"It's not going to be a particularly happy ending."

The Young Bond Dossier links to a new video interview over at Spinebreakers, in which Charlie Higson talks about the fate of Young Bond.

When asked what was in store for the final Young Bond book, Higson jovially proclaimed, “Ahh, he dies at the end of it,” before expressing James’ fate as a grown-up spy as one of the hurdles he had to overcome when writing the series.

“Kids come up to me and say, all the books are exciting but I know he’s going to live because he grows up to be James Bond,” the Fast Show star said.

“So you have to kill off some of his friends.”

After pointing out his books find James attending Eton for longer than stipulated in Ian Fleming’s You Only Live Twice, Higson said Young Bond 5 will address that inconsistency.

“The fifth book does end with him leaving Eton. We find out why he had to leave Eton. We also find out why the facts have changed slightly,” Higson said, in reference to James Bond’s expulsion involving an incident with a maid (the seeds of which have been planted in Hurricane Gold).

“So it is very much the end of that part of his life. We see where he’s going to go in his future and what’s going to happen to him.”

“He learns a quite a few nasty lessons in the book, about life, and people, and who you can trust and not trust.”

“It’s not going to be a particularly happy ending, I don’t think. It’ll be interesting to see how kids react to that.”

To watch the whole interview, in which Charlie discusses the evolution of Young Bond, click over to Spinebreakers.

Young Bond 5 (which has the working title, The Shadow War) is due for release on 4 September 2008.

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