WilliamBoyd

I've just checked Archer out -- and I suspect he would win. Because he'd cheat in some way, right?

When I re-read all Fleming's novels again I realised that Bond had never visited Africa (except briefly at the end of Diamonds are Forever). I was born and raised in West Africa and it seemed to me a way to exploit my own knowledge of the place. There were other reasons. I decided to set the novel in 1969 (when my home was in Nigeria during the Nigerian civil war -- thinly disguised in Solo) and also I wanted Bond to be a kind of "unaccomodated man", removed from his familiar environments, without gadgets, support etc. I wanted to test him, see what resources he had as an individual lost in an African war-zone.

Actually, I'm not sure Fleming would have approved. The Bond one-liners are very much a movie invention. But, how about: "Don't go away, darling, YULE have a very agreeable time..." I'll try and come up with more terrible puns.

Ian Fleming made it very clear that Bond was NOT English. He's half Scottish and half Swiss. Therefore to me Sean Connery (a Scot) was always the most plausible. However, bizarrely, I have written films in which three of the Bond actors have appeared so I actually know Connery, Brosnan and Craig. Daniel Craig has even been directed by me in a movie (my film "The Trench") and he's probably the best actor to play Bond - he's a superb stage and screen actor. As for the next Bond... Hmmm. I think they should try the English actor, Rufus Sewell.

It is a complete change of mental gearing. You can do anything in a novel -- anything. But in a film or TV you are in a world of narrative parameters and compromises. So the key thing is to understand those restraints -- for example there is only really one point of view in a film, the camera lens. Once you have your head around these issues you're good to go. It still isn't easy, however.