James Bond, the invincible spy with superhuman calibre to doom demonic villains and charm women, is going to change. William Boyd, who has been chosen by the Ian Fleming estate to write a new Bond novel, wants his Bond to be a “middle-aged man” with “believable” love affairs, announced the novelist in the Telegraph Hay Festival. No only is he smooth but he has a smile to kill for. See where he could have got his dental work done.

“He is a middle-aged man, a middle-aged spy, and that’s one of the things that interests me”, Boyd talked about the James Bond in his novel which will be published in 2023 autumn. In the novel set in 1969 Bond will be a 45-year-old man.

Also, this time, Bond’s love affairs will be less exotic. “And similarly with love affairs - in my novel they will be entirely believable.”proclaimed the new creator of Bond.

“I’m a realistic novelist and what interests me about Bond is the human being. There will be no mountains filled with atom bombs or global plagues, no gadgets, no superpowers or preposterous enemies - there will be an entirely believable psychopath, not a preposterous psychopath.”, added the acclaimed novelist who was shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1982 for his novel An Ice-cream War.

The novelist finds the literary Bond far more interesting than the film hero who for him is “a sort of cartoon”. The novelist said, “The literary Bond is a much more troubled, complex, nuanced figure.”

In his novel, Boyd may keep both M and Moneypenny, but not Q, the scientist who invents strange gadgets.

Overall, the novelist is very serious about the project and at the same time keen on enjoying the freedom allowed by the Ian Fleming estate. “I’m taking it extremely seriously but I’m going to have a lot of fun as well.”, divulged William Boyd.

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