What do these two authors have in common? As well as being bestselling and award-winning writers they are also official authors of brand-new books set in the world of the one and only James Bond.
King Zero is the new blockbusting 007 thriller that sees the world’s greatest secret agent sent on a mission that takes him around the globe on the hunt for a mysterious villain known as ‘King Zero’. Following his groundbreaking series of Young Bond books and his Coronation novella, On His Majesty’s Secret Service, King Zero is Charlie Higson’s first full-length James Bond novel for adults. The Man with the Golden Compass is the second book in Vaseem Khan’s Q Mysteries series. The first, Quantum of Menace, was published in 2025 and saw MI6’s top gadget man forced out of his job and back in his childhood hometown, drawn into a perplexing mystery that only he could solve. Widely acclaimed, Quantum of Menace was shortlisted for numerous awards including the prestigious Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. The Man with the Golden Compass sees Q faced with an even stranger, even more deadly puzzle to solve, with links to the wider world of James Bond.
These two authors will discuss their different takes on 007, their personal history with the franchise and what it feels like to put their unique stamp on Ian Fleming’s famous creation.
Charlie Higson started writing when he was ten years old. After university he was a singer and painter and decorator before he started writing for television. He went on to create and star in the hugely successful comedy series The Fast Show. He is the author of the bestselling Young Bond books and the incredibly successful horror series, The Enemy, as well as five adult crime thrillers.
Vaseem Khan is the author of two award-winning crime series set in India, the Baby Ganesh Agency series set in modern Mumbai, and the Malabar House historical crime novels set in 1950s Bombay. His first book, The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra, was selected by the Sunday Times as one of the 40 best crime novels published 2015-2020, and is translated into 17 languages. The second in the series one a Shamus Award in the US. In 2021, Midnight at Malabar House won the Crime Writers Association Historical Dagger and was shortlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. Vaseem was born in England, but spent a decade working in India. In 2006, he returned to the UK and joined University College London’s Department of Security and Crime Science, where he has helped manage the Dawes Centre for Future Crime. In 2023, Vaseem was elected the first non-white Chair of the 70-year-old UK Crime Writers Association.
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