his head. I nearly fell off my perch when that idiot Deaver name checked him in CB.
Mind you, it was par for the course. What a nightmare that thing was.
I'm sure that despite the appalling car choice we are going to be on to a winner with Boyd.
Thanks for the heads up. Yeah it seems IFP are profoundly clueless. I don't understand what their problem is and why they have to behave like idiots. Anyway, it sounds like Boyd schooled them which is fundamentally embarrassing in the first place and on top of that from the reactions of those who have read the released extracts, things are looking promising. Only a matter of days now.
Is that true? And these are the people entrusted with Fleming's legacy? Dear Christ. We can only be thankful they didn't commission Faulkes to do a follow up to DMC as they probably thought it was brilliant.
The Venkys of the publishing world.
It seems a hybrid of Deaver and Faulks; Deaver's meticulous attention to plot and commitment to the task in hand: good though you get the feeling Bond is just there to jump thru the writer's plot hoops and isn't in command of the situation; the author is. At least, unlike Faulks, you don't get the feeling he's just taking the money and - oh it's not that much dosh is it? - racing for the final chapter, making it up as he goes along to fulfil the contract he made over a late-night bottle of Bourban and a mid-life crisis.
But as with Faulks, the book is set at the end of the 60s with an ageing Bond and all the descriptions we've had oft before of his failing prowess and faculties and so on. Though Boyd is writing as himself, some of the brand names mentioned seems intrusive and a Fleming pastiche. The whole thing of Fleming being racist and anti-Semitic is a bore, I mean we don't get any money-grabbing hook-nosed Jews as villains do we? The villains are foreigners often but not really demeaned; they have an exulted status like ill-loved school teachers. But we do get the Jewish stereotype in Orwell's Down and Out in Paris and London; still that's okay cos Orwell's a much-loved lefty. And as with Faulks, we get the sense Boys is a lefty Guardian reader who intrinsically disapproves of Bond and his world and wants to take him down a peg or two, he's not really rooting for Bond. And, as with both authors, the sex seems a bit cringey, I found. It's like you don't want to get turned on by it.
Ultimately I felt there was cold heart at the base of Boyd's world; Fleming was a blend of pulp fiction, travel journalism and guilty pleasure, with a pseudo-Christian traditional basis. It was as comfortable as your old slippers, sitting in the pews in your local Church on Christmas morn, a new Marlborough wine you've found, or your favourite clip of online pornography, all strangely reassuring, a blend of traditional and racy in a controlled environment.
Venkys indeed — good analogy @TheWizardOflce.
I've long been of the opinion that IFP are the gang that can't shoot straight. They've been milking Fleming's legacy forever without adding any real value so perhaps they would be better described as the "Silver Spoon Mob". In fact, I often wonder if they have a single Bond aficionado on their board.
Villiers53's report of the Boyd interview in Saturday's Times is completely correct and his assertion that Boyd had to persuade IFP to cast Bond as an assassin is consistent with article.
To be honest, it does beggar belief but given the Benson/DMC/CB fiasco, I'm not surprised.
Very good observation about the books being written by Guardianista lefties these days. This is no doubt the same reason IFP didn't want Bond assassinating people 'Ooh we can't have Bond killing anyone in cold blood. Especially if that person happens to be black', which given the book is set in Africa I would say is a likely eventuality.
What we need writing Bond is a good old fashioned hedonist (I dont mean an Irving Walsh or Jack Kerouac - just someone who enjoys good living) with right wing tendencies and a love of Empire. And is not ashamed of it.
For some inexplicable reason Boris Johnson sprang into my mind!
No need to bring Christianity into it though - there's no evidence in Fleming of Bond having any faith in a religion except the vestiges of his upbringing that all of us brought up in a Christian countey are all saddled with alas. And every pew I've ever sat in was excruciating - but maybe that's just a Catholic guilt thing? Maybe other demonination's pews are as comfortable as bathing in honey?
Nice line about the porn clip by the way!
Can't agree with @NapoleonPlural on this one.
Boyd came over well in the interview and although he will never publicly criticise Faulks or Deaver (particularly with their and his connection to IFP) I have the sense that he knows they met with critical calamity and he will have pushed the boat out to ensure he doesn't meet the same fate.
Remember, he is no stranger to the genre. "Waiting For Sunrise" was, in particular, excellent and it has long been said - well prior to this project - that if Fleming were alive today he would write like Boyd and I subscribe to that view.
OK, he wouldn't have been my first choice simply because I'm desperate for Higson to morph into adult territory and take us through the war years but, my money is on SOLO being good.