John Gardner was born in Northumbria. He graduated from St John’s College, Cambridge and did postgraduate study at Oxford.

John Edmund Gardner (b November 20, 1926) is an English spy novelist.

In 1981, Gardner was asked to revive Ian Fleming’s James Bond series of novels. Between 1981 and 1996, Gardner wrote sixteen James Bond novels. While the books were commercial successes, Gardner was ambivalent about writing novels with a character he hadn’t created. In 1996 Gardner officially retired from writing Bond novels. Glidrose Publications quickly chose Raymond Benson to continue the literary stories of James Bond.

In the late 1990’s, Gardner stopped writing for several years due to a prolonged battle with cancer and the death of his wife in 1997. Gardner recovered and returned to print in 2001 with a new novel, Day of Absolution, which was widely praised by critics. Gardner also began a series of books with a new character, Suzie Mountford, a 1930’s police detective.

Bond novels by John Gardner:

1. Licence Renewed (1981)
2. For Special Services (1982)
3. Icebreaker (1983)
4. Role of Honour (1984)
5. Nobody Lives For Ever (1986)
6. No Deals, Mr Bond (1987)
7. Scorpius (1988)
8. Win, Lose or Die (1989)
9. Licence to Kill (novelisation) (1989)
10. Brokenclaw (1990)
11. The Man from Barbarossa (1991)
12. Death is Forever (1992)
13. Never Send Flowers (1993)
14. SeaFire (1994)
15. GoldenEye (novelisation) (1995)
16. COLD (1996)

See also:

• Bond novels: Post-Ian Fleming