Penguin, Doubleday Drum Up 'Devil May Care' Hype

James Bond fans anticipating Sebastian Faulks’ Devil May Care are approaching the home stretch, with publication of the book just weeks away. However, the hype has only just begun, reports The Wall Street Journal.

Devil May Care poster

According to the article, the upcoming 007 novel will feature an initial UK print run of 100,000, while the U.S. print run will number 250,000. Both releases will be accompanied by lavish marketing campaigns.

In the UK, Devil May Care will be pushed by the largest marketing budget of any fictional Penguin title this year. This includes a swanky James Bond-themed party at London’s Fifty casino the night before the novel’s publication.

In addition, the July issue of Vanity Fair will contain extracts from the novel.

Bob Wietrak, vice president of merchandising at Barnes & Noble said, “We’re buying [Devil May Care] as a definite best seller. The downturn in the economy has prompted a demand for escapist fare.”

Stephen Rubin, president of Bertelsmann AG’s Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group admitted he hopes the success of Daniel Craig’s debut 007 movie, Casino Royale will push sales. “The whole thing was moribund. The Robert Ludlum franchise is completely re-energized because of what Matt Damon did in the Bourne movies. We think this is a greater opportunity.”

Devil May Care will be the first novel published under Penguin’s brand new Penguin 007 imprint and is the centrepiece of 2008’s Ian Fleming Centenary celebrations.

Most intriguingly, sources for the paper claim the book’s story revolves around the heroin trade and will feature a female character named Poppy. Both Penguin and Doubleday declined comment.

If true, these are the first clues to emerge about the book’s plot.

Keep watching CommanderBond.net for full coverage of Sebastian Faulks’ Devil May Care.

Bentley Chief Designer Discusses Limited Edition 'Devil May Care'

Yesterday, CommanderBond.net brought you the first details and images of the unique Special Series edition of Sebastian Faulks’ eagerly awaited James Bond novel, Devil May Care.

Limited to 300 copies worldwide, this luxury limited edition is inspired by the original 007 hardcovers of the 1950s and 1960s combined with the Bentley owner’s manuals of the era. The book will retail for £750 and will be available exclusively through Penguin007.com.

Today, we bring you a brand new Q&A with Bentley’s Chief Designer, Dirk van Braeckel, as he discusses how Penguin and Bentley developed this one of a kind collector’s item.

Devil May Care – Special Series Edition interior

What was the design philosophy for the cover?

The design captures traditional craftsmanship qualities and techniques and reveals design cues we are passionate about, while also paying homage to the first edition Ian Fleming books. It was important that the design was complimentary to both Bentley and Bond and the history behind both brands meant that the book should be something to be admired and cherished forever.

How did you capture the spirit of Bond and the spirit of Bentley

Marrying Bond and Bentley had to derive from themes that linked both entities: passion, adventure and appreciation for the finer things in life. This helped shape the book into an item which would please people through an element of surprise but could also be admired as something which is unique and unobtainable to everyone.

How does the use of materials reflect materials in Bentley cars?

The choice of materials had to demonstrate the high quality and finishing evident in our cars. It was an opportunity to reflect on historical themes, for example the fluting on the inside book cover, along with the diamond stitching we use on the sport theme seat covers today. The juxtaposition of metal and leather is a theme we work with everyday, and is naturally explored in the design.

How did the idea for the pewter model Continental car come about?

Kate Whatmore, one of our young designers, is very proud of this feature. She wanted the book to have a feel of sophistication and history but to make it “Bond” it had to have something that was a bit unexpected. The element of surprise created from opening the book to find the car within allowed us to carry the Bond-Bentley theme throughout. The model car is handmade and numbered to the book, which makes it a complete entity especially as the model is the car featured in the book.

How closely did you work with Penguin?

Working with Penguin was a unique experience. We learned a lot from designing around an unfamiliar product and certainly learned a lot technically about Bentley craftsmanship in relation to a product other than a car. The people we met and worked with from Penguin were very supportive and enthusiastic about the prospect of the book, Bentley and Kate’s ideas for the design. It was a very positive experience.

What challenges did you face in both design and production?

In all areas of design there are problems that challenge you as a designer to produce the best solution you can. The feasibility of a design idea is always the greater challenge to achieve the best aesthetics and quality. Transferring our design knowledge from the car world to a book was a new challenge for us, but working closely with Penguin, we think we have come up with a unique product which is complementary to the history of Bentley and Bond that can be appreciated by all audiences.

