Editing Colonel Sun (section)

==Background and writing history==
[[File:Insel Agios Minas (Fourni).jpg|upright=1|thumb|alt=Greek islands, set in the Mediterranean|Amis drew upon a holiday in the Aegean islands to create a realistic Greek setting.]]
[[Ian Fleming]], the creator of James Bond, died on 12 August 1964, eight months before the publication of his twelfth and final novel, ''[[The Man with the Golden Gun (novel)|The Man with the Golden Gun]]''.{{sfn|Lycett|1996}}{{sfn|Black|2005|p=75}}{{efn|The books were ''[[Casino Royale (novel)|Casino Royale]]'' (1953), ''[[Live and Let Die (novel)|Live and Let Die]]'' (1954), ''[[Moonraker (novel)|Moonraker]]'' (1955), ''[[Diamonds Are Forever (novel)|Diamonds Are Forever]]'' (1956), ''[[From Russia, with Love (novel)|From Russia, with Love]]'' (1957), ''[[Dr. No (novel)|Dr. No]]'' (1958), ''[[Goldfinger (novel)|Goldfinger]]'' (1959), ''[[Thunderball (novel)|Thunderball]]'' (1961), ''[[The Spy Who Loved Me (novel)|The Spy Who Loved Me]]'' (1962), ''[[On Her Majesty's Secret Service (novel)|On Her Majesty's Secret Service]]'' (1963) and ''[[You Only Live Twice (novel)|You Only Live Twice]]'' (1964); the short story collection ''[[For Your Eyes Only (short story collection)|For Your Eyes Only]]'', was published in 1960.{{sfn|"Ian Fleming's James Bond Titles". Ian Fleming Publications}}}} After his death the Fleming-family-owned [[Ian Fleming Publications|Glidrose Productions]] (now Ian Fleming Publications) held [[Literary estate|the rights]] to his works and they decided to publish the short story collection ''[[Octopussy and The Living Daylights]]'' on 23 June 1966.{{sfn|Lycett|1996|p=445}}

Glidrose took legal advice and found the Bond character could not be copyrighted. They decided that to avoid the possibility of other people publishing works about Bond, they would commission a sequel to retain their rights in the Bond product.{{sfn|Black|2005|pp=181–182}}{{efn|In 1966 the Bulgarian writer [[Andrei Gulyashki]] wrote the novel ''[[Avakoum Zahov versus 07]]'', which involved a clash between Bond and Gulyashki's character, the detective Avakoum Zakhov. Glidrose took action and made him change the name of the British Spy and stopped him using the number 007, which Gulyashki changed to 07.{{sfn|Jens|2017|p=40}}{{sfn|Lycett|1996|p=445}}}} Initially they approached the author [[James Leasor]] to write a continuation novel, but he declined.{{sfn|"Obituary: James Leasor". ''The Times''}} Glidrose then commissioned the writer [[Kingsley Amis]].{{sfn|Benson|1988|p=31}} Fleming's widow, [[Ann Fleming|Ann]], did not endorse any further Bond works, which she saw as cashing in on his work. She disliked Amis and said:

<blockquote>Since the exploiters hope Colonel Sun will be the first of a new and successful series, they may find themselves exploited. Amis will slip 'Lucky Jim' into Bond's clothing, we shall have a ''[[Petite bourgeoisie|petit bourgeois]]'' [[Red brick university|red brick]] Bond, he will resent the authority of M, then the discipline of the Secret Service, and end as Philby Bond selling his country to Spectre.{{sfn|Lycett|1996|p=449}}</blockquote>

''[[The Sunday Telegraph]]'' asked her to review the novel, but her resulting criticism was so acerbic that it was never published as it was thought it could have been [[libel]]ous.{{sfn|Lycett|1996|p=449}}{{sfn|Laskowski|1998|p=20}}

Amis was known by Glidrose to be an aficionado of Fleming's novels. In 1964 Fleming's publishers, [[Jonathan Cape]], were concerned enough about the manuscript of ''The Man with the Golden Gun'' to ask Amis to read it and give his thoughts on whether it was viable for publishing. He was paid £35 15 [[Shilling (British coin)|shillings]] for his thoughts and advice, although his subsequent suggestions for alterations to the plot were not used.{{sfn|Lycett|1996|p=445}}{{efn|£35 15[[Shilling (British coin)|s]] in 1964 is approximately equivalent to £{{Inflation|UK|{{£sd|l=35|s=10|d=15|round=3}}|1964|cursign=£|r=-1}} in {{Inflation/year|UK}}, according to calculations based on the [[Consumer Price Index (United Kingdom)|Consumer Price Index]] measure of inflation.{{sfn|Clark|2023}}}} Cape had taken the step because they thought the novel was not up to Fleming's usual standard.{{sfn|Lycett|1996|p=445}} In 1965 Amis wrote ''[[The James Bond Dossier]]''—a critical analysis of the Bond books under his own name—and ''[[The Book of Bond]]'', a tongue-in-cheek manual for prospective agents, published using the pseudonym [[Bill Tanner|Lt.-Col. William ("Bill") Tanner]].{{sfn|Leader|2011}} The novelist [[Sally Beauman]] observed that it was "unusual, not to say unprecedented, for an established author to pick up the torch" in the way Amis did with the Bond novels, although she thought that "Bond [is] too big, and too profitable, a property to be placed in the hands of an unknown".{{sfn|Beauman|1968|p=60}}

When deciding where to set the novel, Amis considered several locations, but was persuaded on Greece after he was invited to join friends who summered there every year. He later explained his thought process:

<blockquote>Greece? Yes—Bond never been, I never been, sounds good, islands just right. Also, Eastern Mediterranean a sphere of Russian expansion, British interests there too. (This was September 1965.) But Russia versus Britain too old-hat. Then Red China versus Britain and also versus Russia. So Bond could team up with Russian agent. Female. Tough, like all Bond’s girls. And Red China as villain is both new to Bond and obvious in the right kind of way. And Chinese master-villain would be fun&nbsp;...{{sfn|Amis|1971|p=70}}</blockquote>

In May 1967 Amis wrote to his friend, the poet [[Philip Larkin]] and mentioned that he had finished writing the novel.{{sfn|Amis|2000|p=677}}{{sfn|Amis|2000|p=680}}

Glidrose decided to publish Amis's novel under the pseudonym [[Robert Markham]]. Fleming's brother, the writer [[Peter Fleming (writer)|Peter Fleming]], suggested the name "George Glidrose", but this was rejected and Markham chosen instead.{{sfn|Lycett|1996|p=445}} The initial thought was that the Markham name would be used for all future Bond novels, regardless of who the author was, but ''Colonel Sun'' was the only one published under the name.{{sfn|Simpson|2020|p=52}}

''Colonel Sun'' is set a year or so after the events depicted in ''The Man with the Golden Gun''.{{sfn|Simpson|2020|p=52}} Although Fleming did not date the events within his novels, John Griswold and [[Henry Chancellor (filmmaker)|Henry Chancellor]]—both of whom wrote books for Ian Fleming Publications—have identified an [[in-universe]] timeline: Chancellor put the events of ''The Man with the Golden Gun'' in 1963; Griswold is more precise and considers the story to have taken place between November 1963 and the end of February 1964.{{sfn|Griswold|2006|p=11}}{{sfn|Chancellor|2005|pp=98–99}}{{efn|Griswold and Chancellor identified their separate timelines based on episodes and situations within the [[List of James Bond novels and short stories|novel series]] as a whole.{{sfn|Griswold|2006|p=11}}{{sfn|Chancellor|2005|pp=98–99}}}}