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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 fifth part of this series, we talk to John
Gardner about how the literary era is looked back
upon... |
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In Conversation With John Gardner (5)
23rd May 2004
Continuing...
How do you think the phenomenon of James Bond will be looked
upon in 100 years? Do you think the books will ever be viewed
as classic 20th century literature?
[Laughs] No, no way! I think they will gradually
fade out. If you look at the early films, in fact I looked
at "Dr. No" the other day, and thought "my
God, why did we find this so brilliantly good and mind-changing?".
It's becoming increasingly difficult to put it into
the context in which it was released...
It is, yes. With some of the others, it's also like that.
One's got to say, how many people read Bulldog Drummond,
Sapper, all those things now? |
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Above: Foreign covers of John Gardner 007 novels.
"My God, why did we find this
so brilliantly good and mind-changing?" |
Interestingly enough, Drummond has been picked up by Hollywood
for a new movie franchise...
That doesn't surprise me really, there was a theatrical one at
one time with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
But they haven't picked up mine! [Laughs]
Would you like them to?
I don't know... I've got enough to do. [Laughs]
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Had you decided to not write any more
Bond novels before you learnt of your cancer?
Well I knew of my illness before then, I just didn't know
how seriously.
I went out to live in the States, we went over for at most
ten years, we thought, and then we were coming back home
again. Of course what happened was, I had a heart attack,
and then another, and then a blockage of an artery in my
neck, that all coincided with coming to the end of the book.
My late wife was already ill, I just didn't know how seriously,
she pretended it wasn't serious, and nursed me through the
final horrors of my cancer, and then she died. It was all
fairly dramatic, but we'd already decided we would come
back from the States and I would give up Bond.
Left: Dutch artwork for "Win Lose
Or Die" |
Do you feel that by "Cold" you taken Bond as far
as your originally set out to?
Oh I think so, yes.
What is your fondest memory of your time as a Bond author?
| It was all great fun! It it hadn't been
great fun, I wouldn't have continued as long as I had, I
would have called an end to it earlier. It was all good
fun, lots of fond memories, meeting people, and doing stuff
like with Saab up in the arctic circle... oh the whole thing,
great fun!
I traveled all the time, I was used to it. I started in
the 1930s with my father, so I had already been to a lot
of the places that I later set some of the book stuff. I'd
been to some of them before World War II.
Is there anything that you would do differently if
you were to start the job again? Would you start the job
again?
I'd probably cut out the last three books. That's all.
And yes, I would do it again! [Laughs]
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Left: Japanese artwork for "Win
Lose Or Die" |
Join us in Part 6 where we talk about updating 007 to the
1980's and 1990's, and the titles that didn't make it...
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Conversation With John Gardner (6)
MI6
John Gardner Literary 007 Section
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