John Pearson is a writer best associated with James Bond

James Bond

James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...

 creator Ian Fleming

Ian Fleming

Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British author, journalist and Naval Intelligence Officer.Fleming is best known for creating the fictional British spy James Bond and for a series of twelve novels and nine short stories about the character, one of the biggest-selling series of fictional books of...

.

Pearson was Fleming's assistant at the London Sunday Times and would go on to write the first biography of Ian Fleming, 1966

1966 in literature

The year 1966 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*February 14 - Dissident writers Yuli Daniel and Andrei Sinyavsky are sentenced to hard labour for "anti-Soviet activity"....

's The Life of Ian Fleming

The Life of Ian Fleming

The Life of Ian fleming is a biography of Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond and author of the children’s book Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The biography was written by John Pearson, Fleming’s assistant at the London Sunday Times, in 1966. Pearson later wrote the official, fictional-biography...

.

Pearson was commissioned by Donald Campbell

Donald Campbell

Donald Malcolm Campbell, CBE was a British speed record breaker who broke eight world speed records in the 1950s and 1960s...

 to chronicle his successful attempt on the Land Speed Record

Land speed record

The land speed record is the highest speed achieved by a wheeled vehicle on land. There is no single body for validation and regulation; in practice the Category C flying start regulations are used, officiated by regional or national organizations under the auspices of the Fédération...

 in 1964 in Bluebird CN7, resulting in the book Bluebird and the Dead Lake

Pearson would also become the third official James Bond author of the adult-Bond series, writing in 1973

1973 in literature

The year 1973 in literature involved several significant events and the writing of many notable books.-Events:*September 25 - The funeral of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda becomes a focus for protests against the new government of Augusto Pinochet...

 James Bond: The Authorised Biography of 007

James Bond: The Authorised Biography of 007

James Bond: The Authorised Biography of 007 , by John Pearson, is a fictional biography of James Bond; Pearson also wrote the biography The Life of Ian Fleming ....

, a first-person biography of the fictional agent

Fictional character

A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...

 James Bond. Although the canonical

Canon (fiction)

In the context of a work of fiction, the term canon denotes the material accepted as "official" in a fictional universe's fan base. It is often contrasted with, or used as the basis for, works of fan fiction, which are not considered canonical...

 nature of this book has been debated by Bond fans since it was published, it was officially authorised by Glidrose Publications

Ian Fleming Publications

Ian Fleming Publications is the production company formerly known as both Glidrose Productions Limited and Glidrose Publications Limited, named after its founders John Gliddon and Norman Rose...

, the official publisher of the James Bond chronicles. Glidrose reportedly considered commissioning Pearson to write a new series of Bond novels in the 1970s, but nothing came of this.

Pearson also wrote "true-crime" biography, such as The Profession of Violence: an East End gang story about the rise and fall of the Kray twins

Kray twins

Reginald "Reggie" Kray and his twin brother Ronald "Ronnie" Kray were the foremost perpetrators of organised crime in London's East End during the 1950s and 1960s...

. He also wrote the non-fiction book, The Gamblers, an account about the group of gamblers who made up, what was known as the Clermont Set

Clermont Set

The Clermont Set was an exclusive group of rich British gamblers who met at the Clermont Club at 44 Berkeley Square, in London's fashionable Mayfair district now located at 27-28 Curzon Street and called Aspinall's. It was the first London casino opened by John Aspinall after he won the gaming...

, which included John Aspinall

John Aspinall

John Aspinall may refer to:* John Aspinall , zoo owner and gambler* John Aspinall , engineer* John Thomas Walshman Aspinall , English Conservative Party politician, Member of Parliament for Clitheroe 1853...

, James Goldsmith

James Goldsmith

Sir James Michael "Jimmy" Goldsmith was an Anglo-French billionaire financier and tycoon. Towards the end of his life, he became a magazine publisher and a politician. In 1994, he was elected to represent France as a Member of the European Parliament and he subsequently founded the short-lived...

 and Lord Lucan

Richard Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan

Richard John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan , popularly known as Lord Lucan, as Lord Bingham before 1964, and sometimes colloquially called "Lucky" Lucan, was a British peer, who disappeared in the early hours of 8 November 1974, following the murder of Sandra Rivett, his children's nanny, the previous...

. The film rights to the book were purchased by Warner Bros.

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

 in 2006. It was currently adapted by William Monahan

William Monahan

William J. Monahan is an American screenwriter and novelist. His second produced screenplay was The Departed, a film which earned him a WGA award and an Academy award for Best Adapted Screenplay.-Writer and editor:...

.

He also wrote Façades, the first full-scale biography of the literary Sitwell siblings, Edith

Edith Sitwell

Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell DBE was a British poet and critic.-Background:Edith Sitwell was born in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, the oldest child and only daughter of Sir George Sitwell, 4th Baronet, of Renishaw Hall; he was an expert on genealogy and landscaping...

, Osbert

Osbert Sitwell

Sir Francis Osbert Sacheverell Sitwell, 5th Baronet, was an English writer. His elder sister was Dame Edith Louisa Sitwell and his younger brother was Sir Sacheverell Sitwell; like them he devoted his life to art and literature....

 and Sacheverell

Sacheverell Sitwell

Sir Sacheverell Sitwell, 6th Baronet CH was an English writer, best known as an art critic and writer on architecture, particularly the baroque. He was the younger brother of Dame Edith Sitwell and Sir Osbert Sitwell....

, published in 1978.

Pearson has also written five novels:

• Gone To Timbuctoo (1962) - winner of the Author's Club First Novel Award
  Author's Club First Novel Award
  Authors' Club Best First Novel Award is awarded by the Authors' Club to the most promising first novel of the year, written by a British author and published in the UK during the calendar year preceding the year in which the award is presented....
  
  
• James Bond: The Authorised Biography of 007 (1973)
• The Bellamy Saga (1976)
• Biggles: The Authorized Biography (1978)
• The Kindness of Dr. Avicenna (1982).