Raymond Benson
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Raymond Benson (Born September 6, 1955) is an American author best known for being the most recent author of the official James Bond novels. Benson was born in Texas and graduated from Permian High School in 1973. In primary school Benson took an interest in the piano which would later in his life develop into an interesting in composing music. Benson also took part in drama at school and became the Vice President of his high school's drama department an interest that he would later pursue by directing stage productions. His other interests extended to films and books and designing computer games. In 2004 Benson announced that he had written the first book based on the acclaimed video game Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell. Splinter Cell is credited to the pseudonym, David Michaels.
Benson was introduced to James Bond at the age of nine when he first saw Goldfinger. Like most people he immediately fell in love with the spy series. Another film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, prompted him to want to become a film director.
James Bond works
In 1996, John Gardner resigned from writing Bond books causing Ian Fleming Publications to promptly choose Benson to replace him.
- Blast from the Past (short story, 1997)
- The Facts of Death (1998)
- High Time to Kill (1999)
- Midsummer Night's Doom (short story, 1999)
- Live at Five (short story, 1999)
- Doubleshot (2000)
- Never Dream of Dying (2001)
- The Man with the Red Tattoo (2002)
Benson also wrote three novelizations from screenplays
- Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
- The World is Not Enough (1999)
- Die Another Day (2002)
Benson resigned from writing Bond books in 2002, even though he had stated his intention to complete a short story collection. In April 2004, Ian Fleming Publications announced a new series of James Bond books was on its way. Instead of picking up where Raymond Benson left off, however, this new series of books would be about a 13 year old Bond, aiming at the "Harry Potter audience". The new novels will be written by Charlie Higson.
Benson is also the author of the non-fiction The James Bond Bedside Companion and contributed to the creation of the popular James Bond 007 role-playing game in the 1980s.
