Sebastian Faulks

He was just named the fourth James Bond author.

LONDON (AFP) - - Respected author Sebastian Faulks has written a new James Bond novel, reviving the 007 spy over four decades after Ian Fleming's last book, it was announced Wednesday.

"Devil May Care" will be published next May to mark the centenary of Fleming's birth, 42 years after the original Bond author's last book "Octopussy" and "The Living Daylights", published in 1966.

The book will be the 15th Bond book. Faulks -- famous for his trilogy "The Girl at the Lion D'Or", "Birdsong" and "Charlotte Gray" -- said he agreed to pen a new thriller despite initial reservations.

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Fleming famously wrote his books in the Caribbean, describing his typical day as a mixture of bursts of writing punctuated by cocktails, snorkeling and lunch on the terrace with glamorous women.

"That's very much the way I wrote it," joked Faulks. "Very much apart from the snorkeling and the cocktails and the lunch on the terrace," he said, although insisting "there were plenty of glamorous women".

Faulks is not the first author to be asked by Fleming's estate to write a new Bond novel: Kingsley Amis did so in 1968 with "Colonel Sun", while others include former Fleming colleague John Pearson and novelist John Gardner.

Texan writer Raymond Benson wrote the last 007 revival, "The Man with the Red Tattoo," in 2002.

This article fails to note author John Gardner, who wrote thirteen James Bond novels. I read each and every single one of them. The best non-Fleming Bond novel was Win, Lose or Die IMHO. After that novel, the quality of Gardner's work fell off.

I got to meet Raymond Benson at a London book signing in May 2001. My wife and I were vacationing in London at the time. I didn't care much for Benson's literary effors, High Time to Kill was the best of his Bond efforts. Kingsley Amis' Colonel Sun was excellent, unfortunately it was his only Bond effort.

Bottom line- Nobody will ever do it better than Ian Fleming.

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