Author to condense 12 James Bond novels into 140 character tweets
the author and comedian Charlie Higson is planning to turn 12 of Ian Fleming’s original bond novels into 140 character tweets. Higson provided the London Metro newspaper with two tasters of his tweets, which attempt to encapsulate both the short story and film versions of “Quantum of Solace”:
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- The short story: Host at dinner party in Nassau tells Bond that the boring couple were actually involved in a scandal. No car chase, no guns, no explosions
- The film: There’s a car chase, I think, a villain, I think, something about an opera & water supply. Posh hotel in desert blows up. Bring on Skyfall
This task might seem impossible to some — the whole project took two weeks, despite only being 1680 characters long — but it certainly couldn’t have gone to a more appropriate person. Charlie Higson — who is well known in Britain for his sketch show, “The Fast Show” — is a die-hard Bond fan and has written the hugely succesful “Young Bond” series, which documents the spy’s early days at the notoriously well-to-do Eton School.
It’s not just fans like himself, however, that Higson is hoping his tweets appeal to. Speaking to the London Metro, he said: “I was asked to capture the essence of the books and tie them up and make them entertaining for someone who hadn’t read them… Also to put in stuff that the real Bond nuts can relate to.”
