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On His Majesty's Secret Service (James Bond 007)

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Bizarrely Daniel Craig's incarnation in the films was probably the closest. Maybe it's just easier cinematically, because you don't have to try and describe Bond's thoughts, which is where it falls down - when Fleming did, they revealed a deeply flawed and at times quite nasty person. So Fleming's Bond was really an anti-hero and modern writers try to write him as a Hero.

A description of a character as promoting Covid/ vaccines/ mask wearing, anti-immigration, anti-EU, anti-BBC, anti-MSM, anti-cultural Marxism, climate change denial all show how the author has let his political beliefs impact his writing and the story. I was half expecting it to be a farce of a book. On His Majesty’s Secret Service was published on Thursday 4 May ahead of the Coronation on Saturday 6 May – and 60 years after the publication of Ian Fleming’s tenth novel, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, in 1963. All royalties from the sale of the book went to support the work of the UK charity, the National Literacy Trust. The idea originally was to do a longish short story, perhaps 10,000 words, with a month to write it. I thought it would be such a fun idea,” he says.Charlie Higson’s phenomenally successful Young Bond series has sold over a million copies in the UK alone and has been translated into more than 24 different languages. He adds: “When IFP came to me with the idea of writing an adult Bond story a little more than a month ago, I was thrilled – until I realised it had to be ready for the Coronation in May. Getting it written and turned around in such a short space of time was going to be as tense and heart-pounding as any Bond mission. Although, of course, nobody would actually be shooting at me. But I’ve been thinking about writing an adult Bond adventure ever since working on the Young Bond books, and he came bursting out of me with both fists flying. It was all I could do to keep up with him and get his story down on paper. Fleming famously wrote fast, and I channelled that energy. And now it’s so exciting for me to finally enter the world of grown-up Bond. Everything you want from a Bond story is in there – sex, violence, cars, a colourful villain with a nasty henchman, and of course, Bond himself. So well-known and yet so unknowable.” The voice and character of Bond comes across as mostly authentic but there are also some lines that made me cringe, and not in a fun Roger Moore way. I found myself re-reading them because I found them jarring and didn’t necessarily sound like something Bond would say. Of course 007 is sent to stop this person whose support is mainly right wing extremists and mercenaries, and he has only so many days to solve this lunatic and his plans. That said, Higson makes a good fist of this. He doesn't try too hard, doesn't get overly bogged down by it. (His Bond is neither quite Fleming's, nor a grown-up version of his own young James Bond, but does work okay). The plot is very Fleming, though -and the villain too probably (although he was also quite Gardner-esque and at times this reminded me of Licence Renewed). There's some good twists and its a much better read than anything by Benson, or the Bond books of Faulks, Boyd and Deaver.

The new 007 story brings Bond into the present day, with a narrative that takes place on 4 May 2023. I'm a big Bond fan and I've enjoyed all the continuation novels and this was an enjoyable way to pass the time but it wasn't great, special, engrossing or particularly well written (the author has done much better and so has basically every Bond author at some point). Corinne Turner, managing director of Ian Fleming Publications, said the book would be the publisher’s own way of marking both the coronation of Charles, and 60 years since the publication of Fleming’s thriller Her Majesty's Secret Service, from which the new volume derives its name. The original plan was for royalties to support The Prince’s Trust and Camilla’s Reading Room literacy charity, but Higson’s regicidal plot – featuring a wealthy, eccentric and anti-‘woke’ wannabe king called Athelstan of Wessex, allegedly a descendent of Alfred the Great – ruled out an official tie-in.

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But I’ve been thinking about writing an adult Bond adventure ever since working on the Young Bond books, and he came bursting out of me with both fists flying. It was all I could do to keep up with him and get his story down on paper. Fleming famously wrote fast, and I channelled that energy. And now it’s so exciting for me to finally enter the world of grown-up Bond.

Bond has a moment of introspection about disliking a hired killer, and the author states that this could be due to some self-loathing because they both kill people. Indeed, his next book was On Her Majesty’s Secret service, considered by fans to be one of his best. But the author, who died aged 56 in August 1964, was trapped by his creation. It is the 4th of May, two days before the Coronation of King Charles III and the world’s favourite spy has his work cut out for him. Bond is sent at the last minute to thwart an attempt to disrupt the Coronation by the wealthy, eccentric and self-styled Athelstan of Wessex, who is on a deadly mission of his own to teach the United Kingdom a lesson. Can Bond dismantle his shady plans and defeat his privately hired team of mercenaries? This brand new James Bond adventure arrives during a momentous year for Ian Fleming Publications. 13 April 2023 marks 70 years since the initial publication of Ian Fleming’s first James Bond novel, Casino Royale. The company are celebrating 70 years of 007 throughout 2023, with many events planned, including the release of the Bond books under their own imprint on 13 April.He worked as producer, writer, director and occasional guest star on Randall & Hopkirk (Deceased) from 2000 to 2001. Subsequent television work has included writing and starring in BBC Three's Fast Show spin-off sitcom Swiss Toni. He is currently starring in Tittybangbang series 3 on BBC Three and has appeared as a panellist on QI. So Bond’s first mission on His Majesty’s Secret Service is… to wipe out Ant and Dec if they start misbehaving in Westminster Abbey? No: it’s to bring down a supervillain plotting to do something worse to the King on May 6 than put itching powder in his supertunica, as well as sponsoring a series of outrages across London that “will make the [US] Capitol riots look like Aunt Fanny’s tea party”. Indeed, Higson was first approached about the project in February, wrote the book throughout March, and it sent to the printers by April – rapid-fire by even Bond’s standards!

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