James Bond: The Authorised Biography of 007

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**James Bond: The Authorised Biography of 007**

1986 Grafton Books British paperback edition.
Author	John Pearson
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	James Bond
Genre(s)	Spy novel
Publisher	Sidgwick & Jackson
Released	1973
Media Type	Print (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages	300 pp (first edition, hardback)
ISBN	ISBN 0-283-97946-1 (first edition, hardback)
Preceded by	Colonel Sun
Followed by	James Bond, The Spy Who Loved Me

James Bond: The Authorised Biography of 007 is a fictional biography of Ian Fleming's famous secret agent, James Bond, which was published in 1973. The book was written by John Pearson, who had published a well-received biography of Fleming, The Life of Ian Fleming in 1966.

The Authorised Biography of 007 was not commissioned by Glidrose Publications. In fact, it began as a spoof for publisher Sidgwick & Jackson, however, Pearson knew Peter Janson-Smith, the chairman of Glidrose and it was eventually picked up. Consequently, this is the only Bond book from Glidrose between 1953 and 1987 to not be first published by Jonathan Cape. Additionally, it is the only Bond book where the copyright credit is not solely Glidrose; Pearson is the only Bond novelist to have this recognition.

The canonical status of the biography is often debated. Some consider it canon alongside the rest of Ian Fleming's James Bond novel series, while others consider it apocryphal. Some elements of this book have been contradicted by other official Bond fiction, notably Charlie Higson's Young Bond series, which suggests that Bond was born in Switzerland, as opposed to Pearson suggesting Bond was born in Germany. It also has many discrepancies with novels by Kingsley Amis, John Gardner, Raymond Benson, and even Fleming's own series. Typically because of the timeframe in which they occur and because of contradictions that take place between all the authors, their series' are usually perceived as being on their own, although based on Fleming's novels. This is not the case with Pearson's and Amis's books, however, as they are one-offs and take place relatively in the same timeframe as Fleming's own. Thus their canonicity with Fleming's books is usually debated. At least one British publisher of Bond novels, Pan Books, included Pearson's book as an official entry in the series for their first paperback edition series.

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The novel's premise is that James Bond is based upon a real MI6 agent. Fleming, himself, had hinted at this in the novel You Only Live Twice, wherein he mentions (in an obituary for 007 near the end of the book) that Bond's adventures were the basis of a series of "sensational novels"; illustrating this contention, the comic strip adaptation of that novel used covers from Fleming's James Bond novels. There has been much speculation over whether Fleming actually did base the character on a real person, or possibly even after himself.

Writing autobiographically, Pearson begins the novel's story with his own recruitment to MI6. Already, the department had assigned Ian Fleming to write novels based upon a real-life agent James Bond, but, rather than write fiction, Fleming was to be truthful about agent 007's adventures. The idea, MI6 felt, was to hide the truth, of Bond's exploits, in plain sight; along the way, so the story suggests, Fleming created a few purely fictional tales, such as Moonraker, to keep the Soviets guessing as to what was factual and what wasn't. Pearson's tale also incorporates Fleming's tongue-in-cheek claim that he never wrote the manuscript for The Spy Who Loved Me, but rather that it was mysteriously sent to him by Vivienne Michel, the heroine of that book.

In the book, MI6 asks Pearson to write agent 007's biography based upon the success of his (real-life) biography of Ian Fleming, and is introduced to Bond, now in his fifties but still healthy, sun-tanned, and in the company of Honeychile Ryder, the heroine of the novel Dr. No. Most of the novel is about Bond telling his life story, including the school years as well as his first missions for MI6. Along the way, there are references to virtually every Ian Fleming novel and short story, as well as the Robert Markham novel, Colonel Sun. At novel's end, as Bond leaves for another assignment (apparently contradicting the mandatory-retirement-at-45 regulation Fleming established in Moonraker), Pearson is invited to take over from Fleming and write future Bond adventures, much as Dr. Watson wrote about Sherlock Holmes.

In reality, Glidrose Publications actually considered having Pearson become the writer of a new series of Bond novels based upon the Watson-Holmes premise of this book, but, despite good reviews and sales, no follow-up novel was ever published.