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

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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! Despite these somewhat faddish interests – though the author insists the super-fit spy would naturally do anything to keep his edge, including taking an interest in the “gut instinct that gives you the non-thinking, split-second advantage” – his 007 remains ruthlessly unstoppable. In Higson’s words, he is “a fist, clenched and ready to strike”.

There was a lot of Fleming’s Bond that was valid and viable: he’s a loner, he’s a hard man and he protects himself by keeping people at arm’s length. 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,” Higson added.The best-selling author has also slammed the last Bond film, No Time To Die. Speaking with The Sunday Times, Higson shared his feelings about the modern James Bond movies: There’s a lot to be said for not overthinking things and getting on with it. In an interview with The Times just days before the book’s publication, Higson himself expressed a preference for a less introspective Bond. Ironically then, Higson provides us with some of the best inward-looking passages in any Bond book. Upon meeting a hired killer to who he takes an instant dislike, Bond reflects: “Was there an element of self-loathing in his distaste…? Were they actually the same?” My criticism isn’t about Higson competing with Fleming but if you take any of the IF short stories, Octopussy, Living Daylights, Quantum, these are spectacular character pieces, brilliantly original, they do not follow a traditional Bond formula and they are all short stories as what was intended by Higson. What he has done by using the perceived typical plot of a Bond novel actually reads more like fan fiction or what someone who hasn’t read Fleming would think a Bond novel should be. 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. They said it was probably best not to do a story about trying to stop the Coronation… at which point I thought, ‘But that’s the story, it’s got to be the story’,” continues Higson.

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. Managing director of Ian Fleming Publications Corinne Turner said: “The coronation of King Charles III is a momentous occasion for the country. We asked ourselves how we at Ian Fleming Publications could celebrate it, and the answer seemed obvious. Ian Fleming’s ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’ was first published on 1 April 1963. What better way, 60 years on, to mark this new chapter in history than with a brand-new story: ‘On His Majesty’s Secret Service’? We shared our thoughts with Charlie, and he was delighted to take on the challenge of writing a Bond adventure in time for publication in May.” 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. In 1953 a writer called Ian Fleming introduced A character called James Bond, so this year marks his 70th birthday. The 6th of May was the coronation of King Charles III, so what better to celebrate both with a single novel that is also a nice pun referring to one of Ian Fleming best 007 novels with a his instead of her in the title.

He adds: “The fun, which is also the difficulty, is ringing the changes. How do you make a new villain interesting?” But this is not a mere Fleming pastiche: while Higson’s innovations are not on the scale of Kim Sherwood’s exhilarating reimagining of Bond’s world, there are a lot of ‘modern’ touches to enjoy, especially in the details. Bond launching into a lecture (to himself) about consuming fermented foods (kimchi, kombucha) to maintain his gut health is both startling and soooo Fleming. Probably a solid 3 stars but I’m adding an extra star for the fact that this came as a total surprise, it was written in less than 3 months, it was timed to perfection with the coronation and has an obvious, but welcomed, title. 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.