Bentley Special Edition

The Special Series edition of Devil May Care will be published alongside the regular edition on 28 May, 2008.

Stay tuned to CommanderBond.net for all the latest Devil May Care news in the weeks leading up to its publication.

Bond And Bentley Join Forces For Limited Edition 'Devil May Care'

Penguin Books and Bentley Motors today announced they will join forces to produce a luxury, limited edition of Sebastian Faulks’ highly-anticipated James Bond novel, Devil May Care.

Devil May Care – Special Series Edition

The Special Series edition, said to be inspired by the original 007 hardcovers of the 1950s and 1960s combined with the Bentley owner’s manuals of the era, will be published on 28 May. Retailing for £750, the book will be limited to 300 copies worldwide and available exclusively through Penguin007.com.

The full press release follows.

Bentley Motors designs limited collector’s edition of the new Bond book, Devil May Care

In a unique collaboration between three of Britain’s iconic brands—James Bond, Bentley Motors and Penguin Books—a special, limited edition of the new Bond book Devil May Care will be published on 28th May. Written by Sebastian Faulks at the invitation of Ian Fleming Publications to celebrate the Ian Fleming centenary, Devil May Care is one of the most eagerly anticipated publications of 2008.

Cars and James Bond have always had a strong association and, contrary to popular belief, Bond’s preference has historically been firmly with Bentley Motors. He owned three Bentleys in the course of the fourteen original novels written by Ian Fleming. It is fitting therefore that in Devil May Care—published to coincide with the centenary of Ian Fleming’s birth—Bond is found once again in the driving seat of his favourite car.

To mark the reunion, Penguin approached Bentley to produce a luxury, limited edition of Devil May Care. The result is a beautiful and striking edition which takes its inspiration from hard-covers of the original 1950s and 1960s Bond books combined with the stylish Bentley owner’s manuals and handbooks of the era. Inside the book is a specially designed model pewter Bentley, described in detail by Fleming in Thunderball.

Bentley Chief Designer Dirk van Braeckel says, “Transferring our design knowledge from the car world to a book was a new challenge for us, but working closely with Penguin, we think we have come up with a unique product which is complementary to the history of Bentley and Bond that can be appreciated by all.”

Only 300 copies of the Special Series edition will be produced, costing £750 each, available exclusively from the Penguin James Bond books website (penguin007.com).

The design

Devil May Care – Special Series Edition

Evoking the feeling of the Cold War period in which Devil May Care is set, the edition is bound in Bodoniana style cases and finished in burnt oak leather sourced from the tannery in Italy which provides the hides for Bentley’s interiors. The iconic Bentley diamond pattern found on the radiator grille and upholstery of modern Bentley’s, is hand-stitched on the leather casing and the front cover and spine is finished with the silver Bentley ‘Flying B’—the radiator cap of the Bentley’s of Bond’s time.

The inside of the casing is trimmed in deep red hotspur leather and has the striking fluting used on the 1950s and 1960s Bentley interior upholstery. Each book has a unique edition number embossed on a black aluminium plate produced the same company that makes the Bentley engine plates.

Fleming described in detail a modified Bentley R type in Thunderball and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service which Bond loving called ‘the Locomotive’. The car never existed but, using Fleming’s exact specifications, a cast and polished 1:43 scale model of the car has been hand crafted by Bentley for this edition. The miniature is inserted into the book in a car-shaped hole and is individually numbered to match the plate on the inside cover. Each book is protected by a custom-made Plexiglass slip case, which will be sealed in protective and numbered wrapping.

Devil May Care is the centrepiece of Ian Fleming Publications’ celebrations to mark the centenary of Ian Fleming’s birth.

Stay tuned to CommanderBond.net for a Q&A with Bentley’s Chief Designer, Dirk van Braeckel.

'Ken Adam Designs the Movies: James Bond and Beyond' Coming In September '08

A new book centering on Ken Adam, creator of some of the most grandiose sets to ever appear in the James Bond films, is due for release later this year.

Entitled Ken Adam Designs the Movies: James Bond and Beyond and written by Adam and Christopher Frayling, the 224-page hardback will be published by Thames & Hudson Ltd.

