Pussy Galore is returning in the new James Bond novel

Pussy Galore back between the covers? I must be dreaming…

The iconic Bond Girl has been resurrected by author Anthony Horowitz, who says that the Goldfinger star will be reunited with 007 in a new novel.

Whatever happened to her?

Last time we saw Pussy she was being rescued by the heroic Bond, who helped her parachute to safety from an out-of-control jet with seconds to spare before it crashed into the ocean.

Thanks for the spoiler

You’ve had over half a century to get up to speed – the film was released in 1964. It was based on Ian Fleming’s novel, published in 1959.

Any intelligence on the new release?

Entitled Trigger Mortis, the story begins two weeks after the end of the original novel, Horowitz has revealed. As well as Ms Galore, played in the film by Honor Blackman, the secret agent will also rub shoulders with another Bond Girl – Jeopardy Lane – and a sadistic Korean villain called Jai Seung Sin.

Would Fleming give it his seal of approval?

The author died in 1964 but the book is based in part on an original Fleming idea which was written for a TV show that was never made. Horowitz’s novel was commissioned by Fleming’s estate and his niece Lucy described it as “a James Bond book with a nail-biting adventure that could have come from Ian’s own typewriter”.

So it stays true to his original vision?

It looks like the suave spy is in safe hands. “It was always my intention to go back to the true Bond… that Fleming created and it was a fantastic bonus having some original, unseen material from the master to launch my story,” said Horowitz, who follows in the footsteps of Kingsley Amis, William Boyd and Sebastian Faulks who have written post-Fleming Bond books.

Horowitz must feel like the cat that got the cream.

“I’m delighted that Pussy Galore is back,” he enthused. “It was great fun revisiting the most famous Bond Girl of all. I hope fans enjoy it.”

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