It is the 70th anniversary of the publication of Casino Royale, the first novel by Ian Fleming, a former British intelligence agent, with which the Agent 007 saga began, followed by thirteen more books by him, including short stories. At Fleming’s death in 1964, three of the saga had made it to the movies: The Satanic Dr. No (1962), From Russia with Love (1963), both directed by Terence Young, and Goldfinger (1964), a charge of Boy Hamilton.
The wealth of the author’s family came from both the Robert Fleming & Co. bank and the Scottish American Investment Trust, so it is not surprising that the successful novel-film nexus also became a pioneer in the sagas that today abound, like Harry Potter or Jack Reacher (creation of Lee Child).
Although the saga was born with the character James Bond –associated with Sean Connery–, a model man of the world, playboy, adventurer, as well as a spy with a license to kill; His literary precursor comes from another English writer, born four years before Fleming, also an MI6 agent: Graham Greene.
With novels such as The Confidential Agent (1939), The Third Man (1950) and The Impassive American (1955), all made into films, Greene created a genre of social criticism, as well as political criticism, set in troubled places, where Interests at stake go beyond the characters. In itself, he prepared English-speaking readers for the superfluous and entertaining side, the less dark side of reality, in Bond’s endless adventures.
The 007 novel model is a brand of Ian Fleming Publications Ltd. which, as a creative company, has hired a number of writers to date. Among them: Kingsley Amis (Martin’s father), John Gardner, Raymond Benson, Charlie Higson and Christopher Woods. Most wrote original novels, others were novelizations of scripts for the films in the series.
The last contracted for three books is the young writer Kim Sherwood (33 years old), who has just published Double or nothing (Roca Editorial, 2023). There is no longer Bond, but the new “00”: Johanna Harwood (003), at one point Bond’s girlfriend; Joseph Dryden (004), a black, gay, and Afghan War veteran; and Sid Bashir (009), a spy of British-Asian descent. The three face an international mercenary group (such as the Russian Wagner private army) and a billionaire whose goal is to manipulate the planet’s climate.
Clever and cheeky marketing. Inclusion, diversity and contemporary themes open the franchise to new audiences, to continue with twenty-five films and increase a historic box office of US$ 6,000 million (where book sales are subsidiary). The adaptation to the new time shows cunning and impudence: at the beginning of the year the heirs announced that in the reissue of the novels written by Fleming, offensive expressions based on race, religion, gender or physical appearance will be removed.
In this line where “every need is an opportunity”, the franchise triggered the search for actors for the film saga started by Sherwood. Who will be the new Bond after fifteen years in charge of Daniel Craig? Because some memory of him must exist in Double or nothing. However, the death of the queen and the coronation of Carlos III today, instigated a surprising editorial movement.
Last Thursday On His Majesty’s Secret Service went on sale, a novel in the saga, but on the side, written in two months by the already experienced author of the house Charlie Higson (responsible for the series on Young Bond, set in the decade of 1930). In this book, on May 4, two days before the coronation of King Charles III, the eccentric, self-proclaimed millionaire Athelstan of Wessex does all sorts of things to crown himself monarch. To avoid charges of opportunism, all royalties from the sale of the book will go to the National Literacy Trust. But it seems that the plot, as well as Higson’s enthusiasm for the details, poses situations unacceptable to the British crown.
Because of Carlos III’s fanaticism towards James Bond, the book would be backed by his charity, the Prince’s Trust, who coldly courteously declined hours before the coronation. It is that the villain Athelstan of Wessex uses all kinds of resources, both technological and financial, and even intelligence, in such a way that his plan involves a coup with social emotion that he considers regicide, comparable to what happened in the seizure of United States Capitol, on January 6, 2021.
After the Islamic extremist attacks and anti-racist demonstrations during the pandemic, the British intelligence service (MI6) keeps intact its tradition of making the enemy wrong and persisting in it, respecting a maxim of Napoleon Bonaparte. But nothing that offends the memory of Winston Churchill, such as endorsing a plan for one’s own destruction, much less giving the enemy ideas to carry out such nonsense.
After all, James Bond is a fictional character, and in reality it would be a last resort with little chance of success in the face of a widespread conspiracy.
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