003½: The Adventures of James Bond Junior is a 1967 James Bond spin-off novel carrying the Glidrose Productions copyright. It was first published in the United Kingdom by the Jonathan Cape publishing company in 1967 and later in 1968 in the United States by Random House. The novel was written under the pseudonym RD Mascott; the real name of the author to this day has never been officially revealed by the current owners of the Ian Fleming Estate or EON Productions (Danjaq), who owns the screen rights to the novel.

Although the novel is based around a character who is the nephew of James Bond, in Ian Fleming’s own novels Bond in fact was an only child and indeed an orphan, however, unknown to agent 007 he does have a son as told in You Only Live Twice.

003½: The Adventures of James Bond Junior is considered a failed attempt at launching a youth-oriented line of fiction aimed at 8-14 year olds. A moderately successful television series by the same name was launched in 1991, produced by EON Productions / Danjaq. The success of the show spawned numerous novelisations, a video game, and comic books. Unrelated to 003½, Ian Fleming Publications began publishing a successful youth-oriented line of Young Bond adventures featuring James Bond as a teenager in the 1930s beginning in 2005. Although an officially licenced spin-off from the James Bond series, its place within the canon of the books—if any—has never been established.

The author: To this day it has never been confirmed who wrote 003½: The Adventures of James Bond Junior, although many authors have been named as possibilities such as Roald Dahl and Kingsley Amis. The claim about Amis is usually seen as completely bogus since a year later he released Colonel Sun under the pseudonym Robert Markham, however, unlike RD Mascott, Amis’s authoring of Colonel Sun was never a secret. Amis’s writing style is also not similar to Mascott. Roald Dahl on the other hand does share some similarities specifically with one book he wrote in 1975, Danny, the Champion of the World. Coincidentally, in 1967, Dahl completed the screenplay for You Only Live Twice for EON Productions, the same year 003½: The Adventures of James Bond Junior was published. Although there is evidence to suggest Dahl may have written 003½, there is equally as much evidence to suggest he didn’t.

One author recently been identified as a possibility is Arthur Calder-Marshall who wrote a number of similar books especially in style and his descriptions of characters and environments in his books The Magic of My Youth (1951) and The Scarlet Boy (1961). It has also been suggested that the initials RD are a play on the name Arthur, which is typically shortened to Artie. Other writers that have been named as possibilities but tend to be rejected, include Peter Fleming (Ian’s brother) and Nichol Fleming (Peter Fleming’s son and Ian’s nephew).

See also:

• Bond-related fiction