I, last Thurs., Sept. 6, at the eighty-storey Waterstone’s Multimegastore at Piccadilly Circus, …
(it’s not really AT Piccadilly Circus, you know – it’s about 50 yards away from Piccadilly Circus )
(so I encourage you to barge into the store at all times of day screaming “You filthy liars!” at the Waterstone’s staff)
(or not, as you please)
(just be aware that they may not be telling you the entire truth over there, is all I’m saying)
… had the pleasure of attending the launch party for the new – fourth – Young James Bond novel, “Hurricane Gold”, written by writer / actor / producer / writer Charlie Higson.
Higson was on hand – because that’s what you are at these kinds of events – you’re “on hand”- Higson was on hand to give a little talk about his four (so far) Young Bond novels and to give a reading of one of “Hurricane Gold’s” exciting action sequences, and to sign his name many many many times on brand new copies of the book he’d just written.
There was a first-rate Q&A after Charlie’s reading. First-rate because the questions were all posed by kids. And kids will always ask the best questions. While we adults – adult journalists especially – might ask questions like “So, Mister Higson, what do you think of Young Bond?”, kids ask – and did ask – questions like: “How do you solve the problem of keeping the Young Bond a teenager over the course of several novels without damaging the verisimilitude of the stories?”
Charlie Higson is first and foremost – like Charlie Dickens – an entertainer. His background in British tv and comedy makes him a great evangelist for Ian Fleming Publications’ attempt to reach a whole new, media savvy audience of youngsters. The novels are thrilling reads, but Charlie himself completes the package by being an engaging personality himself. The fact that Ian Fleming is almost as famous a character as his creations is a precedent that has most certainly not gone entirely unignored by Puffin and IFP.
Wandering around Soho throughout the afternoon were a man and a woman painted in gold, clutching copies of the book, “Hurricane Gold”. But these two were notpeople made of actual gold, no! No, they were two comedy actors hired especially for the event through an agency! And not an agency of government operatives with the blood of untold thousands on their hands, no! No, an agency for actors!
Do you see? They were actors!
I wonder if anyone told them about the fate of Jill Masterton in “Goldfinger”.
They probably had to sign a waiver.
Anyway, I had lots of fun. I took lots of photos.
But if you want the real scoop on the whole event, and not my misty-eyed reminiscentses of days gone passed, go to John Cox’s Young Bond Dossier . Young Bond Dossier is now the official, Fleming-blessed Young Bond news & info source!