Writing new Bond book 'daunting 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."

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.