Here at Penguin everyone has been gripped with By Royal Command fever, following the launch of a certain Young Bond's latest adventure.

If this wasn't exciting enough, every book contains a special code which is part of a mission in the Young Bond alternate reality game, called The Shadow War.  In the game, you get to become either a British SIS agent or a Russian OGPU spy and every Wednesday for 7 weeks we are releasing a brand new mission for the two sides.  You can join at any point so head over to youngbondshadowwar.com to sign up and get your first mission briefing.

For part of the mission, you need the code that's printed in the actual book but somewhere out there just 20 special copies of By Royal Command have a different code inside them and we are just holding our breath to find out if anyone out there can find one of them.  Could it be you?  And if it is you, you could help your side to win The Shadow War . . .

By Royal Command: http://www.puffin.co.uk/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780141384511,00.html

The Shadow War: http://www.youngbondshadowwar.com

 

Devil May Care is number one in the book charts! It was all worth it! We will keep our jobs! Open the champagne immediately! Sebastian Faulks has triumphed and written Penguin's fastest selling fiction hardback. Ever.

 

Sadly, though, the main fun is over. No more waking up in cold sweats in the middle of the night, no more dreaming of falling off giant ships into the Thames, no more red cat suit conferences, no more martini master classes. Back to normal life at Penguin towers. I may shed a little tear.

 

I would like to reminisce and bathe in the glory for a little longer, however. I promised more from last Tuesday and here are some photos (there is a film but technical difficulties are preventing me from uploading it at the moment). If this isn't the best way in the world to deliver books to a book shop, then frankly, what is?  

Oh happy happy day!!

Oh I wish I hadn't drunk so many martinis last night.

Oh the excitement is too much to bear.

Bond is officially, definitely, unequivocally, BACK. Yes siree. I feel like doing a little dance around Penguin Towers. No, must save energy for Bond themed canteen lunch.

The stunt went swimmingly (did you see me on the ship? I was the one in the red catsuit. OK, that wasn't me. But I was there.), the party went off with a bang and the books are now in the shops. That means one thing:

Go forth and purchase!

Blimey, anyone would think I worked in the marketing department.

Just in case you actually wanted to know what the book is like before you buy, why not hear it from the author's mouth. Here is Sebastian Faulks reading an extract of Devil May Care:


Check out this video: DEVIL MAY CARE - AN EXTRACT

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You will see photos and video of yesterday as soon as I can get my mitts on the footage. Watch this space.

Love and a general feeling of goodwill,

Candy x

P.s. I have two very special prizes to give away. Sebastian Faulks has signed two copies of the book, which I am now giving you the opportunity to win. To be in with a chance of claiming this fabulous prize, email devilmaycare@penguin.co.uk with your name and address and I'll pick the names I like the best. JOKE. Two names will be picked at random.

Good luck!

As I'm sure you've probably noticed, Devil May Care has been under strict embargo until the 28^th May. No one's getting their hands on this book until the 28^th. Getting the first copies to Waterstones was going to be a problem unless we had a little help from our friends. We needed to make sure that everything came together and went like clockwork to ensure the safe arrival of those books. And the best people to do that? The Royal Navy and Bentley motors, of course.

 

So, get your cameras at the ready, head down to the river and wait for the entrance of all entrances from our very own Bond girl, Tuuli, with a specially commissioned Samsonite briefcase containing the first seven copies of Devil May Care. She'll be in a Pacific 24 boat, accompanied by Royal Navy Lynx helicopters. You know, just in case.

 

Her destination will be the HMS Exeter, where Sebastian Faulks will be waiting to greet her and receive the books. This beast of a ship will be parked up alongside HMS Belfast and will play host to a few lucky guests. Following speeches, the books will be signed by both Sebastian and Tuuli and then locked back into the briefcase. They then need to get to Waterstones Piccadilly, where they will be held under lock and key for the night. What better, more stylish way to get there, than in a Bentley? And we're not talking one Bentley, but a 'cavalcade' of Bentleys. (I may have only just learnt the word 'cavalcade', but am now determined to use it in every other sentence).

 

Of course I'll be painting my nails and getting my fake tan by then. There is a party to get to after all. But anyone who wants to spy the action can do so between and 11.30 and 12.30 on the Thames and from about 1pm at Waterstones. The store will open its doors at 8am on Wednesday.

 

See you there.

 

CG x

Alert alert! Just to let you know in case you were planning to stay up 'til one minute past midnight on the 27^th May (although technically that would be the 28^th) to buy a Bentley Bond Special Series edition, that I am here to ensure you get a good night's sleep and warn you that they will not go on sale until 12 midday on the 28^th. So, synchronize watches and let the countdown to the 28th begin!

 

CG x

 

P.S. In case it's not saved in your favourites already, you can find the Bentley page at www.penguin007.com

Having the vision for how you want your ad to look is the first step in the process to creating the perfect campaign. You want to induce a feeling in the person who sees the poster. You want to catch their attention as they rush past heading for their train, or out of the station, or walking along the street. You want to make them see your image over all the rest.

