RAYMOND BENSON chats to Paul Burke about writing James Bond (6 novels, 3 novelizations and 3 short stories), The James Bond Companion, fantasy spy fiction, Films & Novels, Tom Clancy, The Union, favourite Fleming and Legacy.

News: Coming later this year The Hook and the Eye as part of the ever expanding Bond franchise Raymond Benson is writing a novel about American spy Felix Leiter due out in October.

JAMES BOND: THE RAYMOND BENSON YEARS For the first time ever, all six of Raymond Benson's original James Bond novels are available together in one omnibus edition.
James Bond: The Raymond Benson Years collects Zero Minus Ten, The Facts of Death, High Time to Kill, DoubleShot, Never Dream of Dying, The Man with the Red Tattoo. These classic tales show Benson at his finest and 007 at his most heroic.

Raymond Benson is the author of over forty published titles. He is the third--and first American--to write continuation James Bond novels (six original titles and three film novelizations, between 1996-2002), and for the best-selling and acclaimed five-book serial, THE BLACK STILETTO (2011-2014). THE MAD, MAD MURDERS OF MARIGOLD WAY appeared in 2022. His most recent works include the suspense novels, THE SECRETS ON CHICORY LANE, IN THE HUSH OF THE NIGHT, BLUES IN THE DARK, and HOTEL DESTINY--A GHOST NOIR. His backlist of original thrillers (EVIL HOURS, TORMENT--A LOVE STORY, ARTIFACT OF EVIL, A HARD DAY'S DEATH, DARK SIDE OF THE MORGUE, and others) as well as his classic reference book from 1984, THE JAMES BOND BEDSIDE COMPANION, are available as Kindle e-books. Raymond is also a prolific tie-in writer: the first two best-selling TOM CLANCY'S SPLINTER CELL novels (for the latter he used the pseudonym of "David Michaels"), and with John Milius he wrote HOMEFRONT: THE VOICE OF FREEDOM. He also produced novelizations of other popular videogames--METAL GEAR SOLID and METAL GEAR SOLID 2: SONS OF LIBERTY, HITMAN (HITMAN: DAMNATION, and DYING LIGHT (DYING LIGHT--NIGHTMARE ROW). The full story is at his website... www.raymondbenson.com!

Recommendations: 

Film: The Seventh Seal Dir. Ingmar Bergman, Duck Soup The Marx Brothers.

Books: Ruth Rendell 

Paul Burke writes for Monocle Magazine, Crime Time, Crime Fiction Lover and the European Literature Network, Punk Noir Magazine (fiction contribution). He is also a CWA Historical Dagger Judge 2025. His first book An Encyclopedia of  Spy Fiction will be out early 2026.

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