James Bond: The Authorized Biography of 007 introduced to a retired James Bond — who is in his fifties, yet healthy, sun-tanned, and married to Honeychile Ryder, the heroine of "Dr. No". Most of "James Bond: The Authorized Biography of 007" is Bond telling his life story, including school and first MI6 missions, referring to most every novel and short story and, briefly, to "Colonel Sun", the Robert Markham series-continuation novel. At conclusion, as Bond rushes to another mission (contrary to mandatory retirement), John Pearson is invited to assume Ian Fleming's scribal duties, like Dr. Watson assumed with Sherlock Holmes. Out of print since the 1990s, a
James Bond: The Authorized Biography of 007 reprinting of the book was released in 2008. The reprint shortens the book's title to "James Bond: The Authorised Biography". The novel's canonical status as biography is debatable. Some fans consider it canon with Ian Fleming's James Bond novel series, while other aficionados consider it apocryphal. Elements of the biography are contradicted by "official" Bond fiction, notably Charlie Higson's Young Bond series, which suggests that James Bond was born in Switzerland, as opposed to Pearson's suggestion that Bond was born in Wattenscheid, Germany. Unlike the later Bond novels by John Gardner and Raymond Benson, which are not of (although still