List Of James Bond Novels And Short Stories

''James Bond'' is a literary franchise comprising a series of novels and short stories, first published in 1953 by Ian Fleming, a British author, journalist, and former naval intelligence officer. The protagonist of the series, James Bond, is a British Secret Service agent, often referred to by his code name 007. The character first appeared in his 1953 novel '' Casino Royale''; the books are set in a contemporary period during Fleming's lifetime from 1951 to 1964. Fleming wrote twelve novels and two collections of short stories in the series, all at his Jamaican home Goldeneye and published annually. Two of the books were published after Fleming's death in 1964.

Since Fleming's death, other authors have written continuation works. Some of these have been novelisations of episodes in the series of ''James Bond'' films, produced by Eon Productions, while others were either continuation novels or short stories. The first author was Kingsley Amis, writing under the pseudonym of Robert Markham, who produced one novel. He was followed by novelist and biographer John Pearson, who wrote a fictional biography of Bond. Novelist and screenwriter Christopher Wood wrote two novelisations in the late 1970s. John Gardner was asked to continue the series by Ian Fleming Publications, the copyright holders to the franchise; he wrote fourteen novels and two novelisations between 1981 and 1996. After Gardner retired due to ill health, author Raymond Benson continued the stories and wrote six ''Bond'' novels, three novelisations and three short stories between 1996 and 2002.

There was a hiatus of six years before Sebastian Faulks was commissioned to write a further ''Bond'' novel, which was released on 28 May 2008, the 100th anniversary of Ian Fleming's birth. This was followed in 2011 by a novel by author Jeffery Deaver, and a 2013 book by William Boyd. A further instalment was published in September 2015 by Anthony Horowitz, with a second Horowitz novel published in May 2018. A third Horowitz novel is set for release on 26 May 2022. There have also been two spin-off book series, sanctioned by Fleming's estate: ''Young Bond'', based around Bond's adventures whilst a schoolboy at Eton College; and ''The Moneypenny Diaries'', a series of books and short stories focusing on the supporting character Miss Moneypenny.

Ian Fleming

During World War II, Ian Fleming had mentioned to friends that he wanted to write a spy novel, but it was not until 17 February 1952 that he began to write his first novel, ''Casino Royale''. He started writing his book at his Jamaican home Goldeneye, typing out 2,000 words in the morning, directly from his own experiences and imagination; he finished work on the manuscript in just over two months, completing it on 18 March 1952. Publishers Jonathan Cape were initially reluctant to publish the book, but were persuaded by Fleming's brother Peter (1907–1971), who had previously published material through them. On 13 April 1953 ''Casino Royale'' was released in the UK in hardcover, priced at 10s, 6d, with a cover that had been devised by Fleming himself. The first edition of 4,728 copies of ''Casino Royale'' sold out in less than a month; a second print run the same month also sold out, as did a third run of more than 8,000 books published in May 1954. At the time, Fleming was the Foreign Manager for Kemsley Newspapers, an organisation which owned ''The Sunday Times''. Upon accepting the job, Fleming requested that he be allowed three months' holiday per year, which allowed him the freedom to write.

The novel centred on the exploits of James Bond, an intelligence officer in the 00 section of the Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6. Bond was also known by his code number, 007, and was a Royal Naval Reserve Commander. Fleming took the name for his character from that of the eponymous American ornithologist, a Caribbean bird expert and author of the definitive field guide '' Birds of the West Indies''. Fleming based his creation on a number of individuals he came across during his time in the Naval Intelligence Division during World War II, admitting that Bond "was a compound of all the secret agents and commando types I met during the war". After the publication of ''Casino Royale'', Fleming used his annual holiday at his house in Jamaica to write another ''Bond'' story; in total, between 1953 and 1966, two years after his death, twelve ''Bond'' novels and two short-story collections were published, with the last two books—'' The Man with the Golden Gun'' and ''Octopussy and The Living Daylights''—published posthumously.

Books, by publication sequence

Short stories

In the summer of 1958, the CBS television network commissioned Fleming to write episodes of a television show based on the James Bond character. This deal came about after the success of the 1954 television adaptation of '' Casino Royale'' as an episode of the CBS television series ''Climax!'' Fleming agreed to the deal, and began to write outlines for the series; however, CBS later dropped the idea. In January and February 1959 Fleming adapted four of the television plots into short stories and added a fifth story he had written in the summer of 1958. The stories were originally titled ''The Rough with the Smooth'', although this was changed to ''For Your Eyes Only'' for publication, which included the subtitle ''Five Secret Occasions in the Life of James Bond''.

After Fleming's death, a second collection featuring two short stories was released, ''Octopussy and The Living Daylights''. When the paperback edition of the book was published, "The Property of a Lady" was also included and, by 2002, "007 in New York" had been added to the book by Penguin Books

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