Forever and a Day

"We’ve now in 2008 and have reached the centenary of Ian Fleming’s birth. Ian Fleming Publications has changed their approach to the adult Bond novels. Instead of having one author do a series like Gardner or Benson, they’ve gone to very well-known authors and asked them to write one book each. So we have Sebastian Faulks with Devil May Care (2008) , set in the 1960s. We have Jeffrey Deaver with Carte Blanche (2011) set in modern times. There’s also William Boyd’s Solo (2013) , set in 1969. Then you have Anthony Horowitz, who was a tremendous Bond fan, write Trigger Mortis (2015). But his books were so popular—and he captured Fleming’s spirit so well—that he wound up writing three. All three of Horowitz’s are tied closely to Fleming’s canon. Trigger Mortis is an immediate sequel to Goldfinger , taking place two weeks after the events of that story, with Bond living with Pussy Galore. The third novel, With a Mind to Kill , takes place shortly after Fleming’s last book, The Man with the Golden Gun . I’ve chosen Forever and a Day , which takes place right before Casino Royale , the first Bond novel. It has the premise that 007 has been killed. It’s not a trick. But [SPOILER ALERT] 007 is not James Bond. He is the man who carried that code before. The newly minted Double O agent James Bond is assigned to find out what happened to his predecessor. Yes, and it also, in its own way, helps track Bond’s emotional evolution. There’s an agent named Madame Sixtine who is a much more experienced operator than Bond and teaches him the art of lovemaking. She imprints on Bond in that and in many other ways. There’s a wonderful moment in the book, just a paragraph or so, when they’re having dinner at home, and she asks Bond to set the table. And he thinks, ‘Oh, I don’t know the last time anybody’s asked me to set a table.’ It’s a very human moment in a character that is so mythic, just the idea of James Bond setting a table because he’s asked to and is about to have a home cooked meal."