On His Majesty's Secret Service (James Bond 007)

Product Information

But how did he create something fresh and interesting and still make 007 recognisable as Fleming’s Bond? Charlie Higson, author of the bestselling Young Bond series, has been commissioned by Ian Fleming Publications to write a new James Bond adventure to celebrate the Coronation of King Charles III, it is announced today, Friday 31 March.

The best-selling author has also slammed the last Bond film, No Time To Die. Speaking with The Sunday Times, Higson shared his feelings about the modern James Bond movies: After watching an interview with the author on the ‘Bond Experience’ YouTube channel and having a Bondian way to celebrate the coronation, I was very excited to add this book to my collection, unfortunately it didn’t live up to expectations. In this story a megalomaniac is hellbent on destroying the royal line with Charles III and having him regain the throne because he was somehow related to some ancient king in the 12th century. The best Bond stories start when Bond goes into M’s office, M gives him a file and says, ‘This is the villain, this is what he’s up to, I want you to infiltrate his organisation and sort him out’. Bond’s given a mission and off he goes with his fists and a gun.Charlie Higson was approached at short notice to create the work in time to meet this specific deadline, and penned the new thriller in just one month. Is this, an excerpt from roughly a third of the way through On His Majesty’s Secret Service, Charlie Higson telling himself to get a wiggle on? Or, perhaps, an apology-in-advance to the reader in case they don’t find the next two thirds to be ‘carefully plotted’?

Ian Fleming Publications had commissioned Young Bond series author Charlie Higson to write the new Bond adventure, which has hit shelves today. Higson wrote five novels in the Young Bond series, which are young adult spy novels featuring Bond as a teenage boy attending school at Eton College in the 1930s. Of course 007 is sent to stop this person whose support is mainly right wing extremists and mercenaries, and he has only so many days to solve this lunatic and his plans. If I was trapped by a rabid monarchist who was trying to persuade me I should pledge my allegiance to the king, I could easily come up with an anti-monarchist argument. My criticism isn’t about Higson competing with Fleming but if you take any of the IF short stories, Octopussy, Living Daylights, Quantum, these are spectacular character pieces, brilliantly original, they do not follow a traditional Bond formula and they are all short stories as what was intended by Higson. What he has done by using the perceived typical plot of a Bond novel actually reads more like fan fiction or what someone who hasn’t read Fleming would think a Bond novel should be.

Customer reviews

It is the 4th of May, two days before the Coronation of King Charles III and the world’s favourite spy has his work cut out for him. Bond is sent at the last minute to thwart an attempt to disrupt the Coronation by the wealthy, eccentric and self-styled Athelstan of Wessex, who is on a deadly mission of his own to teach the United Kingdom a lesson. Can Bond dismantle his shady plans and defeat his privately hired team of mercenaries? This brand new James Bond adventure arrives during a momentous year for Ian Fleming Publications. 13 April 2023 marks 70 years since the initial publication of Ian Fleming’s first James Bond novel, Casino Royale. The company are celebrating 70 years of 007 throughout 2023, with many events planned, including the release of the Bond books under their own imprint on 13 April. On His Majesty’s Secret Service, a new James Bond adventure by Charlie Higson dashed off to celebrate the Coronation, begins with M giving voice to what we’re all anxiously thinking. “This coronation is a chance to advertise UKplc to the world, Bond. Show the doubters who’ve written us off that we’re open for business… Present this country as a safe pair of hands.” I'm a big Bond fan and I've enjoyed all the continuation novels and this was an enjoyable way to pass the time but it wasn't great, special, engrossing or particularly well written (the author has done much better and so has basically every Bond author at some point). It’s On His Majesty’s Secret Service; it’s being published two days before the coronation. Otherwise, Bond just goes on a mission as usual, working for ‘King and Country’. This just felt like such a great story, so rich in possibilities. They didn’t argue, and no one had any problems with it; the charities just couldn’t be associated.”

On His Majesty’s Secret Service was published on Thursday 4 May ahead of the Coronation on Saturday 6 May – and 60 years after the publication of Ian Fleming’s tenth novel, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, in 1963. All royalties from the sale of the book went to support the work of the UK charity, the National Literacy Trust. But this is not a mere Fleming pastiche: while Higson’s innovations are not on the scale of Kim Sherwood’s exhilarating reimagining of Bond’s world, there are a lot of ‘modern’ touches to enjoy, especially in the details. Bond launching into a lecture (to himself) about consuming fermented foods (kimchi, kombucha) to maintain his gut health is both startling and soooo Fleming. Getting it written and turned around in such a short space of time was going to be as tense and heart-pounding as any Bond mission. Although, of course, nobody would actually be shooting at me.

Author

Charlie Higson comes with impeccable literary Bond provenance. His superb Young Bond series, set in the Thirties, were revelatory in their ingenuity and fealty to Fleming. His new, contemporary adult Bond book had high standards to live up to. It delivers. Perhaps we should not have been surprised to discover that the pace of production did not hinder the book’s quality: let’s not forget that Fleming wrote his first drafts in a matter of weeks, not months. And some of the best Bond films have been produced to punishingly tight schedules. Instead, royalties from the new novella will go to the National Literacy Trust, which works with disadvantaged children, so everyone’s happy. He said: “When Ian Fleming Publications came to me with the idea of writing an adult Bond story a little more than a month ago I was thrilled - until I realised it had to be ready for the coronation in May. The idea originally was to do a longish short story, perhaps 10,000 words, with a month to write it. I thought it would be such a fun idea,” he says.