Authorized biography

A brand-new paperback edition with a new introduction, celebrating the 50th anniversary of this fan-favourite book, it will be published on October 5th, James Bond Day.

It was a strong face, certainly &#; the eyes pale grey and very cold, the mouth was hard, the dark hair &#; grey-streaked now &#; still fell in the authentic comma over the forehead.

This is how John Pearson reacted to his first encounter with the real James Bond, an encounter probably unique in the annals of thriller writing. He went on to write the bestselling authorised biography of Ian Fleming. At the time, like most of the world he assumed that James Bond was nothing more than a character in Fleming&#;s highly charged imagination. Then he began to have his doubts. Doubts which were reaching such a pitch that the British secret service were trying to warn him off the scent. Despite this, he finally became convinced that James Bond was not only real, but actually alive.

Thanks to a change in policy within the secret service he was invited to embark upon a companion volume to his life of Fleming. This resulting book must be one of the most extraordinary biographies of our times &#; the authorised life of a myth, the official biography of James Bond.

Authorised biography of the Beatles by Hunter Davies

The Beatles: The Authorised Biography is a book written by the British author Hunter Davies and published by Heinemann in the UK in September It was written with the full cooperation of the Beatles and chronicles the band's career up until early , two years before their break-up. It was the only authorised biography of the Beatles written during their career. Davies published revised editions of the book in , , , , , and

Background

In , Hunter Davies was working as the Atticus columnist for the Sunday Times newspaper and had written two books, one of which was the novel Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush. Moved by the Beatles' song "Eleanor Rigby", he visited Paul McCartney at the latter's house in St John's Wood, in September , intending to make the song the focus of his newspaper column. At a subsequent meeting at the house, Davies hoped to persuade McCartney to write the theme song for the film adaptation of Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush. Nothing came of this idea, but the pair began discussing the possibility of an official biography of the Beatles. Recalling their conversation in , Davies said that there had been just two previous books about the band, "both paperbacks, neither substantial", and he suggested to McCartney that the publication of an official history would save the Beatles having to answer many of the usual questions put to them by the media.

Through McCartney's introduction, Davies met with Brian Epstein, the Beatles' manager. Epstein promised Davies full access to the band members and exclusivity over any other writers wishing to write a similar biography for the next two years. Signed on 25 January , their contract stipulated that the Beatles had the right to make changes to the submitted manuscript. The London-based publisher Heinemann agreed an advance on the manuscript of £ (equivalent

biography by John Pearson

James Bond: The Authorized Biography of (laterJames Bond: The Authorised Biography) by John Pearson, is a fictional biography of James Bond, first published in ; Pearson also wrote the biography The Life of Ian Fleming ().

The Authorized Biography of was not commissioned by Glidrose Publications. It originated as a spoof novel for publisher Sidgwick & Jackson. However, Pearson knew Peter Janson-Smith, the Glidrose chairman, who gave permission for the work to be published. Consequently, this is the only James Bond book from Glidrose, between and , not first published by Jonathan Cape, additionally, it is the only Bond novel with a shared copyright credit; Pearson is the only Bond novelist so recognised.

Plot summary

The premise of James Bond: The Authorized Biography of is that James Bond is based upon a real MI6 agent. Fleming hinted so in You Only Live Twice, in Bond's obituary, that his adventures were the basis of a series of "sensational novels"; illustrating this contention, that novel's comic strip adaptation used covers from Fleming's James Bond novels.

Writing autobiographically, Pearson begins the story with his own recruitment to MI6 and meeting Sir William Stephenson and a fifty-something Bond in Bermuda. Already, the department had assigned Ian Fleming to write novels based upon the real agent; Fleming was to be truthful about the agent's adventures. The idea was to hide the truth, of Bond's exploits, in plain sight; along the way, Fleming created fictional tales, such as Moonraker, to keep the Soviets guessing what was fact and what was not. Pearson's also incorporates Fleming's flippant claim to not having written The Spy Who Loved Me, but that Vivienne Michel mysteriously sent him the manuscript.

Based upon the success of his Fleming biography, The Life of Ian Fleming (), MI6 instruct Pearson to write 's biography; he is introduced to a