200 000 page views for The secret agent blog.

I am so happy that I can almost explode.

My little blog about the literary James Bond that I created in October 2015 has now surpassed 200 000 page views. And it is the readers that keep coming back that makes it all worth wile.

The blog exists on many platforms:
Facebook
Instagram
Twitter
Pinterest
Reddit

Companies have started to contact me for a collaboration instead of me having to hunt them down on my spare time (with no answer) since as you can imagine this blog is only a hobby.

I actually received a very interesting email from The Folio Society regarding next week saying that I should be ready for some news coming from them. A dream would be to be first out in presenting what ever they have in store but maybe they or Ian Fleming Publications wish to be first out. Whatever happens you can be sure that something very interesting will be relived next week.

So keep coming back to the blog and do follow it on Facebook to make sure you do not miss out on any news regarding the literary James Bond.

PS. A big warm thank you to my friend, the journalist Morten Steingrimsen from Norway who said to believe that I could start a blog on my own. And also to all the readers who have helped me when having questions down the road. 

Lets keep Bonding!

Anthony Horowitz has seen the paperback

As a James Bond book collector it is hard for me to wait to see the paperback cover design for TRIGGER MORTIS until it will be released on May 19 2016.

So I decided to ask Anthony Horowitz knowing that he has answered my questions before and the answer I got back makes me think we will be in for a treat (positive thinking).

@AnthonyHorowitz have you seen the paperback version of #TriggerMortis yet? Different coverdesign?

@StephanBackman Yes. I like it very much.

Since I work in the film industry during the day I will try to get in contact with Orion Publishing and try to persuade them to let this blog have a 24 hour world exclusive on the cover design for Trigger Mortis. I do know that it is boldly to try and make this happen but this blog has only been around since October last year and thanks to you, the readers and fans of James Bond, it has already past 14 500 page impressions. In the movie industry we work like that all the time giving one site exclusive content for 24 hours. Both parties benefit from it.

Lets hope for the best. I am so anxious to show the fans the cover as soon as possible.

If you have not bought TRIGGER MORTIS on Hardback yet you can now do it for as little as £7 by clicking the link below.

Anthony Horowitz coments on that ONE word I did not like

In yesterdays blog post I wrote about me having some problems with the word "child" in Anthony Horowitz latest Bond novel Trigger Mortis. You can find that post here!

I wrote about it on Twitter and since Anthony seems to be so kind towards his fans and this blog he took the time to comment on the matter. 

He wrote: @StephanBackman Fair enough. Fleming used similar language - but I take the point. I'll take care next time. If...

 And some blog readers saw this and new actually which book Fleming wrote almost the same in. It was Dr.No (from 1958)

So we head down to page 92 in Dr. No where Bond looks at the erotic Honnychile Ryder and Fleming writes:

"The gentle curve of the backbone was deeply intended, suggesting more powerful muscles than is usual in a woman, and the behind was almost as firm and rounded like a boys."

In the book Honnychile Ryder is naked just like Ursula Andress in this photo from the making of Dr No. 

I am very happy to find out about this homage to one of Flemings original novels. This I would never have understood if I had not written yesterdays blog post so thank you readers! It is also fun to be able to share this with others. Flemings text makes a bit more sense but I do understand that since the word "boys" was taken by Fleming, Anthony went with what came to mind at that moment. 

And since I currently is a father of a three and a five year old son I might be a bit sensitive at the moment. 

But what we should concentrate on here is that Anthony hope to get the opportunity to write a new Bond novel. We are many who really would want that to happen!

In a later Twitter post today Anthony wrote something truly funny: 

This have been true for some years now for the continuation novels. To find a unsigned copy of Carte Blanche is almost impossible these days. But I guess signings has become to authors what concerts are to musicians in this digital age.

Did you notice this in SPECTRE?

The day after the Royal gala premiere of the new James Bond film SPECTRE took place this Monday, IAN FLEMING PUBLICATIONS had their special screening of the film for family, friends and specially invited. Amongst the invited was Young Bond author Charlie Higson, Andrew Lycett (author of the Ian Fleming biography) and Kate Millis, fiction editor at Orion publishing who publishes the James Bond novels. 

When reading there Twitter feed they all seemed to enjoy the film allot. I myself will have to wait until tomorrow at 14:15 (here in Stockholm Sweden) to see SPECTRE. Since hardly anyone has not liked it my expectations gets higher by the hour. I have not even seen a trailer for the film yet, kept my self totally in the dark not reading any interviews and so on.

IAN FLEMING PUBLICATIONS has posted a blog post on there website this Monday saying that there will be a scene in SPECTRE that has its origin from the COLONEL SUN book written by Kingsley Amis under the name Robert Markham in 1968. 

My COLONEL SUN Australian book club edition.

The Colonel Sun scene which features in SPECTRE is one of pivotal importance both to the film and the book and fans are encouraged to identify which part stems from Amis’ pen.
Corinne Turner, Managing Director of Ian Fleming Publications Ltd. commented that ‘The Fleming family and The Kingsley Amis Estate hope that fans of SPECTRE will be encouraged to reach for this thrilling book by one of the finest writers of the 20thcentury.’

