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To celebrate the release
of CARTE BLANCHE, the new James Bond book by Jeffery Deaver, on 26 May
2011, publisher Hodder & Stoughton has partnered with Bentley Motors to
create an exclusive Bentley special edition: the ultimate luxury edition
of the highly anticipated new James Bond adventure. The 500 limited
edition copies are available for pre-order from Tuesday 26 April
2011, exactly a month before publication date. Huge worldwide demand is
anticipated for this new special edition after Bentley’s collaborative
bespoke book for the previous Bond novel,
DEVIL MAY CARE by Sebastian Faulks, sold out within days.
Ian Fleming always admired the stately beauty of the Bentley and, as a
result, James Bond owned three Bentleys over the course of the 14 original
Bond novels. In CARTE BLANCHE, award-winning thriller writer Jeffery
Deaver reunites Bond with this classic marque. In this contemporary
adventure, the agent will be behind the wheel of the beautifully sculpted
and sophisticated new Bentley Continental GT.
The design team at Bentley worked closely with Hodder & Stoughton to
capture the spirit of Bond and Bentley. A team of seven designers
submitted proposals for the edition and the final design came from Bentley
Senior Designer Brett Boydell. He comments: “As a designer it doesn’t get
much better than a brief of CARTE BLANCHE! The design features radical
concepts that we feel reflect the name of the book, the ideas inherent in
the Bond legacy, and the design principles we are passionate about.”
This special edition links the legendary hero with the iconic automobile
in the most spectacular way. Each copy of the special edition is
custom-produced to Bentley’s exacting standards and arrives inside a
stunning metal case. The result is a striking and unique collector’s item.
The special edition is strictly limited to 500 copies worldwide at a price
of £1,000 each. They will be available to pre-order worldwide through
www.007carteblanchebentley.com. The editions will be delivered after
publication date.
The Design:
The case of the Bentley special edition is inspired by the deserts of
Dubai – one of the exotic locations Bond finds himself in within the new
novel – and the new Bentley Continental GT, Bond’s car of choice in the
book.
Like the exterior of the GT, the case is made from polished aluminum,
giving it a seamless and aerodynamic shape. More sculpture than car, it
evokes the GT’s signature outline, its metal skin making it look like the
car has risen from the desert sand. To ensure the finished case meets
Bentley’s renowned standards of quality, an automotive supplier was
employed to create the case to automotive standards using a specially
commissioned machine.
In deference to the title
CARTE BLANCHE; the book itself is bound in white Nappa leather, the same
outstanding grade of leather used in a Bentley’s interior, mimicking the
interior of the GT with its contrast of white leather trim and Pillar Box
red edging. The title, author’s name and the familiar wings of the Bentley
logo are carefully embossed into the front and foil-blocked onto the
spine. The text is printed in two colours, black and red, on sumptuous
ivory paper, with endpapers of a matching red leather. The pages are
expertly cut and trimmed to reflect the handcrafted techniques of the
Bentley construction process. As with the other details of the special
edition, the colours are carefully selected from the Bentley range. The
book sits on a base of black anodised aluminium, chosen not to mark the
white leather.
In one last twist, playing on the idea of an agent being given Carte
Blanche, is one of the most dramatic features of the design: a die-cut
bullet hole that pierces pages of the book. Hidden within the pages is a
single polished 9mm bullet, individually marked with a number distinct to
each copy, making the edition truly unique.
Brett Boydell adds: “Bond destroys as well as he creates and saves. It was
this element I needed to convey in my design. The reader has the
excitement of finding the bullet housed in the centre of the pages with
the text positioned so that the reading experience is undisturbed. I hope
they find the book as exciting to hold and look at as the unfolding drama
itself.”
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