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John Gardner,
author of 14 James Bond novels and 2 movie novelisation's,
talked to MI6 recently about his career
as the official 007 author.
In the second part of this series, we talk to John
Gardner about the set up for writing his
first Bond book, "Licence Renewed"... |
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In Conversation With John Gardner (2)
25th April 2004
Continuing...
Getting on the the process of writing the book, could you
tell us the set-up, because you had an editor in the UK, one
in the
US, you had two publishers, Glidrose...
Well before that, there was worse hassle. I hate writing outlines,
I've never worked that way. I work from an original premise,
a set-up, and I really don't want to know what the book is about
after that. I want to find my own way to the end. But they insisted
though, they insisted upon a detailed synopsis. I didn't say
that I couldn't do it, but I would try for them, but I did warn
them "the book might not really come out like that".
So they wanted to know everything about the book
and how it ended, before you had starting writing...
They wanted to know from the beginning to the end, everything.
I gradually got used to how to do it for them. There was
only one that was turned down completely, and I don't blame
them for that, it wouldn't have come out as it was planned
in the outline.
That was the beginning, and then when I got to the end
of the process of writing the book, Glidrose edited me,
Hodder edited me, and Putnam edited me in New York, all
of which was tedious. It was very tedious. It was difficult.
Controlling The Chaos Finally, it was Peter Janson-Smith of Glidrose who finally
helped out. He would collate all of the editorial notes,
and then we would do a sit-down edit, usually from breakfast
until about mid-day. He would come to me, we'd meet in
London hotel, and we'd get the whole thing done.
Right: John Gardner standing
next to a reproduction portrait of Ian Fleming. |
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"I would
get calls just as I was sitting down to dinner
from someone in New York... I had to be a bit rude sometimes!" |
The first book was absolute murder, because my editor at Hodder,
I had worked with him on other books, wanted the whole thing
re-written! I was never going to agree with that! You know, when
you've just finished a book, the last thing you want to hear
is that you've got to re-write it. He was just being particularly
difficult I think, but it was alright in the end.
Above:
Russian cover art for "Licence
Renewed" |
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So as you progressed the process became
a bit more stream-lined..
It became stream-lined, yes. That was down to Peter, he
got it smoothed out. But I still think it's quite funny,
because the normal course of writing a book is that you
go through an edit, and then you go through a copy edit,
which is sometimes more tedious than anything because you
get a manuscript back "flagged" in about a hundred
different places where they are querying things.
Bad Timing
I would
get telephone calls just as I was sitting down to dinner
from someone in New York who wanted to go through the
whole thing... which... I had to be a bit rude sometimes!
[Laughs] Can you remember roughly how long "Licence
Renewed" took, from the day you signed the contract
to the time you no longer had any input on it?
Five... six months?
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Did you insist on having breaks between the Bond books to
work on your own projects?
Yes, it was one of the things I insisted on, that I should do
my own work. I'd spend half the year on a Bond, and the other
half on one of my own. I would take the odd couple of weeks
off here and there. That's roughly how it worked for the whole
of the, 16 years?
Join us in Part 3 where we talk about the locations
John Gardner took James Bond to...
Related
Articles
In Conversation With John
Gardner (1)
In
Conversation With John Gardner (3)
In
Conversation With John Gardner (4)
In
Conversation With John Gardner (5)
In
Conversation With John Gardner (6)
MI6
John Gardner Literary 007 Section
