Talk:John Gardner (British writer)

Nicely done
Nicely done, MK!Hayford Peirce 21:15, 28 Jun 2004 (UTC)

Article title
I'm far from crazy about the article title, and would change it to John Gardner (Bond author) if the text didn't make it clear the author would be uncomfortable with that designation. But his preference is not relevant; what is relevant is whether he has succeeded in making at least as much of a name for himself in his non-Bond writing. I I don't know whether i'm typical or not. I'm sure the author or the article is not typical, and unless there are people who could not have written the article but find "(creator of Boysie Oakes)" a useful means of dab, it's a bad title. I assume the editor chose to append a dab qualifier to the Brit rather than the Yank bcz of the Brit's lesser serious-author rep. I'm not sure whether the Yank's serious rep is greater than the Brit's pop-culture (Bond) one. Might John Gardner (Grendel) be the best means of dab? --Jerzy(t) 13:09, 2004 Sep 16 (UTC)
 * have never heard of "Boysie Oakes" or his post-Bond character,
 * respond to "John Gardner" with "there's a Grendel one and a James Bond one; are they two people?", and
 * might be able to come up with "Gardner" when asked "who else writes Bond novels?"


 * Well, I dunno who or what Grendel is, so that certainly would be useless for me as an article heading. I'm vaguely aware of the fact that Gardner wrote some Bond books but (once again, for me) that was a distinct step down.  When I first wrote this article I was just trying to get some way of directing the reader to the Boysie Oakes creator.  I didn't know much about WP tricks at the time and today I might have done it differently.  Since I used to be a BO fan, and still at least own all the books, I'd prefer that things remain as they are.  But if, as you say, the casual reader only knows him as a Bond writer, I suppose I can't argue too much about it, like Doyle wanting to be listed for his books about psychic research, mebbe.  Just as long as there are adequate links to Boysie and his creator.... Hayford Peirce 15:39, 16 Sep 2004 (UTC)

Gosh, i managed to be obscure, i think. The answer is "Yes, they are different people"; hence in the reference to Grendel, i was trying to imply the possibility of the Brit becoming just John Gardner, and the Yank becoming  John Gardner (Grendel), since he is the author of Grendel, a novel retelling Beowulf from the PoV of the monster. I don't claim, either, to be an average reader; i don't think Gardner's Grendel is that widely read (i.e., my doing so probably makes me odd), and i had frequent occasion for a while to walk past a display of Gardner's Bond tales (i.e., paying atttention in doing so probably makes me odd). In any case, i'm not looking for any quick resolution, but rather just wanted to get the question down where others could put in their oar as appropriate. Tnx --Jerzy(t) 07:42, 2004 Sep 17 (UTC)


 * Oh, okay, now I gotcha. I think what you propose is perfect.  When I added the (creator of BO) to the John Gardner entry it was just a way of distinguishing them and I couldn't think of any other way to do so.  Now it's a situation of creating a new article, I think, or maybe two of them, and moving the original contents of the two old article into them, them setting up Redirects, and then maybe asking that the original articles be deleted.  Or so I would imagine.  Is this correct?  If so, I will be happy to let you do it, hehe.... Best, Hayford Peirce 15:35, 17 Sep 2004 (UTC)


 * Sticking my oar in -- I really don't like John Gardner (creator of Boysie Oakes) as a dab, and I wouldn't be much happier with John Gardner (James Bond author) or similar; what about something more generic, like John Gardner (thriller writer)? --Paul A 02:12, 5 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * That would be fine by me. As I said above, I think, when I started this article I didn't know much about how to deal with WP subtleties.  Today I would have probably done it differently.  Since Gardner is obviously more than just a B.O. or Bond writer calling him a thriller writer would be fine.  But I leave it to someone else to do the fix-ups and redirects etc.... Hayford Peirce 04:14, 5 Oct 2004 (UTC)
 * Done. --Paul A 01:52, 6 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Looks to me as if you've done a great job on the switcheroo and all the links! It's definitely an improvement....
 * I wish that the "fair use" definition is so unclear -- I'd love to scan a B.O. cover or part thereof and stick it in as an illustration, but I get different interpretations from different sycops here.... Hayford Peirce 05:16, 6 Oct 2004 (UTC)

What year Fleming estate hired Gardner
This is a contentious point. The Orion 2011 edition of Licence Renewed says on the back flap that Glidrose hired Gardner in 1981. This clearly isn't so. In a piece Gardner himself wrote he says 1980: ''In 1980, while I was living in Ireland I received a challenge out of the blue. Would I be prepared to write a James Bond continuation novel? Glidrose, the literary copyright holders in Ian Fleming approached me...''. Elsewhere Gardner narrows it down to Autumn 1980: In the Autumn of 1980.... This is demonstrably untrue. In October 1980, Gardner gave a syndicated interview printed in newspapers worldwide. He said that he had already finished writing the book (Meltdown). Gardner has consistently said over the years that he was approached in the autumn. If true – and he hasn't confused autumn and spring, then it must have been autumn 1979. I do remember interviews he gave in 1981 to the London Times – no link unfortunately – where he said the Fleming estate approached him in 1979. There is also this link, though I concede it's not a reliable source on its own: ''In 1979, Gardner, living in Ireland, received a letter from well-known crime reviewer and author HRF Keating, asking him if he would be interested in picking up where Ian Fleming had left off and continuing with the James Bond series. Supplying Glidrose with four narrative outlines, one was chosen. More reliable is the Twentieth-Century Crime and Mystery Writers'' ed. Lesley Henderson. Chicago and London: St. James Press. 1991 (third edition); it says on p.418, In 1979 Gardner was chosen from a secret short-list of six to continue Ian Fleming's James Bond saga[.] --Fanthrillers (talk) 00:29, 22 June 2012 (UTC)
 * That's fine: as long as we have a firm reference for it, then all is good. I 'm going to have a look over this for a day or so and then maybe see if it'll pass through a GA process. It's a little thin, but there isn't a huge amount of information on him - I'll see if I can squeeze anything out of the obits which may add a little more colour to him. - SchroCat ( ^  •  @ ) 08:35, 22 June 2012 (UTC)

External links modified
Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on John Gardner (British writer). Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20101227071253/http://www.ianfleming.com/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=176 to http://www.ianfleming.com/pages/content/index.asp?PageID=176

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

Cheers.— InternetArchiveBot  (Report bug) 20:01, 24 April 2017 (UTC)

'Casually driven' (better phrase needed)
He collapsed while shopping in Basingstoke; he was later casually driven to hospital, where he died.

Not only does it need a citation, which has already been called for, but it needs stating in better English. To me (British English) 'casually driven' suggests he was taken to hospital in a way not recommended by medical advice, or that he was taken in a sloppily crewed ambulance.Cloptonson (talk) 20:08, 9 April 2021 (UTC)