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In part three of an MI6 exclusive interview,
author Charlie Higson talks about
the
planning of the final book, how the series panned out, and what
the publishers had cooking...
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By Royal Command: In Conversation
With Charlie Higson (3)
20th November 2009
Exclusive: Shortly before By
Royal Command hit shelves in the UK late last year, MI6
caught up with
author
Charlie Higson to talk about his final Young Bond book. Speaking
for the fifth time to MI6 about the series, Charlie Higson
talks about
the
planning of the final book, how the series panned out, and what
the publishers had cooking...
Was there ever a temptation to make
this final outing substantially longer than the previous
four?
No, it's take too long to bloody write!
[laughs] I find that whatever length I intend the book
to be, they all
come out about where I wanted them to. The books in the
Young Bond series have all come out about the same length.
Hurricane
Gold was intended to be a little shorter because
I didn't need the Eton setup and could get straight in
to the story. To get in what I want to get in, they seem
to come out at that length and the kids seem to like
that they can get completely engrossed and lose themselves
in
it, but it's not so long that it becomes an epic.
They
are longer than the Fleming books. The reason for that
is Fleming had a fantastic scheme whereby each book starts
with Bond and M says 'right, this is the villain, this
is what he's up to, and I'd like you to go and sort him
out.'
He did away with, virtually, the first third of
the plot of most thrillers, action stories and detective
stories. All of that is used to flesh out who the villains
are and what they're up to. But all of that is done for
you
in
that Bond formula, so Fleming could launch straight
in to meat of the plot. |
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Above: First edition
UK hardback
 Order
Hardback (Amazon UK)
Order
Paperback (Amazon UK)
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He didn't always use it though, for instance
in Goldfinger he sets up the villain, but generally that's the
reason why more books are longer - my James Bond is not a spy
yet so he can't be given a mission. Things have to happen to
Bond which sets him off on his style of mission, which is usually
acts two and three of my books.
Did you have the title decided early on?
Were there any other strong candidates?
No, I didn't have the title to any of them early
on! [laughs] They all came long after the books were finished
and after lengthy discussions. I'm pleased with By Royal Command,
I think it's probably my favourite title out of the series. It's
very James Bond without being 'corny James Bond'.
We did go through a few variations... By Royal
Appointment was one, but that wasn't as punchy. I had various
suggestions from the publishers, which sometimes jogs your mind
and sets you off in the right direction. But we were all happy
when we came to By Royal Command, and of course it gave the designers
a nice foundation for the cover. We were worried about how to
top the all gold cover for Hurricane Gold, but I was really pleased
with how this one turned out.
Above: Author Charlie Higson, who has penned five Young Bond
novels, and the short story 'A Hard Man To Kill'.
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Originally, the publishers came up with
this idea to call the book Diamond Heart, or Diamond something,
and the hardback would have an inset diamond in each cover.
The diamonds would really be plastic or crystal, but one
copy would have a real diamond on the front. But I said
to them, 'look, this is a purely marketing and cover design-lead
title idea, and it really doesn't have anything to do with
the contents of the book.' So we sent them away to rethink
that.
MI6 Note: Diamond Heart remains the title of the penultimate
chapter of By Royal Command.
Did you manage to cover everything
in the five books that you initially planned? Were there
any ideas that didn't make it?
I think I did, actually. I took Bond to
the place that I wanted him to get to, and I dealt with
the maid incident and him leaving Eton, so I think it worked
out really well as a series of books.
The events of By Royal Command were going
to be spread across two books: I had one story about the
maid and that plot, and another about Bond being stalked
by an assassin. But then I thought, if I put all of that
in to one book, it would be quite meaty and that would
free me up. It gave me a spare book in my plans, which
became Hurricane Gold. It let me do anything I wanted with
Bond and I wanted to send him somewhere hot. |
If I had stuck to the original plan, book four
would have been skiing and a winter adventure, and as the maid
plot was based around Eton, it didn't give me much scope to go
anywhere exotic. I was quite pleased when I could shunt those
ideas all in to book five, and take Bond off on a crazy adventure
in book four.
By
Royal Command is available in hardback and paperback
in the UK. To read an exclusive interview with Charlie
Higson about the entire Young Bond series, check out issue
#6 of MI6 Declassified magazine.
Many thanks to Charlie Higson.
