Scenes from the launch event for Jeffery Deaver's Bond book courtesy of Hodder & Stoughton on YouTube.

With an entire festival now passed, it seems a long time since our preview event in January for Jeffery Deaver's James Bond book Carte Blanche, known up to then simply as Project X. In typical Bond fashion, yesterday saw a spectacular launch event in London, with Royal Marines descending from the roof of St. Pancras Station to present Jeff with copies of the novel's UK edition, published by Hodder & Stoughton. Meanwhile, although the American edition doesn't come on sale until June 14^th, US publishers Simon & Schuster have been kind enough to preview the book's opening pages on their Scribd page.

The book is now on sale in the UAE, and anyone who pre-ordered their copy from Magrudy's during the event can now go and collect their copy. Magrudy's are also running a competition over at their site to win a copy of Carte Blanche along with all of Ian Fleming's original Bond series.

Carte Blanche is also June's featured book for the Emirates Litfest Reading Group: on Wednesday June 15^th at 7:30-9pm, Becky Kilsby and the rest of the group will meet in the Author's Suite at the InterContinental Hotel, Dubai Festival City to discuss Jeffery Deaver's take on the Bond franchise. If you want to join the discussion in person or on Facebook, email frgdubai@groups.facebook.c om.