Also out this week is another BBC Radio program about James Bond / Ian Fleming and Scotland. It is hosted by Robbie Coltrane who appeared in the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye.
The radio program is called is called JAMES BOND: LICENCE TO KILT and can be found by clicking here. The show is 28 minutes long. Enjoy!

If you wish to buy your copy of COLONEL SUN and sponsor the blog at the same time you can do so by order your book on Amazon UK below.

The TRIGGER MORTIS collection

It took some time for the Goldsboro Books TRIGGER MORTIS edition to reach Sweden so I am glad that Anders Frejdh at From Sweden With Love helped me get my hands on the Waterstone signed edition of TRIGGER MORTIS.

On the release day of TRIGGER MORTIS there was a book signing at the Waterstones Bookstore in London. Anthony Horowitz was offcourse there and I had given Anders special instructions for my "black edition". If possible I wanted Anthony Horowitz to write.

"Come in 007. M grunted, Take a seat, I will be with you in a minute". 

Since I already had the US proof edition of the book I managed to find this passage before the release.

The Waterstone edition of TRIGGER MORTIS.

My Goldsboro Edition is number 875 out of a 1000. According to Goldsboro Books website they had a few signed prints left when the books was sent out so all of the 1000 prints did not sell at once. They do seem to be sold out now though. And that's great news. It would be truly interesting to know how many books have been sold in the UK. A quick search on Google finds me nothing on the subject. 

Goldboro Edition of TRIGGER MORTIS

The US cover is totally different from the UK version. I personally enjoy the blueprint on the UK cover much more and it do grow on you while you read the book. The US cover just tries to highlight the James Bond life with a tux and a Vodka Martini. The UK version is better in that sense. As a book collector the artwork is highly important. If I like the cover I will buy the book. My only reason for buying the US edition was that it was a PROOF COPY. I have decided some time ago to only collect the hardbacks first editions of the books after Fleming. The main resaon for this is space (as the saying goes: Happy Wife, Happy Life).

The US PROOF COPY.

For this blog post I asked Anthony Horowitz on Twitter if there were any differences between the Proof version and the first edition but I believe he has not seen my post yet and if he answers I will get back to you on this. It would be great knowing if something was changed that he remembers.

Also in my collection is two extra dustjackets and the instructions on how to builed the rockets they used to promote the book upon release. I have not jet been able to destroy my jackets for that purpose. 

How to build your own rocket.

Finally in the collection I have three postcards from Orion that they sent out to promote the book a few month before the release but if you head over to THE BOOK BOND they have pictures of three postcards.

 

The final touch I wish to point out is off course the homage to Ian Fleming's GOLDFINGER from 1959. As I believe you are aware of TRIGGER MORTIS takes place two weeks after GOLDFINGER and therefore there is a skull embroiled on the TRIGGER MORTIS front just like it was on the GOLDFINGER front on the first edition. 

 

The skull on TRIGGER MORTIS and GOLDFINGER.

 

Added to the collection is NEVER DREAM OF DYING

Added to my collection today is a UK first edition of Raymond Benson's James Bond novel NEVER DREAM OF DYING.

It was released in 2001 by Hodder & Stoughton and the original price was £17.99.

My copy is signed by Raymond Benson and bought on Ebay for £19.50. I consider this a really great catch since the price is almost the same as when it was released and this one is actually signed by the author.

During today's dinner I spoke to my wife regarding the books cover. It is in my opinion one of the worst artworks for any James Bond books and I say this even when Sweden is actually in the middle of the artwork. The book looks more like a revealing book about Scientology (dont ask me why that comes to mind).

Now I don't know if this book sold poorly or if there was any other reason for the estate not to give the Raymond Benson books the great cover design they deserved. I don't men any harm on Raymond Benson but I do think that these books might have gotten a wider audience if the book covers had been more intriguing. My wife that reads a lot of books said that with a cover like this she would NEVER DREAM OF READING and she has read CASINO ROYALE at least.

I had to ask Raymond Benson on Twitter if he had anything to say when it comes to these covers for his books and as you can see below sadly he had not. One of the first books I ever got was Benson's THE JAMES BOND BEDSIDE COMPANION and it has an excellent cover by Graham Rye.

Whit that said, I do look forward to read all the Benson novels since I know that he is a true James Bond fan with lots of knowledge on the matter.

Book cover photo for THE JAMES BOND BEDSIDE COMPANION.
copyright of Graham Rye/007 MAGAZINE & ARCHIVE Limited/www.007magazine.com

NEVER DREAM OF DYING seems not to be available as a book at the moment on Amazon so if you want it you will have to hunt down a used copy, 

Heads you die - New Young Bond book by Steve Cole

Today Steve Cole revealed the title for his second Young Bond novel. The title
is HEADS YOU DIE and you can see the cover design and Steve on the photo
above from his Twitter feed.

The book is set to be released next spring.

I must confess that I have yet to have read any of the Young Bond books but I
know that many fans like them alot. Far better then James Bond Jr from the 90's.

I will keep you posted when anything new comes out regarding HEADS YOU
DIE.

In Sweden (where I live) Only the two first Young Bond books was released.
I guess they sadly had poor sales.

Ps. If you wish to follow me on Twitter my name is @StephanBackman