James Bond children’s book author M. W. Craven on ‘daunting’ 007 responsibility

An author has described writing a James Bond series for young readers as a “daunting responsibility”.

Award-winning crime writer Mike Craven was approached by Ian Fleming Publications to pen a new adventure where the fictional spy trains 12 to 13-year-olds to be 00 agents.

Craven, an army veteran from Carlisle, said he had already been piled on by Bond “purists” telling him to stay true to the lore in James Bond and the Secret Agent Academy, which is expected to be published next summer.

“The legacy of this character is just astonishing,” he said. “It’s one that you can’t mess with – he’s part of our national identity.”

James Bond was created by Ian Fleming in the 1950s and led to a film franchise that made 007 instantly recognisable across the world.

Craven was told he had free licence with the story, but he could not contradict previous works.

“So any character who Ian Fleming killed off, like say Goldfinger or Blofeld, you can’t resurrect,” he told BBC Radio Cumbria.

The writer said he was warned he could become a “target for all the Bond fanatics out there” but it had been “a lot of fun”.

He said one of the reasons he took on a children’s book series was to help “move the dial” on literacy in young people.

“I think only one in three children now read for pleasure, which is pretty sad because when I was growing up that was my main form of entertainment,” he said.

When asked how he was changing his writing to suit a younger age group, he said he was putting less swearing in.

M.W. Craven’s James Bond and the Secret Agent Academy will be published next June.