Writing autobiographically, Pearson begins the story with his own recruitment to MI6 and meeting Sir William Stephenson and a fifty-something Bond in Bermuda. Fleming hinted so in You Only Live Twice, in Bond's obituary, that his adventures were the basis of a series of 'sensational novels' illustrating this contention, that novel's comic strip adaptation used covers from Fleming's James Bond novels.

The premise of James Bond: The Authorized Biography of 007 is that James Bond is based upon a real MI6 agent. Consequently, this is the only James Bond book from Glidrose, between 19, not first published by Jonathan Cape, additionally, it is the only Bond novel with a shared copyright credit Pearson is the only Bond novelist so recognised. However, Pearson knew Peter Janson-Smith, the Glidrose chairman, who gave permission for the work to be published. It originated as a spoof novel for publisher Sidgwick & Jackson. The Authorized Biography of 007 was not commissioned by Glidrose Publications. Plans for a succession of writers to continue the Fleming legacy inder the 'Robert Markham' name sadly petered out.James Bond: The Authorized Biography of 007 (later James Bond: The Authorised Biography) by John Pearson, is a fictional biography of James Bond, first published in 1973 Pearson also wrote the biography The Life of Ian Fleming (1966). It's a great shame that Amis wrote no more Bond pastiches - I suspect he thought doing one was an interesting challenge, but prefered to pursue his own literary career. This Bond is no superman, but a resourceful professional facing real dangers who must rely on his wits and training to survive. from his Thames side home Quarterdeck (decades before Renard tried something similar in T.W.I.N.E.).Ĭolonel Sun (a name Fleming would be proud of) is a villain worthy to stand beside Auric Goldfinger or Rosa Klebb.īond fans who have discovered 007 through the movies may be disappointed by a shortage of gadgets and car chases, but to mind this is in the book's favour. The reader is instantly plunged into a gripping yarn when an unarmed Bond inadvertently interrupts the abduction of M. nobody with anything to say about Robert Markham's(Kingsley Amis's) 'Colonel Sun?'Perhaps the book is a bit hard to find these days, bit I'd urge Bond fans to seek it out because it's easily the best written of the non Fleming Bond novels.Īmis slips easily into Fleming's style and his Bond is recognisably the same man (which I can't say for John Gardner's Bond).

Colonel sun robert markham