James Bond uncollected short stories

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In the late 1990s, Raymond Benson, who at the time was the official novelist of the James Bond literary franchise, became the first author since Bond's creator, Ian Fleming, to write officially sanctioned short stories featuring the superspy.

Just before his sudden departure from writing Bond novels at the start of 2003, Benson had indicated his intention to write more short pieces and publish a short story collection along the lines of Fleming's For Your Eyes Only and Octopussy and The Living Daylights. This, however, appears unlikely to come to pass for the time being.

As a result, to date these three stories remain the only pieces of James Bond literature that have never officially been published in Great Britain, and one of the stories, "Live at Five", is considered the rarest James Bond story of all. Additionally between 2001 and 2002, Benson wrote a fourth short story he planned to title "The Heart of Erzulie", however, it was never published.

In November 2006, two additional James Bond-related short stories by Samantha Weinberg were published as part of her Moneypenny Diaries series; at present neither they nor the two volumes of The Moneypenny Diaries novels so far published have been published in the United States.

1 Raymond Benson short stories
2 Samantha Weinberg/Kate Westbrook short stories
- 2.1 "For Your Eyes Only, James"
- 2.2 "Moneypenny's First Date with Bond"
3 References

[edit] Raymond Benson short stories

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] "Blast from the Past"

First publication: Playboy, January 1997 issue. In publication order, this follows COLD and precedes Zero Minus Ten. Benson has stated that Playboy cut 1/3 of the story for space reasons.

The first Bond story published by Benson, "Blast from the Past" is a direct sequel to Fleming's You Only Live Twice and appears to exist outside the timeline of either Benson's or John Gardner's other Bond stories.

Bond receives a message, apparently from James Suzuki, his son (Suzuki's mother is Kissy Suzuki from You Only Live Twice) asking him to come to New York City on a matter of urgency. When Bond arrives, he finds his son murdered. With the aid of an SIS agent, he learns that James was killed in revenge by Irma Bunt, the one-time companion of Ernst Stavro Blofeld, and a woman who Bond assumed had died alongside Blofeld (again in You Only Live Twice).

The name of Bond's son, James Suzuki, is taken from the John Pearson faux biography, James Bond: The Authorised Biography of 007.

Preceded by COLD	James Bond adventure	Succeeded by Zero Minus Ten

[edit] "Midsummer Night's Doom"

First publication: Playboy, January 1999 issue. In publication order, this follows The Facts of Death and precedes High Time to Kill.

"Midsummer Night's Doom" is a special story commissioned to help celebrate Playboy's 45th anniversary. By Benson's own admission, the short story is a joke piece and not to be taken seriously ^[1].

In the story, Bond is assigned to attend a party at Playboy founder Hugh Hefner's Playboy Mansion in Beverly Hills, California where Ministry of Defence secrets are expected to be sold to a representative of the Russian Mafia.

While there, Bond meets Hefner who is aware of his mission and who actually provides Bond with several gadgets a la Q. Bond also has time to enjoy a quick romance with real-life Playmate Lisa Dergan, flirt with other Playmates including Victoria Zdrok, and rub elbows with the likes of actor Robert Culp and singer Mel Torme.

Dergan has the distinction of being, to date, the only real person ever to be awarded the status of Bond Girl. (Several other Playmates are referenced by name in this story, but Dergan is clearly Bond's girl of choice on this adventure.)

Some sources give this story the erroneous title "A Midsummer Night's Doom", since the title is a play on William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Preceded by The Facts of Death	James Bond adventure	Succeeded by High Time to Kill

[edit] "Live at Five"

First publication: TV Guide (American edition), November 13-19, 1999. In publication order, this follows the novelization of The World is Not Enough and precedes Doubleshot.

Published the week The World Is Not Enough arrived in movie theatres in America, "Live at Five" is the shortest of all James Bond stories, even shorter than Fleming's previous record-holder "007 in New York". Running only a couple of thousand words, if that, it is a trifle in which Bond, en route to a date with a female TV news reporter, recalls how he once helped a Russian figure skating champion defect in full view of TV cameras. The reporter, Janet Davies, becomes the second real person to be a Bond girl, seen daily on Chicago's local ABC station Channel 7 WLS.

Due to the fact that this issue of TV Guide was only available in the United States for a short period of time, and the story has, to date, never been reprinted elsewhere, "Live at Five" is expected to continue to be the hardest-to-find Bond story for some time to come. (By comparison, the two issues of Playboy listed above are readily available through the collector's market and in used book stores, and the magazine has distribution in Britain, although that's not the same as the stories being published in that country. There is a collectors' market for back issues of TV Guide, and the Bond issue is considered particularly collectable, but this market rarely extends beyond the U.S.)

Preceded by The World Is Not Enough	James Bond adventure	Succeeded by Doubleshot

[edit] "The Heart of Erzulie" (unpublished)

A fourth short story titled "The Heart of Erzulie" was written by Raymond Benson in-between Never Dream of Dying and The Man with the Red Tattoo, however, it was never published because Ian Fleming Publications felt it was "too much of a Fleming pastiche." Benson, himself, acknowledges that it was little more than a time-killer in the interim between the two book projects.^[2]

[edit] Samantha Weinberg/Kate Westbrook short stories

In 2006, two additional short stories were written and published by Samantha Weinberg under the pseudonym "Kate Westbrook". These stories are part of The Moneypenny Diaries series, an officially licenced spin-off from the Bond novels series focusing on the character of Miss Moneypenny. It has not yet been announced whether these stories are intended for later republication in book form.

[edit] "For Your Eyes Only, James"

First publication: Tatler (November 2006).

Set in 1956 (so possibly around the time of Diamonds Are Forever), the story tells of a weekend James Bond and Moneypenny share at Royale-les-Eaux (see Casino Royale).