William Boyd (writer) The book, "Solo", is set in 1969; it was published in the UK by Jonathan Cape in September 2013. Boyd used Bond creator Ian Fleming as a character in his novel "Any Human Heart". Fleming recruits the book's protagonist, Logan Mountstuart, to British Naval Intelligence during World War Two. Boyd has also worked with three of the actors who have portrayed Bond in the film series: Sean Connery, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig. Several collections of short stories by Boyd have been published, including "On the Yankee Station" (1981), "The Destiny of Nathalie 'X'" (1995), "Fascination" (2004) and "The Dreams
Solo (Boyd novel) establishing that Breed is trafficking heroin into the US. Boyd closely based his version of the Bond character on Ian Fleming's, and eschewed any of the film versions. The novel is set in 1969—six years after Fleming's last work was set—and Bond is 45 years old. Boyd was raised in Nigeria and used his experiences during the civil war to provide the location for the novel. He has been a Bond fan since his youth and, in preparation for writing the novel he read all the Bond stories in chronological order. It took 18 months to write the novel, with