KEY POINTS:
British novelist Sebastian Faulks has written a new, officially approved James Bond thriller portraying the ageing spy as vulnerable and damaged but as highly sexed as ever.
Faulks, author of Birdsong and Charlotte Gray, was at first hesitant when approached by Ian Fleming's estate to write a book to mark the centenary of the author's birth.
But Faulks, re-reading the thrillers he first devoured as a 13-year-old boy, said: "Quite soon I saw the books had stood up very well. What I liked about them was that you had the sense of this single, vulnerable man who was in extreme jeopardy all the time."
The result is Devil May Care, a pacey thriller written in true Bond style with exotic locations, glamorous women and larger-than-life villains.
He adored writing the book.
"I couldn't wait to get to my desk every day," he told Reuters in the first print media interview to mark the announcement.
Faulks took up where Fleming left off in 1966 with Octopussy and the Living Daylights, the last of 14 Bond books which have sold 100 million copies since.
The Bond films have been seen by the equivalent of half the world's population.
He was determined to follow Fleming's style.
"The books have no cliches or bad writing. They are written as though by a journalist. He learnt to write prose working for Reuters in Moscow. They have a very direct style with short sentences, lots of active verbs and no semicolons," he said.
Caribbean cocktails
Fleming used to write 1,000 words in the morning at his house in Jamaica then go snorkelling, have a cocktail and lunch on the terrace before writing another 1,000 words in the afternoon.
Faulks followed exactly the same routine at his desk in west London - apart from the cocktails, lunch and snorkelling.
He wrote the book over six weeks, determined "come hell or high water to keep the story driving on. I wanted to write a book that Fleming would have approved of and made him smile".
Devil May Care is set in 1967 when Faulks said "Bond is damaged, ageing and in a sense it is the return of the gunfighter for one last heroic mission".
"He has been widowed and been through a lot of bad things . . . He is slightly more vulnerable than any previous Bond but at the same time he is both gallant and highly sexed if you can be both.
"Although he is a great seducer, he really does appreciate the girls he seduces and he doesn't actually use them badly."
Faulks would be delighted if the book, being published next May 28 by Penguin in Britain and Doubleday in the US, was made into a film but he stressed his book faithfully followed Fleming's style and, unlike the films, had "no bad puns".
He avoided leaking any plot details and will only say Devil May Care is a mixture of spy and crime story.
After immersing himself totally in Bond's fantasy world, Faulks can now see why the spy has such a perennial attraction.
"I do think the basic character has lasted and it is a combination of vulnerability and ruthlessness. That is the key to his appeal as an agent and a human being."
- REUTERS
