First image of Charlie Higson`s Young James Bond revealed

23-Apr-2005 • Young Bond

An image depicting James Bond at age 13 has been unveiled, in the wake of a new book featuring the spy as a schoolboy. Bond appears with baggy trousers and floppy hair - not quite the suave charmer he is destined to become.

The family of Bond author Ian Fleming commissioned illustrator Kev Walker to create the image.

It is hoped the picture will be used on the second of the Young Bond books, created by comic Charlie Higson with the Fleming family's blessing.

The first book of the series, SilverFin, was released earlier this month.

Set in the early 1930s, the novel features the junior secret agent as a schoolboy at Eton - Fleming's own school.

In the book, Bond makes a mortal enemy in American student George Hellebore, the son of a wealthy arms dealer carrying out sinister experiments on humans.

Higson, who co-wrote comedy the Fast Show, said: "The hardest thing when writing SilverFin was picturing the young Bond in my mind.

"We have so many different images of Bond as a man, what would he have looked like as a boy? Now I know what he looks like.

"Kev's also done a fantastic job of making the `30s look cool and exciting for a modern audience. Young Bond and his world have really come alive."

But the news of a junior Bond series has outraged many fans across the world.

"The James Bond websites were furious," Higson said after the release of the first book. "Their attitude was `You can't make James Bond a kid - he's a drinking, smoking, womanising assassin. Ian Fleming would turn in his grave'."

Thanks to `Kyvan` for the alert.