James Leasor and the James Bond Continuation Authorship in the 1960s?

Fascinated to come across this post.  I am one of James Leasor's sons and have been republishing his books, initially as e-books but now also as paperbacks (www.jamesleasor.com).  My father's view was that it would have been wrong to try to follow Ian Fleming - he was not a supporter of continuation authorship! He felt that once an author was dead, no-one should try to replace him/her, or equally to try to profit from what a reputation that had been established by someone else's ideas and efforts.

Yes, thank you very much to sleasor for clarifying his father's reasoning for rejecting the Bond continuation authorship in the 1960s. Your father James Leasor sounded like a very principled man when it came to other authors' characters.

I've been wondering for over a year about all of this, buying up all of the Dr Jason Love novels as I went along, and I'm now very glad that I finally started this thread! It has went beyond my wildest imagining by having Mr Leasor's son contribute to it!   

Thank you so much again, and please do stay with us and I'm sure that your continued input would be greatly valued by the literary Bond fans of AJB.

Last edited by Silhouette Man (29th Apr 2017 20:52)

Then, I'd like to ask if your father was pleased at the casting of David Niven as Jason Love? Niven has always been one of my own favourite actors, and of course was Ian Fleming's own choice for the part of James Bond (although I'm sure both Fleming and Niven would have preferred that to have been in a different film from when it did happen!).
By coincidence (I think), Niven also starred in another film taken from a James Leasor book, "The Sea Wolves" alongside Roger Moore- I'd forgotten earlier that I did read that book "Boarding Party".

I think that I am right in saying that they are all standalones, just like the Fleming Bond novels.

Lovely to see James Leasor appear at the premiere for The Sea Wolves (1980), the film based on his book Boarding Party (1978):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5rgBu9iwFQ

This is truly great news that I also read a little about on Twitter where George Lazenby has an account. Terence Stamp is also involved in the project and he was once considered for the Bond film role himself. It's certainly nice to see George Lazenby back in action and playing a secret agent again. Earlier this year I finally watched the film version of James Leasor's first Dr Jason Love novel, Passport to Oblivion (1964), which was filmed as Where the Spies Are (1966) starring David Niven in the lead role. So, interestingly, that now makes it two Bond lead actors who have played the character!

Yes, I'm looking forward to this coming out and will certainly be purchasing a copy of it when it does. I've read on the official Twitter account that James Leasor's Dr Jason Love novels are being reprinted again too which is even more excellent news! 

https://www.thejamesbonddossier.com/con … livion.htm

I quite enjoyed it! I would definitely recommend giving it a listen when it comes out on 29 November!