After a career spanning computer entertainment software, stage direction, music composition and writing the “James Bond Beside Companion”, he was selected by Fleming’s estate to continue the 007 novel series without a single fiction work in his portfolio.
He seized the opportunity, and while holding down his “real” job during the day and juggling family life at home, wrote “Zero Minus Ten” during late nights and weekends. His fact finding trips including jaunts to Greece and Hong Kong and during all this he found time to contribute a short story to Playboy that ties up some loose ends of Fleming’s “You Only Live Twice”.
He has since taken a sabbatical from his ‘day job” in the software business and is well along on his second 007 novel and dabbling with the idea of actually basing his livelihood on the business of Bond.
With his assignment by the heirs of Fleming, Benson is in a position to make a real mark on the legacy and style of 007 for generations to come, many of whom will never read a Fleming novel or perhaps even know they exist. Yet he is not the first writer in this position.
Kingsley Amis was chosen to write the first post-Fleming Bond novel, 1968’s Colonel Sun, and John Gardner lumbered along for 15 years turning out new Bond titles and novelizations of some of the films. But neither of these authors was able penetrate the rare space defined by Flemings’ books, the early Bond films and fans of classic 007.
The Commanders Club is focused on that space and was curious to know how Raymond Benson will attempt to curry favor among fans of classic Bond. What follows is our interview with him, conducted via the phone from Benson's Illinois home just days before “Zero Minus Ten” as released in the home country of the first non-Briton ever to pen 007 . . .
CC - Fleming’s style, the so-called “Fleming Sweep”, was as much a reason for Bond’s literary success as the actual exploits. Ian and 007 were frequently equated. How do you plan to fill such shoes?
BENSON - I don’t think that is possible. I hold Ian Fleming in very high regard and I would never even think that I could fill his shoes. What I do want to do is basically continue the character and at least try to bring back a lot of the elements he had that fans like. If I can please the fans first and, hopefully, please the general public after that, I’ll be happy.
CC - The Cold War is over. Isn’t 007 pushing his relevance, dabbling in the affairs of the near-21st century?
BENSON - I don't think that is a valid argument. Bond’s job was not always to fight communism; In the Fleming books he was fighting terrorism and other things even back then. There are always going to be problems in the world, whether its communism or drug running, what have you. There are always going to e political conflicts. And guys like Bond are needed.
I think the real challenge these days is to come up with something that England would be concerned with. If England is not concerned with whatever problem it is, they would have no reason to send Bond. That is why I chose Hong Kong as the location for my new book. The Hong Kong transition to China is imminent and I just thought that was a no-brainer for a topic. Bond is going out to see that a “peaceful transition” occurs.
CC - Lets back up a step; How did you come to inherit the authorship of Bond?
BENSON - Well, when I did the “Bedside Companion” published in ‘84, the Fleming estate and Glidrose, which is the company Fleming set up to hold his copyrights, were fairly pleased with that book. It was a biography of Fleming and analysis of all the novels and all the films and a whole history of the Bond phenomenon.
I became fairly good friends with Fleming’s former literary agent who was the chairman of Glidrose, Peter Janson-Smith. We’ve been friends ever since that book came out. I’ve done a couple odd jobs for them here and there. In November of ‘95 he called me out of the blue and told me John Gardner had decided not to do any more. It was a mutual decision between Glidrose and Mr. Gardner. And Peter just asked me if I’d like to give it a shot. I fell on the floor, took about 2 seconds, and said, “Sure, I’ll try!”
CC - Who makes up the Fleming estate at this point?
BENSON - Well his two nieces sort of run that part of the business for the family. He had a very big family. Fleming himself had three brothers and they all had large families, so there are a lot of Flemings. He came from a wealthy family. His grandfather founded the Robert Fleming & Co. bank in England, which is still a very prestigious merchant bank in England. But its his two nieces by his brother Peter Fleming who are on the board of Glidrose and see to the business as far as the Bond stuff goes.
CC - Most of Fleming’s novels were written before the films existed. But are you writing your Bond novels with a screen adaptation in mind?
BENSON - Well, I don't intentionally. The film people are a separate entity. They kind of go their own way and do what they want and the books kind of go their own way and do what they want. The book Bond and the film Bond are two different characters, really. Once the film people used all Fleming’s titles - and I say “titles” because they didn't always use his plots, they just made up their own - they never touched any of Kingsley Amis’ or John Gardner’s works. I have no idea what they’ll do about mine. They do have the rights to make my books into movies, so its really up to them.
Actually, its working in reverse; I’m writing the novelization based on their next movie. John Gardner did that too, for a couple of their films.
CC - Any specific Fleming details you’re bringing back as a sort of wink to the reader and nod to the past?
BENSON - In “Zero Minus Ten”, the so-called gadgets are very simple, very low tech. Thats the way Fleming did it.
He really didn’t have the high tech gadgetry that the films do. But I can’t help but be influenced by the films, because I grew up with them. There’s a lot of the flavor of the films that does creep into my books. And in my next Bond novel, he’s going to have a new car with a lot of gimmicks in it.
CC - People who were reading 007 back when JFK had “From Russia with Love” on his nightstand are a shrinking audience now. And the younger generation that made “Goldeneye” such a hit seem unlikely to pick up a 007 novel. So who is the audience for your Bond books?
BENSON - Well, its surprising. I went to a convention in Jamaica last October and I was surprised by the different types and kinds of people there. There were a lot of women there, a lot of single women, who professed to be Bond fans and when I talked to them, they actually knew their stuff. Its not just a male thing. A lot of women get into it too.
As far as age range, it goes all across the board. I think people who read the originals in the 50’s and 60’s would probably still be interested, and there’s a whole new audience that grew up with the films that are just discovering the books.
CC - How about Fleming's famous double entendres on names of villains and women: Pussy Galore and Oddjob are well known even among people who never read Bond. Are you relying on that signature at all, or is it contrived?
BENSON - I don't know. When Fleming was doing it it was kind of clever, but now when you try to do it, it just comes off as kind of pretentious. I’ve just gone with real names, going more for character. Any kind of humour like that is more in the presentation of a tall tale.
Also, I have great editors and they work very hard to make sure that all the writing works and that British characters sound British, and details like that.
CC - How else have you reached back to Fleming’s 007?
BENSON - I’m doing my best to try to bring back Fleming’s Bond and the whole flavor of what Fleming did. One of my advantages is that I was a fan to begin with, part of the hard core fan pool that went to the conventions and got on the internet and talked about Bond. I know what the fans want and what they like. Hopefully I’m giving it to them.
Fleming’s Bond was more a serious brooder. He felt pain. He wasn’t the witty, dapper guy you see in the movies. He is a ruthless killer, and he’s hard drinking, hard smoking and a chauvinistic rake! And that is what the fans wanted. Bond got a little too politically correct in the 80’s and there was a big cry to bring back the old Bond. Even the movie guys got the message and in “Goldeneye” he kind of went back to being more of a chauvinistic kind of guy. Even after they made M a woman, one of her best lines in the film was “Bond, your a misogynistic dinosaur from the Cold War” - and everybody cheered.
So, thats what its about. I think people like to like a hero who is flawed like that, an anti-hero. He’s cool, he’s suave, but he smokes, he drinks, he womanizes. Its a fantasy life, a life on the edge. Because he might die the next day, he pushes himself to all the sensual pleasures of life, and who wouldn’t want to do that?
