William Boyd reveals precious little to the NYT about 'Solo'

After reviewing Henning Mankell's new novel 'A Treacherous Paradise' for The New York Times at the weekend, the paper tried to extract some information from the author about his upcoming James Bond continuation novel, 'Solo'. They were not very successful.

From the earlier press release it's known that it’s set in 1969, when Bond is 45, and includes a “completely unauthorized” and vengeful trip to the United States after a mission in Africa goes awry.

When pressed to share at least one more detail, Boyd said that Fleming had his hero living in a flat just a few hundred yards from Boyd’s home in Wellington Square, in the Chelsea section of London. “It would therefore be very surprising if, in my own Bond novel, there wasn’t a fair bit about living in Chelsea in 1969, wouldn’t you say?”

Speaking in more general terms about the job of taking on the character and penning his own adventure, Boyd said: “The thrill of reading them was almost illicit — they seemed so glamorous and daring,” he told the paper in an e-mail interview. “The feeling I experienced was that you were being given access to a world known and enjoyed by a very, very few. The ‘members only’ sign had been removed.”

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