While there is currently no official blurb describing the book, 007 fans in the UK and US can currently pre-order online at Amazon. Ken Adam Designs the Movies: James Bond and Beyond will be released on 1 September in the UK and 27 November in the US.

This book will mark the second collaboration between Adam and Frayling. The two previously worked together on the 2005 book Ken Adam: The Art of Production Design.

Adam served as production designer on the following seven Bond films: Dr. No, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, Diamonds are Forever, The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker. He also contributed to the 2004 Bond videogame GoldenEye: Rogue Agent.

Stay tuned to CommanderBond.net for all the latest literary James Bond news.

Raymond Benson's 'James Bond: The Union Trilogy' Available To Pre-order

Raymond Benson’s James Bond: The Union Trilogy: Three 007 Novels

As first reported by CommanderBond.net this past December, Raymond Benson’s literary James Bond is set to return in the US in a big way later this year.

Entitled James Bond: The Union Trilogy: Three 007 Novels and due for release on 8 October 2008, this omnibus edition will collect the author’s three Bond adventures High Time To Kill, Doubleshot and Never Dream of Dying.

This collection is now available to pre-order online at amazon.com (a pre-order link for the same collection is also available at amazon.co.uk). James Bond: The Union Trilogy: Three 007 Novels will be published as an 832-page paperback by Pegasus Books.

As the cover artwork details, this new Union Trilogy collection will also feature a brand new introduction by Benson. What makes this forthcoming Bond omnibus especially notable is that it will additionally include the complete, unedited version of Benson’s first 007 short story, Blast From The Past.

Raymond Benson

Blast From The Past was first (and up to this point, only) published in an edited version in the January 1997 edition of Playboy magazine. The full-length short story was originally only made available in French and Italian.

Furthermore, Pegasus Books is currently planning to follow this omnibus with yet another Benson collection in 2009.

Benson’s other Bond-related works include novels Zero Minus Ten, The Facts of Death and The Man with the Red Tattoo, the Midsummer Night’s Doom and Live at Five short stories and the film novelizations for Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day.

Stay tuned to CBn for all the latest literary James Bond news.

First Look: 'SilverFin' Graphic Novel

Kev Walker’s character art for SilverFin

The Young Bond Dossier has gotten an exclusive first look at the graphic novel adaption of Charlie Higson’s SilverFin.

Due out on 2 October 2008 in the UK, the SilverFin graphic novel will feature roughly 300 full color illustrations by artist Kev Walker.

Walker, who has contributed to the official Young Bond website, is also responsible for the cover art on the US releases of Blood Fever and Double Or Die.

Keep watching CBn for all the latest details on the SilverFin graphic novel and all Young Bond news.

Radio 4 Celebrates Centenary Of James Bond Creator Ian Fleming

As previously announced on CommanderBond.net, several James Bond-themed events have been planned by BBC Radio 4 as part of the Ian Fleming centenary celebrations this year.

These events include a Dr. No dramatisation, a programme entitled ‘The Bond Correspondence’, which features letters from Fleming, and much more.

An official press release from Radio 4 sheds further light on these upcoming programmes to keep an eye out for:

Ian Fleming’s Dr. No

Radio 4 Celebrates Centenary Of James Bond Creator Ian Fleming

Ian Fleming, renowned author and creator of iconic spy James Bond, was born 100 years ago and to mark this special anniversary, BBC Radio 4 presents a short season of programmes.

They include an all-star dramatisation of Dr. No; a documentary following Fleming’s niece on a personal journey to find out more about her uncle; and an exploration of what the creation of James Bond tells us about post-Empire Britain.

On Saturday 24 May, Toby Stephens and David Suchet star in the first ever full radio adaptation of Dr. No, Ian Fleming’s 1958 James Bond novel.

Recovering from the after-effects of his last assignment, Bond is given what appears to be an easy job on his next case.

Sent to Jamaica to investigate the mysterious disappearance of two of his colleagues, Bond discovers that the heart of the mystery lies with a sinister recluse on Crab Key, Dr No.

Before long Bond comes face to face with this bizarre creature and soon he is fighting for his life in a murderous game.

The cast also include Samuel West, John Standing, Martin Jarvis and Peter Capaldi.

In The Bond Correspondence, also on Saturday 24 May, Ian Fleming’s niece, Lucy Fleming, sets out to discover more about both her uncle and the creation of his most famous character, James Bond.

