Interview: Kim Sherwood, the Edinburgh University legend behind James Bond’s latest trilogy

Kim Sherwood needs about as much introduction for Edinburgh students as she does for Bond fanatics. The Fleming estate’s current James Bond continuation author, she has penned a trilogy of 007 thrillers that bring the series into the 21^st Century: Double or Nothing, A Spy Like Me, and Hurricane Room, the latter coming out in May of this year.

She is also the author of historical novels Testament and A Wild and True Relation, and teaches creative writing at the University of Edinburgh.

I was lucky enough to sit down with her to reflect on her Bond tenure, which almost equals the seven years of Pierce Brosnan’s Bond stint (as mutual Brosnan fans, we enjoyed that parallel).

All image credits: Rosie Sherwood

The first female Bond writer?

Much has been made of her being the first female Bond writer: “I’m not actually the first woman to write Bond,” she clarifies. “Johanna Harwood co-wrote the first two films.”

Yet, despite the Twitter backlash she had in the very early days (some male fans felt she was butting in “on their domain”, she tells me), she seems nothing but grateful for the journey. “It’s been hugely exciting. There’s that great Ian Fleming line – ‘always say yes to adventure’ – and I’m so glad I did. The people I’ve met along the way and the places I’ve been would never have come my way otherwise. Writing Bond is a dream, but getting to know this fan community and meeting readers around the world has just been amazing.

“Funnily enough, I got the initial approach from the Fleming estate just before I got married. Fleming also wrote Casino Royale before he got married, and I was thinking, that’s quite a nice symmetry – although in his case, he was distracting himself from what he thought was his impending doom, whereas I was very happy to be getting married.”

Kim has loyal fandoms in both spy fiction and literary fiction, and I was curious about the differences. What gives away that someone will be a Bond fan vs a Testament fan, for example?

“Typically, there’s a gender split, though not always. For a literary event, the audience is 99 per cent women and some husbands who have been dragged along. For a Bond event, the audience is 99 per cent men and some wives who have been dragged along. But what I love is that some women at Bond events tell me, “I’m only here because my husband or boyfriend loves Bond, but actually, listening to you has made me think this could be for me.” I love that. There’s nothing better than being someone else’s gateway drug to Bond.

“And I’ve seen so many different people’s routes to being a Bond fan. Everyone has this very personal story. The Bond fan community is so inclusive.”

What are the books about?

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Double or Nothing is Kim’s’s first Bond novel, in which Bond is missing, captured or killed, and a group of young 00s are trying to find him. “A Spy Like Me opens with a bomb at the BBC”, Kim says, “and MI6 realise there is a smuggling group funding terror, stealing everything from diamonds, to artwork, to people. We have 004 and 000 tracking down the smugglers. Meanwhile, 003, Johanna Harwood [named after the screenwriter], is going rogue after being deemed unfit for duty. To hell with that – she’s going to find Bond herself. All these adventures weave together by the end.

“Thematically, it’s a novel about time. There are countdowns through the book, and everything happens in different timelines, but simultaneously. It seemed like a good idea,” she says, with a laughing grimace, “but then I had all of these maps when I was drawing all the timelines, and I was sitting on the floor of my study surrounded by them. I called up my mum, and said, “I’ve lost the plot. Literally. I have lost the plot – what is this novel about?”

“I swore never to write a novel that experiments with space and time again. Although I probably won’t stick to that.”

The new 00s

Johanna Harwood, 003, has exciting stuff in A Spy Like Me, including some iconic action sequences. She “has emerged as my favourite character to write,” Kim confides, “because she has perhaps the most inner complexity. She can be thoughtful, and then I enjoy the moments when a switch is flipped, she says, ‘to hell with this’, goes into action and becomes completely unstoppable.”

“Have fans told you who their favourite is?” I ask.

“It’s evenly split between Dryden and Harwood.”

For those who haven’t yet read it, Joseph Dryden, 004, is a black army veteran who communicates with Q via a very cool ear implant. He’s also very masculine and very gay. Make way, Bond girls – there’s a rather exciting Bond boy in A Spy Like Me.

What’s next for Kim Sherwood?

Kim’s journey of writing Bond – both Bond himself and her fabulous new ensemble of 00s – is reaching its finale. She is honest with me about how monumental that feels.

“It’s a funny thing being part of a literary world where it will live on far beyond you. You have to let go. And yet how do you let go of characters that you love?

“Hurricane Room will come out a month before my baby comes out. It feels like a ticking time bomb, in the best possible way. And very facetiously, my mum reminded me that when I was younger, I said, ‘I want to have five books out before I have kids’. And Hurricane Room will be book number five. I didn’t plan it, but I couldn’t have planned it better.”

From our very own Kim Sherwood here at Edinburgh, Double or Nothing and A Spy Like Me are available from all major retailers, and Hurricane Room will be published this May.