 

The ad for Devil May Care had to look slick, confident and classy. No complicated messages, no clever lines - just the simple announcement that Bond is Back. Given the build up that was anticipated for the book when this was being thought about – we knew that on the most part, this would be telling people that the book is finally here.

 

You've probably guessed by now that the poppy is a symbol from the book. It's what gives the striking red of the cover and what had to be used to create the look we were going for. Getting poppies in February, however, is easier said than done. These particular poppies had to be specially imported from Italy. So, on the day the shoot was due to take place, Marketing Director Jane 'Moneypenny' Rose, Creative Director Rob Williams and Art Director Jim Stoddart, turned up at the photographer's studio bright and early to receive the delivery of 300 poppies.

 

What they weren't expecting was that the flowers would be…well, closed. As you'll see from the collection of photos I have put up, a closed poppy really ain't that pretty, and is certainly not the image that had been envisaged for this shoot. After a few stamped feet / sobs / general exclamations of 'what are we going to do?' and 'who's idea was this?' it was realised that closed poppies can be manually peeled open one by one. So, that's what they did (which I can vouch for when at the end of the day Jane turned up at the office with decidedly red hands). It took three long hours.

 

Once the poppies were ready for action they were carefully laid out with the book, as per the original drawing done by Rob Williams. Hours were spent carefully laying down different numbers of poppies to see what looked best. Again, check out the photos to see how it looked. What you'll know if you have actually seen the advertising around, is that we didn't in the end use the full flowers. It was the petals themselves which gave the greatest impact. So it was back to the flowers, in order to rapidly start taking them apart. One step ladder and vertigo-stricken-Jane Rose later, and petals were tumbling down over the book while the photographer tried desperately to catch them. Unfortunately the speed of falling poppies isn't something that can be controlled, so it was a few goes before they got what they needed.

 

I think you'll agree that they managed to capture the feeling of movement brilliantly and that those few petals falling keep to the simple yet effective look that they set out to create. Jim Stoddart has turned a contact sheet of photos into a bold and striking ad campaign.

 

That's a stroke of luck.

 

CG x

At Penguin, we don't have what some might call 'generous' marketing budgets. We like to think we work creatively with what we do have, and learn to make the most of our chosen mediums. Imagine our excitement, though, when we saw that we could, if we wanted, put Bond up in lights. Not just any lights, but the famous PICCADILLY lights. If I'm not making myself clear, I mean those neon screens on Piccadilly Circus. Yes, we'll be right at home with the likes of McDonalds and Coke, we thought to ourselves. Naturally we jumped at the chance, and Tom Johnson (online design guru) created a marvellous strip to announce to people, just in case they had been living under a rock for the past few months, that Bond really is Back.

So marvellous is our design that it includes a live countdown to publication. Not an easy thing to do, I can assure you. So much so that Clear Channel, the site owners, had never done it before. You might imagine that this made both of us a little nervous, so it was felt we should test that the countdown worked before the strip went live. Just in case. It would be rather embarrassing if it went to zero at midnight on the 26th, for example.

What an amusing site. 9 people gathering on a chilly 'spring' morning to witness a feat of design and engineering (we do work in publishing, remember). With lattes in hand we trundled to the 'island' on Piccadilly and waited for the strip of screen to come to life. And waited. And waited. Only to find out that the images on screen are not powered by a swanky control centre in London, but from a cottage deep in the Buckinghamshire countryside. Said cottage had had a slight technical hitch – a power surge in the village – and was currently in the process of rebooting the entire system. Thank goodness for mobile phones. Before long, and with the help of an 'electricity guy', we were all systems go.

Bond officially came back when the Piccadilly Lite sign sprung into action. Oooooooh, we exclaimed, aaaaah, etc etc. Actually, we were screaming with delight like excited children. What a wonderful sight. If you aren't able to get down to Piccadilly yourself (which personally I feel would show a distinct lack of commitment), then here it is in all its glory.

Check out this video: Bond in Lights

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Back soon,
CG x

Hugely excited as we are about the publication of Devil May Care, you may well have realised that's not all we've got on offer. You will have seen the beautiful new jackets for the 14 Ian Fleming James Bond books that we are reissuing in hardback, with a publication date of 29th May (you can check them out on the myspace page, bottom right). Designed by Michael Gillette and irresistibly collecatable, they are sure to fly off the shelves. It's time to go back to the original Bond - but what will be in store? Aine Fearon, of our online team at Penguin towers, revisits Ian Fleming's Bond.

CG x

 

The announcement that Sebastian Faulks was to write a Bond book sparked intense interest - both for fans of books and fans of Bond. What would a 21st Century Bond be like? Would he still be a "shaken and not stirred" kind of man? Who would the baddie be? The speculation brought it home to me that everything I knew about Ian Fleming's famous creation had been gleaned from other places. So I decided to go straight to the source - the 14 Bond books.

 

I wonder if Ian Fleming quite realised when he first put pen to paper the impact his cavalier, womanising, alcohol-fuelled, international-man-of-mystery would have on the world. As you travel through each adventure with Bond, you discover a manic depressive wandering aimlessly through life, disconnected from the everyday humdrum of working class life.