Her uncle has, until now, been someone Lucy vaguely remembers from her teens. But, after she delves into dusty old boxes of letters to see the wealth of correspondence from readers and his responses, she discovers a lesser known side of Ian.

She goes inside the old Naval Intelligence Unit where her uncle worked in the Second World War, visits his wartime girlfriend Joan Bright Astley, and stepdaughter Fionn Morgan, and, in doing so, brings to life ghosts from the past.

On Monday 26 May, Professor David Cannadine, argues that the Bond novels are a fantastic response to the moment when Britain lost an Empire but was still struggling to find a role in the new world.

In James Bond, The Last Englishman, Professor Cannadine claims that Fleming’s Bond novels have played a key role in shaping England’s national self-image.

For Cannadine, Bond is the consolatory fantasy of Fleming, the nostalgic conservative appalled by Britain’s collapse as a great power.

There will also be another chance to hear Amis, Amis and Bond on Sunday 18 May in which Martin Amis explores his father’s obsessive interest with James Bond and the writing of Ian Fleming with fellow Bond enthusiast Charlie Higson.

Amis, Amis and Bond is on Sunday 18 May at 1.30pm

The Bond Correspondence is on Saturday 24 May at 10.30am

Dr No is on Saturday 24 May at 2.30pm

James Bond, The Last Englishman is on Monday 26 May at 8.00pm

Stay tuned to CBn for all the latest details and coverage on all the Ian Fleming centenary events and James Bond-related releases.

To keep track of all the upcoming 007 releases, events, television shows, and more–just keep your eyes on the CBn Calendar, located on the right panel of our main page.

Sebastian Faulks' Forty Most Influential Books

Sebastian Faulks

CommanderBond.net previously reported that Sebastian Faulks would host Watersone’s first Writer’s Table where he would compile a top 40 book list that inspired him as an author. The list has finally been published in select Waterstone’s stores and their website, and includes a number of names associated with James Bond.

Faulks’ handwritten review of Moonraker

Coming in at #9 on the list is surprisingly Moonraker by Ian Fleming. In Faulk’s review, he praises it for its uniqueness. “Early Bond. He doesn’t sleep with the girl and the big dénouement is in Kent… It breaks all the rules and it really only has three scenes. But what good scenes they are.”

Topping the list at #1 is Colonel Sun author Kingsley Amis with Jake’s Thing (1978) followed by his son, Martin Amis at #2 with his 1978 novel Success. Additionally, George MacDonald Fraser’s World War II memoir also made the list. Fraser is best known to Bond fans for being a screenwriter on Octopussy.

The full list:

1. Jake’s Thing by Kingsley Amis
2. Success by Martin Amis
3. Tim All Alone by Edward Ardizzone
4. The Garden Of The Finzi-Continis by Giorgio Bassani
5. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
6. David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
7. The Waste Land by TS Eliot
8. The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald
9. Moonraker by Ian Fleming
10. The Magus by John Fowles
11. Quartered Safe Out Here by George MacDonald Fraser
12. Towards The End Of The Morning by Michael Frayn
13. Loving. Living. Party Going by Henry Green
14. The Last Enemy by Richard Hillary
15. The Line Of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
16. The Price Of Glory by Alistair Horne
17. An Evil Cradling by Brian Keenan
18. The Lake by Yasunari Kawabata
19. The Unbearable Lightness Of Being by Milan Kundera
20. 20. The Whitsun Weddings by Philip Larkin
21. The Rainbow by DH Lawrence
22. The Adventures Of Dr Dolittle by Hugh Lofting
23. The Scent Of Dried Roses by Tim Lott
24. The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann
25. The House Of Elrig by Gavin Maxwell
26. The First Day On The Somme by Martin Middlebrook
27. Birds Of America by Lorrie Moore
28. The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch
29. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
30. The World Is Not Enough by Zoe Oldenbourg
31. Sabbath’s Theater by Philip Roth
32. The Catcher In The Rye by JD Salinger
33. One Day In The Life Of Ivan Denisovich by Alexander Solzhenitsyn
34. The Red And The Black by Stendhal
35. A Cruel Madness by Colin Thubron
36. War And Peace by Leo Tolstoy
37. A Patchwork Planet by Anne Tyler
38. A Fringe Of Leaves by Patrick White
39. Lyrical Ballads by William Wordsworth & Samuel Taylor Coleridge
40. Germinal by Emile Zola

For reviews of each book and why they were selected for this list, see Waterstone’s website

Faulks’ James Bond novel, Devil May Care, will be published worldwide on 28 May 2008.

