John Gardner

John Gardner was one of the highly reputed authors from The United Kingdom, who liked to write crime fiction, mystery, and thriller novels. He is particularly well known for taking over the Jame Bond series after the death of its creator, Ian Fleming. He made numerous contributions to the series and is considered as the prolific author among all those who have worked on this series. Prior to the beginning of his writing career, author Gardner worked for the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines. Gardner retired from writing the series of James Bond novels in 1996 when Raymond Benson replaced him as the successor. Author Gardner was born on November 20, 1926, in Seaton, Delaval, Northumberland; and died on August 3, 2007, in Basingstoke, Hampshire. He was born as John Edmund Gardner. Other than the James Bond books, Gardner was also famous for writing his original series called Boysie Oakes. Gardner has also written three novels that feature Sir Conan Doyle’s popular fictional character named Professor Moriarty. Following his career in Royal Marines, he worked for some time as Anglican priest. Later, he left it after losing faith. Gardner suffered from alcohol addiction, but recovered soon and then wrote his autobiography in 1964. It is called as Spin the Bottle. Over the course of his writing career, author Gardner wrote more than 50 fiction novels, 14 of which were original Bond books and 2 were the novel versions of a couple of movies featuring the character. Gardner’s parents were involved in church works all their life. This is the reason why he too was influenced to get involved in the Anglican church. In 1933, his family shifted from the village to a market town called Wantage. At the time of the World War II, Gardner became a part of Home Guard, even though he was just 13 years old. Subsequently, he joined Air Arm of the Royal Navy and was transferred as a commando in the Far East. Gardner did not think of himself as a good commando.