007 BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Licence Renewed (1981)
For Special Services (1982)
Icebreaker (1983)
Role of Honour (1984)
Nobody Lives Forever (1986)
No Deals, Mr. Bond (1987)
Scorpius (1988)
Win, Lose or Die (1988)
Licence To Kill (1989)
Broken Claw (1990)
The Man from Barbarossa (1991)
Death is Forever (1992)
Never Send Flowers (1993)
Seafire (1994)
Goldeneye (1995)
Cold Fall (1996)

OTHER WORKS:

Spin The Bottle (1963)
The Liquidator (1964)
















 John Gardner was born on 20th November 1926, in the small town of Seaton Delaval, not far from Newcastle-upon-Tyne. His love for writing developed when he was very young; he completed his first book, "The Complete Works Of John Gardner", based on observations of people he had met, when he was just eight years old. As a child he was given a magic box, which sparked another interest – years later, he would become a magician in an entertainment troupe in the British Army.

He served part of the war as a commando in the Royal Marines, then returned to study in peacetime, first at Cambridge University, then Oxford where, in 1950, he received a degree in Theology. Two years later, he met and married his wife, Margaret. His father was a Church of England vicar and he encouraged his son to follow in his footsteps. He did so and before long, Gardner moved to a parish in Frome, Somerset where he began to settle into the life of a rural minister. He and his wife began a family, with a baby son, and a daughter.

John Gardner

Buy My Books !

As time passed, however, he became disillusioned with the Church, sensing that he had chosen the wrong vocation. He started to drink heavily, and renounced religion. By his early thirties, Gardner was a chronic alcoholic; his doctor, a Dr. Lincoln, gave him an ultimatum. If he did not stop drinking, he would be dead within six months. He decided to enter into therapy to cure his problem.

He started from scratch and decided to become an actor; unfortunately, he could not find work in this field but by chance, he was offered a job writing for a local newspaper in Stratford-upon-Avon, working as a critic. He remained there for some eight years, during which time he wrote eight plays, none of which he was able to get published. In 1963, he wrote his autobiography, entitled "Spin The Bottle", in which he dealt candidly with the subject of his alcoholism; the book was a success and led to the publishing of his first novel, "The Liquidator", a year later.

A fan of the writings of Fleming, Gardner’s book was a parody on the James Bond formula, whose main character was a secret agent called "Boysie Oakes". The novel was again successful and seven further novels appeared using the same character. By 1977, tax reasons saw him relocate to "Glammore Farm", in Ireland’s Wicklow mountains. Two years later, he was contacted by Glidrose, Fleming’s publishers, who were interested in him writing genuine James Bond novels. Although five other authors were also being considered, with the help of his agent a contract was eventually signed for a series of three books. The first was originally entitled "Meltdown", but was renamed "Licence Renewed". His manuscript was accepted by the publishers, with minor alterations. All three books would eventually be successes, and he was asked to complete a further three novels.

Gardner by now was a changed man. He drank only coffee and kept to a rigorous working routine, starting to write at 9:30 a.m. and working until 7:30 p.m., with only a break for lunch. To aid the writing process, he would listen to the works of Wagner, or music from films (not Bond scores, however). He even began to enjoy giving interviews with the press. By 1985, some 5 million copies of his first three Bond novels had been sold, and his fourth was also selling steadily. In early 1989, he moved once again, this time to the United States, where he lived for two years in Charlottesville, Virginia. He remarried in 1991, and soon moved back to England, to live in Surrey.

He would eventually go on to write fourteen James Bond novels, the same number as Fleming himself before deciding not to renew his contract in 1996.

website © 2001 visual foundry limited