Author Charlie Higson reveals how to Bond with your kids

There is no tougher audience for writers than children - especially if they are your own three sons, Fast Show co-creator Charlie Higson tells Jon Smith.

The Tufnell Park resident is now making a name for himself by playing it straight - or should that be shaken not stirred? - with a series of novels about the young James Bond. The second, Blood Fever, was published this month and three more are planned.

Higson cuts a tired figure when we meet at his publicist's Marylebone offices. His messy hair is a testament to a punishing promotional schedule - and the effort of getting his three sons off to school on time. But he soon springs to life, not least when I confess I've never really caught the Bond bug.

"I bet you were the sort of person who used to watch foreign art house movies when you were a teenager," he says. "For the nudity."

Another reason I never fell for 007, he suggests, is the first Bonds I encountered were Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton - Camp Bond and Politically Correct Bond, respectively. Higson, born in 1958, grew up idolising Sean Connery, an entirely different proposition.

"James Bond was the 1960s," he says. "He summed up everything that was cool. And, as a kid, going to the cinema meant going to see a James Bond film."

Despite this, he drew his inspiration for the Young Bond novels from Ian Fleming's books, not the movies.

"That way you can strip away all the corniness and the cliches and the ridiculous gadgets that have become attached to Bond," he says. "I'm taking them back to the original inspiration - tough action stories.

"And Fleming's Bond is a more real and rounded character and not some invincible icon in a tux. When someone hits him, it hurts. He falls in love with the women and they usually leave him. He's a lonely figure, a more real figure. And in my books you can read about a real boy."

Higson's Bond is not a teen spy like Alex Rider, the gadget-toting creation of fellow north London children's writer Anthony Horowitz. Set in the turbulent 1930s, Blood Fever sees Bond discover a secret society with links to his school, Eton. He is soon dragged into an international web of intrigue, encountering pirates, bandits, art thieves and - of course - a fiery love interest.

"It's going back to an old-fashioned type of story, an outdoors adventure story," Higson explains.

While writing the books - commissioned by the Ian Fleming estate - he had a ready-made focus group in his sons Sidney, seven, Jim, 11, and Frank, 13.

"I see what they like and what they don't like, getting the pace right," he says. "And the level of violence, which I was always upping to keep them happy."

He hopes the books encourage boys aged eight to 12 to read - something of an unfashionable activity before Harry Potter came along - and he isn't keen on his stories going straight to the cinema.

"We want to establish the books first," he explains. "We want to show kids that Bond was originally a literary creation. Hopefully, they'll move on to read the adult versions."

Higson is no stranger to thriller writing, with four adult books to his name. But he finds children a much tougher audience.

"You have to shift up a gear to keep kids' attention," he says. "You have to work quite hard. There are quite a few established authors who would benefit from being forced to write for children."

He admits writing novels is a lonely experience, and he still cherishes memories of working with the Fast Show team.

"You remember how much fun we used to have. They were such a fantastic bunch of people," he says. "You never think that way about writing a book. You don't look back and think, I remember that great year I had sitting in a room on my own in front of a computer screen."

But he looks set to return to the comedy scene along with his former colleagues. He has been working on a film script with Fast Show co-creator Paul Whitehouse for the past three years and shooting is due to start in the summer.

"I'd like to get all of the Fast Show gang involved," he says. "They're such great comic actors."

He insists the project won't be The Fast Show Movie - and is determined not to fall into the long list of TV comedy writers whose work flopped when they tackled the big screen.

"TV people think their movies have to be something really special," he says. "We're just trying to keep it simple.

"When Paul and I were writing it, we found it was getting more and more complicated. We were cutting funny parts to fit the plot in. Then we thought we should be cutting the shit and doing the funny stuff. So now there isn't a plot."

While Higson is proud of the Fast Show - and never tires of hearing its catchphrases - he worries that it has cast a shadow over the rest of his career.

"I've never quite recaptured that high," he confesses. "At this stage of my life, possibilities are narrowing down quite drastically. Films are my greatest love, but it's such hard work and it takes so long."

This pessimistic note doesn't last too long. "But then the Bond thing came out of nowhere, so who knows what could happen next?"

One thing the future doesn't hold is a retreat to the country. He has lived in north London since 1984 and couldn't contemplate moving anywhere else. "I get asked why I live in London - it's for the people. You're with people who are like you," he says. "People in the countryside are so f***ing awful. I could not live my life with those people. North London feels like my natural home."

So it suits you, sir?

"Quite."

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