Born out of covert operations in Second World War ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />France, James Bond is now a 00 agent working for MI6, the British Government's secret service. From novel to novel, Bond's world expands with new villains, more dangers and lots of women (a good two per book!). For me, it came alive with Diamonds Are Forever, a jaunt through Mob-infested America. Then we have the brilliant Thunderball. Here you meet the man that becomes the entire focus of Bonds life - Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the supervillain's supervillain.

Fleming's attention to detail brings these short but fast-paced stories to another level. He gives you something to grab hold of. From the Mark IV Bentley that Bond favours, to the drink he invents in Casino Royale (which I'd quite like to try one of these days!!)

There are numerous accounts of the covert plans and operations devised by Fleming during and after WWII. This experience and in-depth knowledge really shines through in his books. Bond's exploits never seem contrived and Fleming can make the ludicrous sound entirely plausible.

 

Aine Fearon

Online Development Producer

Just when we were thinking we couldn't possibly take any more excitement or add any other Bond product to our online shopping bags (pre-order of course), there comes on to the horizon like a shining light the beauty of all beauties. Please be appropriately awed by the wonder that is The Bentley Bond Special Series Edition. Or Devil May Care, Bentley style.

It is a Bentley that James Bond is first driving when we meet him in Casino Royale, a car that he drives 'hard and well and with an almost sensuous pleasure' (which only Bond could do). He owns a total of 3 Bentleys throughout the books - perfectly normal amount of Bentleys to own in a lifetime, no? - which are tended to with great care. Both the epitome of sophistication and Britishness, Bond and Bentley are simply made for each other.

So when we found out that Sebastian Faulks' Bond would be driving a Bentley, we just knew we had to approach them to work with us. And having wanted to produce a special edition for the book anyway, there seemed like no better partner. It's always marvellous when a plan comes together - Bentley liked the idea too and had an incredible vision for this very unique project.

Under the guidance of Bentley's chief designer Dirk Van Braeckel and one of his team, Kate Whatmore, Bentley have produced nothing less than a masterpiece of design. But, considering I'm the kind of person who describes cars only as 'large, small, red' etc, it would probably be best for me to hand over to Dirk and Kate to talk through the concept behind it, and how a vehicle manufacturer used elements from their very famous cars to make a book. Watch them talk through the process below.






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To see the finished product in all it's glory, and to purchase your very own copy (I hope you've been saving up), visit www.penguin007.com.

'For Your Eyes Only' – the Ian Fleming and James Bond exhibition – opened last week at the Imperial War Museum. Of course if you're special (and that extra bit desperate to catch a glimpse of Daniel Craig's blood-stained shirt) you got to go to the champagne preview the night before. Somehow, I managed to barge my way in…

 

And I would urge you to go along and have a look. It's on until the 1^st March 2009 and it is well worth the trip. Even if you don't, like those of us at Penguin towers, go to bed and wake up thinking of James Bond books, you will be sure to get something out of it.

 

In between not-so-subtle celeb-spotting, I learnt many things. I saw the old book jackets, for example, which were really quite dark…much more so than they are today. They evoke that sinister, cold side to Bond that strikes you on reading the books for the first time. It was also really exciting to see Fleming's annotated manuscripts from when he began his novels; the famous first lines to Casino Royale and the research notes for From Russia with Love. There were many examples of correspondence between Fleming and various people, including a handwritten note signed by Josef Stalin! Somewhat different to the love letter displayed that Fleming wrote to his future wife – this touching letter, as well as the charming first draft of the beginning of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, brought a real smile to my face.

 

There were a few interactive things, too. Like a child I stood over the virtual roulette wheel, spinning over and over again in order to discover some interesting Fleming fact or another. For those of you who also experience excitement over very small things, you can do it from home by visiting here: http://london.iwm.org.uk/upload/package/fleming/highlights.html

 

The other thing I learnt is that I immediately want to move to Jamaica. But only if I can take up residence at Goldeneye*. This is somewhat unlikely, but the view from that place is amazing – no wonder Fleming felt inspired to write. Seeing the desk he used while there really helped imagine him doing so. And it was from this same desk that he got the name James Bond – well, from one of the books lying on top of it. The unlikely inspiration for the world's most iconic spy was the author of Birds of the West Indies. This obviously suited Fleming, who was looking for the 'simplest, dullest, plainest-sounding name' he could find for his secret agent.

 

It seems to be popularly believed that James Bond is the man Ian Fleming would like to have been – and that writing the novels was partly a way to live out a lifestyle he coveted. I don't know if this is true, but we do find out that Fleming did, after all, base many of the books on his personal experiences during the war and there seem to be so many echoes from his own life that can now be recognised in the books.

 

Ultimately, I also felt that I really ought to take up smoking. It seems James Bond (and Ian Fleming?) was deeply suspicious of anyone who didn't smoke. But perhaps that's taking my Bond enthusiasm a little too far….

 

All the best,

CG x

 

* Did you know that Goldeneye was a code word for Ian Fleming's first mission as an intelligence agent? You see, I am now a true fount of knowledge…