Keep watching CommanderBond.net for all the latest literary James Bond news.

Charlie Higson's Top 10 Pop Hit

When Ian Fleming Publications announced in early 2004 that Charlie Higson would be writing Young James Bond novels, fans and the media examined the unlikely choice and often brought up his work on the Fast Show, and his most famous character Swiss Toni.

Some biographical pieces mentioned that Higson had been a band, named, peculiarly enough, The Higsons. The 6-member group was formed in 1980, with Higson playing piano, harmonica, and singing the lead vocals.

Over the course of 6 years the Higsons produced 3 albums and 9 singles, but the band was given an unflattering characterization that Charlie Higson revealed was accurate: “We were often accused of trying to be the English Talking Heads, which we always strenuously denied, but let’s face it, that’s what we were trying to be.”

While the band did not dominate the charts, it was successful enough to tour America, as the CBn East Coast crew found out during Higson’s Silverfin book tour stop in Virginia in 2005.

Stavros

In 1988, Higson joined the show “Friday Night Live” as a writer, with partners Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse. The Channel 4 show and its predecessor “Saturday Live” were Britain’s answer to America’s “Saturday Night Live” format of comedy sketches and pop music in front of a live audience. While the show lasted a scant 10 episodes, its cultural impact was significant – especially due to two characters that the trio developed.

The first was character that caught on was Stavros, a Greek immigrant restaurant owner whose mangled English and misunderstanding of customs became an obvious template that Sasha Baron Cowen would use for Borat, and the 2nd wildly popular character was Loadsamoney, an obnoxious plasterer who constantly flaunted his newfound wealth.

Both characters were performed by Enfield, but written by the trio, with Loadsamoney’s origins traced back to the fact that Whitehouse was a plasterer and Higson a decorator.

Charlie Higson on the keyboards
CLICK TO VIEW VIDEO

Loadsamoney transcended the one-joke lifespan that these sorts of characters usually have, spawning not only a catch phrase and book (Wad and Peeps, written by the trio, published by Penguin and presumably Higson’s first appearance in print), but also a single (which peaked at #4 on the UK pop charts) and sold out tour.

Loadsamoney spawns a book: Wad and Peeps

The character and his obsession with cash seemed to personify the greed so prevalent in the Thatcherite 1980s, even reaching members of Parliament who decried the “Loadsamoney society” in a 1989 speech in the House of Commons. As Loadsamoney’s popularity soared, the phenomenon devolved into self-parody. Performer Harry Enfield was horrified that people thought that the braggart’s ways were worthy of emulation rather than ridicule, so he killed off the character in a 1990 sketch involving a giant check for 10p.

Loadsamoney single cover

The trio of Enfield, Higson, and Whitehouse would work individually and collaboratively on comedy projects over the ensuing years with varying degrees of success. And although the character was killed off, the catch phrase is still in use in Britain today, two decades after Loadsamoney first demanded that geezers shut their mouth and look at his wad.

'By Royal Command' International Edition Due In September

An international paperback edition of Charlie Higson’s forthcoming Young James Bond novel, By Royal Command, is planned for release later this year.

The Young Bond Dossier cites a listing on the Penguin Australia website for this special paperback edition, due for release on 29 September.

As literary 007 collectors are no doubt aware, ‘International’/’Open Market’ paperback editions of Bond novels can be quite difficult to come by for collectors as they mark the first true appearance of the book in a paperback format and are often printed in limited quantities.

International paperback editions were previously issued for both Hurricane Gold and SilverFin–both appearing almost identical in appearance to the UK hardback original.

By Royal Command debuts on 4 September in the UK.

James is expecting his life to get back to normal when he returns to Eton from Mexico, but danger is never far away. And when his whole world explodes, he is forced to go on the run, pursued by enemy agents and the British authorities.

In an adventure that takes him from England to the chilling heights of the Austrian Alps, James must choose between friendship and duty. His life will never be the same again.

• Order the UK hardback edition of By Royal Command from Amazon.co.uk
• Order the UK audiobook edition of By Royal Command from Amazon.co.uk

Keep watching CommanderBond.net for all the latest Young Bond news.