007 slips between the covers again

Novelist William Boyd has been recruited to pen the latest adventure of 007 superspy James Bond.

Boyd follows in the footsteps of authors including Kingsley Amis and Sebastian Faulks who have both written Bond books since the death of creator Ian Fleming, in 1964.

No details have been revealed but Boyd will set the action in 1969.

He said: “When the Ian Fleming estate invited me to write the new James Bond novel I didn’t hesitate. My father introduced me to the James Bond novels in the 1960s and I read them all then – From Russia With Love being my favourite.”

Boyd said he was “intrigued” by Fleming, whom he used as a character in his novel Any Human Heart and he has worked with three of the actors who have played Bond – Sean Connery, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig.