UNITED KINGDOM: The latest adventure of Britain's most famous super-spy, James Bond, is told by American best-selling thriller writer, Jeffery Deaver

Record ID: 838351

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: The latest adventure of Britain's most famous super-spy, James Bond, is told by American best-selling thriller writer, Jeffery Deaver
  • Date: 27th May 2011
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND UNITED KINGDOM (MAY 25, 2011) (REUTERS) ( ** BEWARE FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY **) MODEL "BOND GIRL" ON MOTORCYCLE AHEAD OF CAR CARRYING AUTHOR JEFFERY DEAVER AT ST PANCRAS INTERNATIONAL STATION IN LONDON MOTORCYCLE RIDER (STUNT RIDER/MODEL CHESCA MILES) TAKES OFF HELMET AS JEFFERY DEAVER SAYS: "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, I GIVE YOU 'CARTE BLANCHE'." ROYAL MARINE COMMANDOS ABSEIL FROM ROOF OF ST PANCRAS INTERNATIONAL TRAIN TERMINAL ROYAL MARINE ABSEILS DOWN AND HANDS JEFFERY DEAVER COPY OF JAMES BOND BOOK, "CARTE BLANCHE" VARIOUS OF DEAVER POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS ON BIKE WITH WITH MODEL/STUNT RIDER, CHESCA MILES (SOUNDBITE) (English) JEFFERY DEAVER, AUTHOR, SAYING "I had the extra question, what do Ian Fleming fans want? So I went back and for six, seven months researched everything that Fleming had written. I of course re-read all the James Bond novels and I think I had a very good sense of how to bring his character into my story." "CARTE BLANCH 007" LOGO ON CAR "007" LOGO ON CAR VARIOUS OF CARTE BLANCHE AUTHOR JEFFERY DEAVER POSING WITH MODEL CHESCA MILES IN FRONT OF CAR (SOUNDBITE) (English) JEFFERY DEAVER, AUTHOR, SAYING "I want a book to be the most intense emotional experience it can be. By setting the book in the past you kind of distance yourself from that. If you go back to a period piece we don't really get the sweaty palms, we don't sit on the edge of our seats quite so much as if what Bond is solving today could be a problem, a terror, a threat that we all face every day." ROYAL MARINE COMMANDO HOLDING ROPE VARIOUS OF ROYAL MARINE COMMANDO READING BOOK WHILE ABSEILING (SOUNDBITE) (English) JEFFERY DEAVER, AUTHOR, SAYING "We certainly do touch on real life events to some extent, but Ernest Hemingway once said if you want to send a message, go to Western Union, don't put it in your novel and I think that's true. I don't explore too many geopolitical issues. My job is to entertain." ROYAL MARINES COMMANDO BADGE VARIOUS OF DEAVER POSING FOR PHOTOGRAPHERS WITH ROYAL MARINES (SOUNDBITE) (English) JEFFERY DEAVER, AUTHOR, SAYING "I did have to learn for instance that when we say 'pissed' over here it means drunk, it doesn't mean angry, and I still find myself back at home saying words like 'I'm chuffed' and my American friends say 'What are you talking about?' I became Brit for about the eight months it took me to write the book. Now sadly I'm back over sort of the Canary Islands. I'm headed back over the other side of the pond." VARIOUS OF LUCY FLEMING, NIECE OF JAMES BOND CREATOR, IAN FLEMING (SOUNDBITE) (English) LUCY FLEMING, NIECE OF JAMES BOND CREATOR, IAN FLEMING SAYING "As you know, Ian (Fleming) worked for Reuters and he learned his writing form being a journalist so short, concise sentences and in a way I think Ian does that as well, I mean Jeffrey (Deaver) does that as well. So I think it's a jolly good book, it's a very good read. The tension builds and builds and it has got the most horrible villain you've ever seen or heard. Really nasty man." VARIOUS OF POSTER FOR JAMES BOND NOVEL, "CARTE BLANCHE" EXTERIOR OF ST PANCRAS STATION AND EUSTON ROAD
  • Embargoed: 11th June 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom, United Kingdom
  • City:
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Entertainment,Quirky,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVADE240HNOYCE9CS5VMWNDG1LAX
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  • Story Text: Fittingly for the launch of the new authorised James Bond novel "Carte Blanche", there was a luxury car, champagne on tap, crack British troops abseiling from the rafters and a long-legged girl on a vintage motorbike.
    The promotion of American crime writer Jeffery Deaver's book about 007 and his latest escapades, which hits shelves on Thursday (May 26), was more like Hollywood than the usually more low-key world of publishing.
    But Bond is still a potential money spinner in book form as well as on the big screen, explaining the high-profile event at London's refurbished, vaulted St. Pancras train station and its swanky champagne bar, billed as the longest in Europe.
    Deaver, best known for his Kathryn Dance and Lincoln Rhyme books, arrived at the bar in a modern Bentley.
    He was led in by stunt rider and model Chesca Miles, who appeared as a Bond girl on a motorbike riding a vintage BSA, and was handed a copy of the new book by a member of the Royal Marine Commando display team who had abseiled from the roof.
    Deaver has said all along that he had the chameleon-like qualities needed to get into the mind of a quintessentially English character, although plenty of research did help.
    "I became a Brit for about the eight months it took me to write the book," he told Reuters Television at the launch. "I did have to learn, for instance, that when we say 'pissed' over here (in Britain) it means drunk, it doesn't mean angry."
    Deaver believed his previous novels had plenty in common with a good Bond story by the character's creator Ian Fleming, but he said that while he knew what his won fans expected of him, "Carte Blanche" did present an extra challenge:
    "I had the extra question -- what do Ian Fleming fans want? So I went back and for six, seven months, researched everything that Fleming had written. "I of course re-read all the James Bond novels and I think I had a very good sense of how to bring his character into my story."
    British publisher Hodder & Stoughton was keen to keep the story under wraps before publication on Thursday. Carte Blanche is set in the present day, and takes place partly in Serbia and Dubai.
    "I want a book to be the most intense emotional experience it can be," the author explained. "If you go back to a period piece we don't really get the sweaty palms, we don't sit on the edge of our seats quite so much as if what Bond is solving today could be a problem, a terror, a threat that we all face every day."
    But he added that the immediacy did not mean he tried to convey any political point of view about real-life events:
    "We certainly do touch on real life events to some extent, but Ernest Hemingway once said if you want to send a message go to Western Union, don't put it in your novel and I think that's true. I don't explore too many geopolitical issues. My job is to entertain."
    Deaver was first identified as a potential Bond author when he won the 2004 Crime Writers' Association Ian Fleming Steel Dagger Award for "Garden of Beasts" and spoke at the ceremony of his indebtedness to Fleming and Bond.
    According to Lucy Fleming, the niece of James Bond's creator, Deaver has done her uncle proud with this latest outing.
    "I think it's a jolly good book, it's a very good read. The tension builds and builds and it has got the most horrible villain you've ever seen or heard. Really nasty man," she said.
    Deaver has previously written 28 novels and sold more than 20 million books world-wide. He continues a long tradition of post-Fleming Bond novels authorised by Fleming's estate whose authors have included Kingsley Amis, John Gardner and Raymond Benson.
    More than 100 million Bond books have been sold in total.
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