DEVIL IS IN THE DETAIL

Mark Lawson, writing in The Guardian is won over by Sebastian Faulks's measured resurrection of Ian Fleming's James Bond in Devil May Care Wednesday May 28, 2008


Since Ian Fleming's death in 1964, his estate has authorised 32 James Bond novels from other writers. Most of these have made such little lasting impact for Devil May Care - the continuation by Sebastian Faulks published today - to be confidently declared as the first non-Fleming Bond.
Previous novelists on the Bondwagon, though, have lacked the distinction of being published on the day of the 007 creator's centenary or - with the exception of Kingsley Amis, who used the pseudonym Robert Markham for his Colonel Sun - of being a bestselling author in his own right. Faulks has also benefited from a marketing campaign aggressive even by the standards of modern media hysteria: the Royal Navy yesterday shipped the first locked-up copies of the book down the Thames. It was marginally easier for Auric Goldfinger to get into Fort Knox than for critics to review this book.


Link to The Guardian online to read the rest.