tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-117416349695015821.post7162113005834872486..comments2023-09-28T10:47:50.691+01:00Comments on JAMES BOND MEMES: Almost a Bond novel: a review of Forever and a DeathComtessahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15045274806223412751noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-117416349695015821.post-2994746879336409602017-07-14T11:00:23.270+01:002017-07-14T11:00:23.270+01:00Hi Phil, Thanks for your comment. That's inter...Hi Phil, Thanks for your comment. That's interesting about the title. Fall of the City does make more sense, but I can see how Forever and a Death is more marketable. <br /><br />I remember reading your piece on the MI6 website. I was going to put a link to it, but didn't get round to it. Will update the post with the link asap. <br /><br />Glad you're becoming a fan of my blog. Hope you enjoy reading some of my previous posts. <br /><br />All the best, <br />Edward Edward Biddulphhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13958778222555710461noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-117416349695015821.post-56079654308878083092017-07-12T17:51:27.350+01:002017-07-12T17:51:27.350+01:00Edward: This is a great review, and your comment a...Edward: This is a great review, and your comment about the Richard Curtis name made me laugh (I was thinking the same thing while reading Forever and a Death).<br /><br />Morgan Pallifer is probably my favorite character in the novel – a wily and menacing s.o.b. in the classic Westlake/Richard Stark mode who unfortunately exits too soon.<br /><br />Forever and a Death was one of several titles that Westlake presented to Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson. My impression from reading the correspondence (I examined the Westlake collection at Boston University and wrote about the story treatments in MI6 Confidential #32) was that Westlake had been leaning more towards Dragonsteeth as a preferred title for the Bond film (Oddly enough, Michael Crichton’s third posthumous work, published last May, is called Dragon Teeth.)<br /><br />His original title for the novel, however, was Fall of the City. I’m assuming it was Charles Ardai, the owner of Hard Case Crime and editor of Westlake’s manuscript, who decided to use Forever and a Death, probably because it sounded more like a Bond film. <br /><br />The afterword is excellent, and there was a lot of information Kleeman provided that I was not privy to when I wrote my article in 2015. Since we covered different aspects of the story treatments, the afterword and article complement each other well. <br /><br />I wrote a short piece for the MI6 website in the form of an FAQ that gets into the similarities between the treatments and novel and includes a few bits of trivia I left out of the full print article (There is a mistake, however – Forever and a Death takes place a few years after the HK handover and not one year, as I wrote). Spoiler alert:<br /><br />https://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/articles/literary-forever-and-a-death-questions<br /><br />Thanks, Edward. I’m become quite a fan of your blog!<br /><br />-- Phil P.<br /><br />p.s. Sorry about the mess above. I wanted to make edits and could only do that by deleting the posts!<br />The Paperback Film Projectorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00694508172119980295noreply@blogger.com