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Promo

After Benson (mentioned several times in previous posts) had finished his nine Bond books, there was a gap of six years before the next appeared, Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks, which was published at the end of May 2008.

To drum up enthusiasm for the new book, The Times ran a promotion earlier the same month and, over the course of a week, gave away some paperback copies of Fleming's works. They used the, rather lovely, Richard Fahey-designed paperbacks, which had been published about 18 months earlier, with some subtle amendments to the covers, including mentioning 'The Times' on the spine and inserting an advert for the new book on the back cover. Books one to five (Casino Royale up to From Russia with Love) were offered in the week beginning Monday 19 May 2008, but on the previous Saturday (17th) the promotion was introduced with the final book, Octopussy and, unlike all of the others, it was amended to make it a much shorter offering. The original, 2006, book had included Octopussy and the other short stories, The Living Daylights and Property of a Lady. The promotional copy, with appropriately amended cover, included Octopussy and 007 in New York Interestingly, I think this was the first time that 007 in New York had ever appeared in book form in the UK. The first UK edition of 'Quantum of Solace', which collected together all of the short stories in one volume was, according to Gilbert, published on 28 May 2008 (Flemings centenary), and so was 11 days after the promotional version. The Sunday Times had published it in a special magazine several years earlier, and it had been in book form in US for some time in US as it had been included in the 1960s US publication of Thrilling Cities. So, a surprising debut for the UK market. 

Whilst I have all of the 'original' Fahey paperbacks, the six promotional books are separately collectable in their own right. As of a couple of eBay deliveries last week, I have them all now.

The alternate covers of Octopussy - Times promotional on the left and original Fahey on the right.

The Times promo set (note with spare From Russia on left to show back cover with ad for new Faulks book).

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