He used the information gleaned from that research to make his Bond true to Fleming’s original – and that includes service in the war.īoyd’s Bond has the sex, the cars, the booze, the licence to kill – but Solo is set in 1969, a few years after Ian Fleming’s last Bond book was written, and that’s allowed Boyd to update James Bond. But he won on a revelation about Bond’s experiences in world war two which is described at the beginning of Solo.īoyd took his responsibilities seriously and had re-read all Fleming’s 12 Bond novels and eight short stories “with a pen in hand”.

He told me the keepers of the Bond legacy felt Boyd had gone too far showing a strong filial yearning, so he toned it down and made it implicit. There was debate about his portrayal of 007’s relationship with M. He told me it was “good benevolent surveillance… everyone in the world has heard of Bond, you can’t take the character lightly”. During the 18-month writing process, Boyd had to run synopses and drafts past them. Unsurprisingly, it boils down to his being a fan of 007, ever since he read From Russia With Love with “trembling pre-adolescent hands” and found it “the most sexy, thrilling piece of literature”.īond is a global phenomenon and the Fleming family guard 007’s reputation closely. So why would a novelist of that standing want to take a commission from Ian Fleming Publications Ltd? ‘Trembling hands’ William Boyd, of course, is the best-selling novelist of Any Human Heart, Restless, Brazzaville Beach, to name a few.

It’s potent – three parts gin, one part vodka. We ordered Vesper martinis, the cocktail James Bond dreams up in the first Ian Fleming book, Casino Royale, written in 1953. There was only one place to meet William Boyd, the latest novelist to take on Bond: in the bar of the Dorchester, the London hotel where his novel, Solo, opens.

William boyd james bond