In 1956, Ian Fleming hired literary agent Peter Janson-Smith to handle the foreign translation rights in the James Bond novels. He was the literary consultant and chairman of Ian Fleming Publications until 2001.

Ian Fleming Publications is the production company formerly known as both Glidrose Productions Limited and Glidrose Publications Limited, named after its founders John Gliddon and Norman Rose. In 1952, author Ian Fleming bought it after completing his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale; he assigned most of his rights in Casino Royale, and the works which followed it, to Glidrose.

In 1956, Ian Fleming hired literary agent Peter Janson-Smith to handle the foreign translation rights in the James Bond novels. He was the literary consultant and chairman of Ian Fleming Publications until 2001. Today, Ian Fleming Publications administers all of Ian Fleming’s literary oeuvre and is owned by Fleming’s family.

After Fleming’s death, in 1964, Glidrose Productions Ltd planned a continuation series of James Bond books, to be written by a rotating series of authors, under the pseudonym Robert Markham. In 1968, the first continuation novel published was Colonel Sun, by Kingsley Amis, afterwards the Robert Markham book series was cancelled. A few years later, Glidrose published James Bond: The Authorised Biography of 007 by John Pearson and considered having Pearson write a continuation series of Bond novels, but no further books resulted. In 1977 and again in 1979, Glidrose authorised Christopher Wood to write novelisations of his scripts for the Bond films The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker since the filmed stories deviated drastically from the original Fleming novels of the same titles (indeed, Fleming had instructed Glidrose to only sell the film rights to the title of The Spy Who Loved Me, rendering the film by necessity an original story).

In 1981, the James Bond book series was revived, with new novels written by John Gardner. In 1996, John Gardner retired from writing Bond books, and Raymond Benson quickly replaced him. Benson is the first American to write James Bond novels, a fact that was initially controversial. It was during Benson’s tenure that the company changed names from Glidrose Productions Ltd to Ian Fleming Publications; the publisher’s new name appeared first in High Time to Kill (1999). In turn, Benson retired from writing Bond books in 2002. Since then Ian Fleming Publications has started a new series of Bond books, however, this time based on a young teenage James Bond in the 1930s. The series, written by Charlie Higson, is planned out for five novels and has been dubbed Young Bond.

In 2005, Ian Fleming Publications launched another series of Bond-related books entitled The Moneypenny Diaries by Samantha Weinberg under the pseudonym Kate Westbrook. IFP initially denied any connection with the books, but this was later revealed to be part of a publicity stunt for the release of the first book, Guardian Angel.

Confirming reports that a new adult Bond novel would likely be published in 2008 as a one-off by an unknown author to commemorate what would have been Ian Fleming’s 100th birthday, Ian Fleming Publications announced on July 11, 2007 that popular novelist Sebastian Faulks had written the rumoured book, to be entitled Devil May Care.

See also: