Author Charlie Higson takes Young Bond to Docklands, London

Author Charlie Higson has just finished the latest in his series of Young Bond books, which sees a 13-year old 007 fighting crime around the docks - reports icTheWharf.

Charlie said: "I have always been a Bond fan. I grew up in the sixties when the Sean Connery movies were being made and I loved going to see them.

"Later on I read all of Fleming's books but I never expected that one day I would be asked to write a Bond book.

"In the 1930s the London docks were the biggest and busiest in the world. It was a really fascinating place with some very colourful characters and I thought it would be a great setting for the climax of the book."

Ian Fleming's family first approached Charlie to ask him to pen the Bond children's series. The father of three set to work creating the teenage James, a crime-solving Eton pupil growing up in the 1930s.

The Docklands-based novel - which does not yet have a title - is the third in a series of five and is due out in January 2007.

Charlie added: "I have always loved creating things. Writing a book you can create anything you like, from an entire world down to a pair of special trousers."

A number of film-makers have already approached Charlie about adapting the Young Bond books and if he agrees the Wharf could once again become the focus for Fleming fans.

Pierce Brosnan first made waves around Canary Wharf when shooting the opening scenes for 1999 film The World is Not Enough. He was seen racing around the Thames in a speed boat (pictured top) and rolling across the roof of the Millennium Dome.

And Charlie's book looks as if it will be just as action-packed.

He said: "There's lots of action, several nasty deaths, a car chase, a couple of explosions, a set of evil villains, a beautiful girl, and the climax in the old London Docklands when it was still full of ships."

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