Jeffrey Deaver Pens New James Bond Novel

Posted on May 27, 2011

Jeffrey Deaver is the author of Carte Blanche, a new James Bond novel. The novel was commissioned by Ian Fleming Publications Ltd. It was published by Hodder and Stoughton in the UK on May 26, and will be published in the U.S. and Canada on June 14 by Simon & Schuster. Jeffrey Deaver wrote a statement about how thrilled he was to be offered the opportunity to write a James Bond novel.

Deaver says he was eight or ten when he picked up his first Bond novel. He says, "I felt Fleming's influence early. My first narrative fiction, written when I was eleven, was based on Bond. It was about a spy who stole a top-secret airplane from the Russians. The agent was American but had a British connection, having been stationed, like my father, in East Anglia during WWII."

Deaver says he was a teenager when he heard that Fleming had died and he says he felt as if he had "lost a good friend or uncle." He also become very worried because the anchorman reported that Bond was also going to die.

Deaver says, "Nearly as troubling was the TV anchorman who reported that Bond, too, would die in the final pages of the last book, The Man with the Golden Gun. I was in agony until I could buy it the moment it was released. I read it in one sitting and learned the truth - at least I'd only have to mourn the loss of one of my heroes, not two."

Deaver also talks about Ian Fleming's influence on his fiction in this clip. Take a look:

Carte Blanche was launched 007-style at an event in London. Royal Marine Commandos rappelled down a building and handed the book to Deaver after he emerged from a red sports car.