Silverfin – simply good old entertainment?

Charlie Higson deserves credit for making Silverfin (2005) appealing to readers and Bond fans of all ages. Placed in 1933, this hero narrative where thirteen year young Bond saves the world in a straightforward heroic quest, is full of action and ingredients such as suspense, a bold villain, elaborate plans for world domination, technology, life and death situations, violence, capture and escape, supporting friends from different backgrounds, a monster with good intentions, a detective, a mad scientist/professor, a housekeeper, plenty of cliffhangers, and a classic plot ending, leaving me as a reader satisfied. Just as the books and the films with Adult Bond, first written during the cold war of the 1950s, Silverfin has a healthy dose of good humour and self distance. A Bond experience is to suspend your knowledge of the real world and go along for the ride. It is fiction, our hero is more than capable, even at this young age, and the reader knows he lives on in sequel books. The aim is to entertain, revive nostalgia of a lost time, sell books and make money.  

Higson’s Bond is a round character and a modern boy, who preferably eats multicultural food, speaks several languages, runs, swims and who learns to dive, drive and fish. His stamina stops him from giving up. His character gradually develops, as he turns tougher and challenges his abilities. But he also learns of the importance of his family (aunt, uncle, dead parents) and heritage. Dealing with uncle Max’s dying and death, he starts taking his footsteps to become a spy and work for MI6 and also to drive his Aston Martin. Though deprecatory and feeling intimidated by Wilder at first, he watches her from a distance and learns that her strengths is needed by him in his pursuit to destroy the lab. Getting out he doesn’t walk away, but returns and trusts George, who in spite of fear eventually takes side against his father. Red Kelly is a good guy though he has a background of stealing, so Bond realizes not to judge people by first impression or from their background. Most of the side characters are round characters with many qualities and many develop throughout the story.

Silverfin is full of intertextuality and is flirting vividly with the clichés of the genre and British Literature for Children and Youths. The most obvious flirtation is to Rowlings’s Harry Potter books. The initial setting in Eton with details of school life (the school year, the school itself, school activities, teachers,  lessons,  sport days) make/s that pretty inevitable. Later in the remote Scottish moors our hero is supported by Wilder and Red and form a literary trio (just as Harry has Hermione and Ron). But in the climax they stand back and instead George steps in (just as Harry has different helpers in the different books). Lord Hellebore (as Lord Voldemort) is the villain, who marks James with a scar. Not to mention the last chapter, there James wakes up in his bed after passing out and hardly survived saving the world. The voice in James’s head while diving out through the underwater tunnel, coming from the dying uncle Max (and not father as in Harry’s case), the eels (and the basilisk), the castle by a lake and its surrounding landscape, just as the importance of water and breathing under water are other resemblances.   

Planting seeds to future happenings Higson follows the Bond formula. In an interview he said he “tried all along to make them proper books, as engrossing and serious as any adult books. I wanted to create a quality product with a long shelf life. I wanted depth. I wanted to have the readers lose themselves in this world. I don’t patronise the kids and I try to put in as many Bondian elements as I am able without it becoming cheesy. … as much an adventure for the reader as it is for Bond … I have tried to follow Fleming’s rules as much as possible. Do proper research, create a convincing background, write about things you are passionate about, create a believable world with authentic detail and that gives you the leeway to go off into more fantastic areas without losing the reader”.  SilverFin begins with a similar opening to Casino Royale. Fleming writes "The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning". Higson writes "The smell and noise and confusion of a hallway full of schoolboys can be quite awful at twenty past seven in the morning". At the circus the announcer presents "The Mighty Donovan", who is Donovan "Red" Grant's father, referenced in From Russia, with Love. While hunting Lord Hellebore tells George he is a true Red Indian. This reference of Fleming's World War II experiences, also appears in Casino Royale.

The women in the story are few, but they are strong and independent characters with modern values. (Aunt Charmian drives an identical Bentley to one Bond drives in Casino Royale and in subsequent books). The US edition of the book was edited to remove descriptions that were considered too racy for young readers eg a description of  Wilder 's legs during a tussle with Bond. In aspect of gender students could write back the story and change gender of the hero, or find differences from the book of how women were regarded at the time and how it was changing even then. Teaching students how to think, instead of what to think.

In my opinion the class, gender and moral values of Eton are very much a cultural reproduction of what part of the British society stands for. Where else but Eton could Bond have attended school? After all "No other school can claim to have sent forth such a cohort of distinguished figures to make their mark on the world"(Nevill). Tony Little, the present Head Master of Eton College writes at their website “Our primary aim is to encourage each Etonian to be a self-confident, inquiring, tolerant, positive young man, a well-rounded character with an independent mind, an individual who respects the differences of others. By the time he leaves the school, we want each boy to have that true sense of self-worth which will enable him to stand up for himself and for a purpose greater than himself, and, in doing so, to be of value to society”. (retrieved 20121015).

I simply like clever good old entertainment! / Helena