I did read Colonel Sun (1968) and James Bond: The Authorized Biography (1973), but those were before even John Gardner.
I loved Kingsly Amis’ “Colonel Sun.” He was the first author who tried to capture Ian Fleming’s “voice.” Always wondered why they never made it into a film, as the plot’s pretty good. I’ll always remember John Pearson’s Bond “biography. I read it and his Fleming biography and saw “Live and Let Die” in 1973. It was the first Bond movie I saw on my own when I was 13.
Have you read THE SPY WHO LOVED ME the novel? It is written from a point of view of a French-Canadian woman...James Bond deals with two thugs who try to kill her...