Charlie Higson's On His Majesty's Secret Service (2023) - New Adult Bond Novel!

Some welcome news from IFP this morning - Charlie Higson (of 'Young Bond' fame) will write a new adult James Bond continuation novel entitled On His Majesty's Secret Service and it will be published on Thursday 4 May 2023 to coincide with the Coronation of HM King Charles III on Saturday 6 May 2023:

https://www.ianfleming.com/higson-returns-with-brand-new-adventure/

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/secret-service-charlie-higson-james-bond-bond-national-literacy-trust-b2311556.html

To my mind this is truly brilliant and exciting news! It will please many fans who often speculated why IFP didn't do the obvious and hire Higson to write an adult Bond novel (after his already proven track record with the successful 'Young Bond' series). This is certainly music to my ears as within the literary Bond I've always had a preference for the more traditional contemporary-set adult Bond novels in the Fleming-Amis-Gardner-Benson-Deaver mould.

It's also great to have an adult Bond novel set in the present day again and tying it in to King Charles III's coronation with a spin on the On Her Majesty's Secret Service title (in its 60th year of publication no less) is a lovely touch. Higson had Young Bond foil an assassination attempt on the King in By Royal Command (2008) so this sounds like a timely variant of that earlier plot. It also calls to mind the plot by the crazed serial killer villain David Dragonpol to assassinate Princess Diana and the princes William and Harry on a Royal Family visit to Euro Disney resort in Paris in John Gardner's Never Send Flowers (1993). It's interesting that Charles and his former wife Diana now both feature in the plots of two Bond novels set 30 years apart!

Higson mustn't have had very long to write the novel considering HM Queen Elizabeth II only died on 8 September 2022 and King Charles III acceded to the throne that day. That may explain its shorter length as a Bond novel, at 144 pages, so more of a novella. It also marks the first time we've had adult Bond continuation novels in two consecutive years (after Horowitz's With A Mind to Kill in 2022) since the Raymond Benson novels ended in 2002. It's also great that the novel will benefit such a worthy charity as the National Literary Trust. So, it's great news all round!

Now available to order. The cover art has been released:

https://www.waterstones.com/book/on-his-majestys-secret-service/charlie-higson/9781915797070

I'm kinda more excited about this than I've been about anything literary Bond in a while. I feel like Higson had a very good handle of what Fleming was trying to do with his books, in certain respects more so than any of the other continuation authors. It remains to be seen what his adult Bond in a modern day will look like, but I'm intrigued!

Somerset wrote:

I'm kinda more excited about this than I've been about anything literary Bond in a while.

This is exactly how I feel too. It's been a long while since I've been really excited about a new literary Bond project but the return to the modern day has really piqued my interest again.

Maeve, now this is out, I'm betting you'll likely get your hands on it first. Be sure and let us know what you think. Seen a couple reviews which seem positive so far.

Yes, Somerset, my copy that I bought from eBay arrived this afternoon. I'm looking forward to getting a chance to read it this weekend:

I am interested in this, whilst also remembering that the last set-nowadays continuation novel (Deaver's Carte Blanche) wasn't up to much.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

I am interested in this, whilst also remembering that the last set-nowadays continuation novel (Deaver's Carte Blanche) wasn't up to much.

The reviews I've read so far seem to be quite favourable and it is pretty short so I'm sure it won't outstay its welcome. I do get a bit of a John Gardner vibe from some of what I've heard about this one but I need to start reading it this evening.

I see Higson criticised NTTD as coming across as a 007 film made by people who seemed ashamed to have done so, and that the films need to get back to being fun and Bond 'should be allowed to be Bond'.

Good man.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

I see Higson criticised NTTD as coming across as a 007 film made by people who seemed ashamed to have done so, and that the films need to get back to being fun and Bond 'should be allowed to be Bond'.

Good man.

That alone intrigues me enough to give this a try (haven't read the young Bond stuff, tried a 003-1/2 book nearly 50 years back and was bitterly disappointed, enough time has passed for the scar to have healed!)

Blunt Instrument wrote:

I see Higson criticised NTTD as coming across as a 007 film made by people who seemed ashamed to have done so, and that the films need to get back to being fun and Bond 'should be allowed to be Bond'.

Good man.

Sage and sensible advice that will, alas, fall upon deaf ears. Babs prefers anti-Bond. It is so deliciously transgressive.

Blunt Instrument wrote:

I see Higson criticised NTTD as coming across as a 007 film made by people who seemed ashamed to have done so, and that the films need to get back to being fun and Bond 'should be allowed to be Bond'.

Good man.

Common sense advice but Babs will let the next "Bond" flop at the box office before she allows the character to get back to basics.