William Boyd, whose James Bond continuation
novel is set to be one of this year’s publishing highlights, has announced that
his book will be called Solo. The
announcement came on the opening day of The London Book Fair, where Boyd is
Author of the Day.
He explained his choice of title:
‘Sometimes less is more. For me as a novelist the simple beauty of Solo as the title of the next James Bond
novel is that this short four-letter word is particularly and strikingly apt
for the novel I have written. In my novel, events conspire to make Bond go off
on a self-appointed mission of his own, unannounced and without any
authorization - and he’s fully prepared to take the consequences of his
audacity.
‘The journey Bond goes on takes in three
continents – with the main focus honing in on Africa. It’s what happens to Bond
in Africa that generates his urge to “go solo” and take matters into his own
hands in the USA.
“Thus far and no further, at this stage…”
Boyd continues: “Titles are very important
to me and as soon as I wrote down Solo
on a sheet of paper I saw its potential. Not only did it fit the theme of the
novel perfectly, it’s also a great punchy word, instantly and internationally
comprehensible, graphically alluring and, as an extra bonus, it’s strangely
Bondian in the sense that we might be subliminally aware of the “00” of “007”
lurking just behind those juxtaposed O’s of SOLO…’
Very little else has been revealed about
the book at this stage, other than that it will feature a veteran secret agent,
with Bond aged 45. It will be published in October 2013 in South Africa.
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