| 007 BIBLIOGRAPHY: | |||
| The James Bond Bedside
Companion (1984) Blast from the Past¹ (1996) Zero Minus Ten (1997) Tomorrow Never Dies (1997) The Facts of Death (1998) Midsummer Night's Doom² (1999) High Time To Kill (1999) The World is Not Enough (1999) Live at Five³ (1999) Doubleshot (2000) Never Dream of Dying (2000) The Man With The Red Tattoo (2002) |
Raymond Benson was born
on 6th September 1955 in Texas, U.S.A. During the 1970’s he studied Drama
at the University of Texas, graduating in the late 70’s whereupon he become a theatre
director, first in Houston’s Ally Theatre, then in New York. Whilst pursuing his
directorial career, he chanced upon one of Fleming’s James Bond novels in the window
of a bookshop, and he decided to write a book on the story of James Bond. Entitled "The James Bond Bedside Companion", his book was an encyclopaedic work on all aspects of the James Bond phenomenon, and was first published in 1984. True Bond fans consider Benson’s work to be the definitive on the subject and so did the critics; it was nominated for that year’s Edgar Allen Poe award for the best work of biographical research. |
 Buy My Books ! |
|
Benson continued with his theatre work in New York, directing a number of Broadway productions, and also composing the music for some shows, but he also became involved in another career, as a creator of video games. He has written and conceived, amongst others, Ultima VII, Return of the Phantom and Dark Seed II, in addition to You Only Live Twice II – Back of Beyond, a James Bond role-playing game. Above all, his Bond-related research brought him to the attention of the publisher of Fleming’s novels and after John Gardner decided to stop writing 007 books in the mid-1990’s, Benson was the natural choice to take the baton. His first novel, "Zero Minus Ten" appeared in 1997, appeared to rave reviews, and the follow-up was "Tomorrow Never Dies", the second film of the resurgent 1990’s Bond film series. In addition to his writing, Benson is actively involved in a number of academic interests, including the New School for Social Research, where he has given a course on film-making theory, and the University of Chicago, close to where he now resides. He is also an active member of the Mystery Writers Society of the United States and a committee member of the Ian Fleming Foundation. ¹ Short story published in Playboy Magazine, Jan ‘97 ² Short story published in Playboy Magazine, Jun ‘99 ³ Short story published in TV Guide (US), Nov ‘99 |
|||
website © 2001 visual foundry limited |
|||