Running in Fleming's footsteps

Jeremy Dunns - Licensed to thrill

There's an interesting article that originally came from the L A Times now available online at the newspaper's website, that looks at four modern writers who are working very much in the Ian Fleming mould - Jeremy Dunns, Barry Eisler, Gayle Lynds and Brett Battles. Each of the authors are interviewed about the interest in Fleming and Bond and the piece makes for essential reading for Bond/Fleming fans. You never know you may find a new favorite writer among these guys.

“I think some of Fleming’s more outlandish ideas would be difficult to get past an audience coming fresh to them today. If you had a villain like his Mr. Big in ‘Live and Let Die,’ for instance, or his Dr. No, it would probably seem parodic today, more like an Austin Powers film, because of the familiarity most people have with the conventions. Purely in terms of form, Fleming wrote very short novels by today’s standards, and some of them would probably be thought overly digressive if they were published today. Fleming often savored details that were irrelevant to his plots, which were usually not a main concern of his anyway.” Jeremy Dunns


Find the full piece HERE

Also Bond related the surprisingly excellent new Bond movie, Skyfall is now kicking arse in the US with the opening night's take being some $30.8 million and putting it on track for an opening weekend that totals 10 million more than analysts expected.