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

Product Information

News of the publication of the new Bond book comes after controversy regarding rewrites to the original run of spy novels. Higson, who lives with his family in north London, makes it sound easy, and, in truth, the new book zips along with a lovely lightness of touch, but that’s not to dismiss his writing. His Bond Girl, incidentally, is an Icelandic beauty named Ragnheidour. There was a lot of Fleming’s Bond that was valid and viable: he’s a loner, he’s a hard man and he protects himself by keeping people at arm’s length.

I didn’t want to write him as a slightly stuffy man out of time with fifties’ attitudes - the Jacob Rees-Mogg 007. I wanted him to be a contemporary young man. Indeed, his next book was On Her Majesty’s Secret service, considered by fans to be one of his best. But the author, who died aged 56 in August 1964, was trapped by his creation. Happy birthday 007 and May you return soon from the pen of decent writer of the same or better quality than Charlie Higson, which would spoil us literary fans a lot.

Customer reviews

Fleming famously wrote fast, and I channelled that energy. And now it's so exciting for me to finally enter the world of grown-up Bond. Like when he eats an avocado – they were called avocado pears at the time, so Fleming made the mistake of having him eat one for dessert in Casino Royale.” Much has been made of On His Majesty’s Secret Service being written in a hurry and I was, in truth, expecting a much slimmer volume. But, despite the need to get it written, edited and printed prior to the Coronation, this is a full length Bond novel. It’s also full bore and never for one second boring. Higson’s Young Bond - first written 18 years ago - was a period piece. Set to be in the same timeline as Fleming’s 60s Bond. So here Higson does two things he’s never done before. Write adult Bond and write him in a contemporary setting. He does both really well.

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.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. Things I liked less - the resolution was anticlimactic, and the author's need to pass comment on Wokeism, big business, immigration and right wing media, etc over and over again was a bit overkill. When we got the references to bus lanes and congestion charges, I groaned. It kinda felt the author was trying a bit "too hard". I don't think anyone has quite managed to put Fleming's Bond into the present day. Certainly not Deaver or Raymond Benson. Perhaps this is as good as it gets - John Gardner's stories were very good, but certainly his Bond was far removed from Fleming's. 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. A description of a character as promoting Covid/ vaccines/ mask wearing, anti-immigration, anti-EU, anti-BBC, anti-MSM, anti-cultural Marxism, climate change denial all show how the author has let his political beliefs impact his writing and the story. I was half expecting it to be a farce of a book.

Everything you want from a Bond story is in there – sex, violence, cars, a colourful villain with a nasty henchman, and of course, Bond himself, so well-known and yet so unknowable,” Higson added. I loved Higson's Young James Bond novels. But I don't think his young James Bond was really the person that would become Fleming's Bond - too caring, good-natured and sympathetic - and with good reason for these books. 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 plan had been to pad it out with an extract from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service but, in the event, it was unnecessary. On a roll, the Bond superfan wrote 10,000 words, then 20,000 and, finally, delivered 40,000 – about the same length as the shortest Fleming books.

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Bond has a moment of introspection about disliking a hired killer, and the author states that this could be due to some self-loathing because they both kill people.

Ian Fleming Publications also created a disclaimer to accompany the reissued texts, stating “This book was written at a time when terms and attitudes which might be considered offensive by modern readers were commonplace.

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The original plan was for royalties to support The Prince’s Trust and Camilla’s Reading Room literacy charity, but Higson’s regicidal plot – featuring a wealthy, eccentric and anti-‘woke’ wannabe king called Athelstan of Wessex, allegedly a descendent of Alfred the Great – ruled out an official tie-in. It’s a short read but I had to force myself to keep reading bit by bit, it was a chore, mostly down to the villain and his entourage. The female interest was IMO well written and the most engaging character next to Bond, there was also some surprising character choices towards the end with Bond that I liked, there was also a copy / homage of From Russia With Love towards the end which I didn’t like and made me roll my eyes.