FWIW, Christopher Wood also loathed Jonathan Cape chairman Tom Maschler. “Sometimes I would gaze up at the Corcovado peak and wonder if the statue of Christ the Redeemer on its summit with arms spread wise was in fact Saint Peter measuring the Pearly Gates to see if they were wide enough to receive Maschler’s head”.
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Brilliant story about Maschler, never heard it before.
That is a nice little story that adds to the myth of JBTSWLM which is easily the best novelization novel and among the better continuation books.
So many great elements and details in this book. Bond’s electroshock torture at the hands of the Russians, the unpacking and assembly of his PPK from the typewriter in Cairo, a full background history of Jaws along with a style and narrative that was IMO very much in the spirit of Fleming’s tone.
Need to put that back on top of my re-read stack. Just finished Icebreaker again and was thinking about one of the adaptation novels.
Yes, and I believe that Christopher Wood wrote that about Tom Maschler in his Bond memoir from 2006.
As the others have said, thank you for that interesting tidbit about JBTSWLM, @glidrose!
Just finished my reread yesterday. Been at least twenty years since I had,
Damn glad I did. Still fab. Thinking about Moonraker next.
I own both of the Christopher Wood tie-in novelizations in paperback and have never read them, in spite of the near-unanimous great reviews. Shame on me! I’ve read all the Gardners and Bensons and a couple of the newer ones as well and found almost all of them subpar. I just finished a reread of YOLT this week. Maybe I’m finally due to read Mr. Woods’ additions to the canon.
Edit: Maybe that’s “finally OVER due…”
Have fun reading them you’ll enjoy them.
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And did you read them? What’s your opinion?
I think these -together with Colonel Sun and the Pearson biography- are the only realy good non-Fleming Bond books.
I completely agree with this. I’ve read all the Gardners and Bensons, but nothing after that.