John Pearson was Fleming’s assistant at the Sunday Times and would go on to write James Bond: The Authorised Biography of 007.

John Pearson (b May 10, 1930) is a writer best associated with James Bond creator Ian Fleming. Pearson was Fleming’s assistant at the Sunday Times and would go on to write the first biography of Ian Fleming, 1966’s The Life of Ian Fleming. The Life of Ian Fleming was one of the first biographies done on Ian Fleming and is considered a collectible by many James Bond fans since Pearson would become the third official James Bond author. Pearson would also become the third official James Bond author of the adult-Bond series, writing in 1973 James Bond: The Authorised Biography of 007, a first-person biography of the fictional agent James Bond. Although the canonical nature of this book has been debated by Bond fans since it was published, it was officially authorised by Glidrose Publications, the official publisher of the James Bond chronicles. Glidrose reportedly considered commissioning Pearson to write a new series of Bond novels in the 1970s, but nothing came of this.

At end of the novel James Bond: The Authorised Biography of 007, as Bond leaves for another assignment (apparently contradicting the mandatory-retirement-at-45 regulation Fleming established in Moonraker), Pearson is invited to take over from Fleming and write future Bond adventures, much as Dr Watson wrote about Sherlock Holmes. In reality, Glidrose Publications actually considered having Pearson become the writer of a new series of Bond novels based upon the Watson-Holmes premise of this book, but, despite good reviews and sales, no follow-up novel was ever published.

See also:

• Bond novels: Post-Ian Fleming