Here is a male author of James Bond books. A week ago it occurred to me I can alter my Bond book ‘The Royal Janitor’ to make it a heterosexual novel – without being a hypocritical money-grabber. I can enhance my original motives for writing a Bond book that will involve real royal people. On His Majesty’s Secret Service’ was deliberately released on Coronation Day, which is another astounding psychic Hit! The Royal Janitor takes up where ‘On Her Majesties Secret Service’ left off, and stars…
Victoria Rosemond Bond
John Presco
“Commissioned specifically for the coronation of King Charles III, ‘On His Majesty’s Secret Service’ is the first contemporary set James Bond novel since Jeffrey Deaver’s ‘Carte Blanche’ in 2011.
The new James Bond novel, Charlie Higson’s ‘On His Majesty’s Secret Service’, has been released to celebrate the coronation of King Charles III.”
Rumoured James Bond actors have already been rejected, claims author
The studio “play their cards very close to the chest”
6th May 2023
James Bond author Charlie Higson has said that any actors rumoured to be taking on the role of 007 on the big screen have already been rejected.
Higson has written several Young Bond novels and was recently commissioned by the Ian Fleming Publication to pen new Bond novel, On His Majesty’s Secret Service.
In a new interview with PA, Higson was asked if he knew who would be replacing Daniel Craig as Bond on the big screen following the actor’s departure in 2021’s No Time To Die.
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“As soon as the papers say, ‘So and so is being considered as the next James Bond’, you know that they’re not going to be the next James Bond, you know that they’ve been rejected,” he said.
“[The studio] play their cards very close to the chest. A lot of times they really surprise people. Nobody had any idea at all that [Daniel Craig] might be Bond but then he’s just so good in Casino Royale [that] any doubts you might have had immediately go out the window.”
“They’re pretty clever on that front,” Higson added, saying that the announcement will come at the “right time”.
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So far, both Idris Elba and Taron Egerton have denied that they’re set to become the next Bond.
In 2021 Elba ruled himself out of taking over the role and later said that the rumours were “a compliment and an honour, but [they’re] not a truth”. Meanwhile, Egerton said: “I don’t think I’m the right choice for it”.
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“It’s sort of irrelevant how I feel about it, anyway, because I can tell you there have been zero phone calls,” he added.
Aaron Taylor-Johnson has also been rumoured to play Bond but the actor said that he was trying to ignore any and all speculation. “The moment you start believing the shit people say about you, you’ve lost your fucking mind.”
Last December Taylor-Johnson and Henry Cavill were tied as the bookies’ favourite to become the next Bond.
New James Bond novel released to celebrate King Charles III’s coronation
New James Bond novel, ‘On His Majesty’s Secret Service’, is out today – Copyright Ian Fleming Publications Ltd. – Getty
By David Mouriquand • Updated: 04/05/2023
Commissioned specifically for the coronation of King Charles III, ‘On His Majesty’s Secret Service’ is the first contemporary set James Bond novel since Jeffrey Deaver’s ‘Carte Blanche’ in 2011.
The new James Bond novel, Charlie Higson’s ‘On His Majesty’s Secret Service’, has been released to celebrate the coronation of King Charles III.
Ian Fleming Publications had commissioned Young Bond series author Charlie Higson to write the new Bond adventure, which has hit shelves today.
The title of the novel, ‘On His Majesty’s Secret Service’, is a mild deviation from Fleming’s tenth novel ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’, originally published in 1963 and which celebrates its 60th anniversary this year.
The new 007 story brings Bond into the present day, with a narrative that takes place on 4 May 2023.
The story is set two days before the coronation of King Charles III. Bond is sent to thwart an attempt to disrupt the coronation by the wealthy and self-styled Athelstan of Wessex, who is on a deadly mission of his own to teach the UK a lesson. 007 must dismantle his devious plans and defeat his privately hired team of mercenaries.
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All royalties from sales of the book will support the work of the National Literacy Trust, an independent UK charity working with schools and communities to give disadvantaged children the literacy skills to succeed in life.
Higson has written five novels in the Young Bond series, which are young adult spy novels featuring Bond as a teenage boy attending school at Eton College in the 1930s. The final novel in the series was published 15 years ago.
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Higson previously said: “When Ian Fleming Publications 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.”
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!
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.”
Higson has defended the fact that his take on James Bond in ‘On His Majesty’s Secret Service’ is “a bit woke”, which also harks back to Ian Fleming Publications’ problematic censoring of the original Bond novels.
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:
“I think that was wrong. I went to see No Time to Die with my oldest boy, Frank, who is 30, and he said, ‘That felt like a Bond film made by people who are embarrassed to make a Bond film.’ You had to watch two films in advance to know who such and such is and you think, ‘Oh, fuck off with that.’ Make it a new mission each episode and let him be Bond. They overcomplicate him.”
Shots fired.
‘On His Majesty’s Secret Service’ is out now. King Charles III’s coronation takes place on Saturday 6 May at Westminster Abbey.
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