LONDON: The latest James Bond novel, penned to coincide with what would have been his creator Ian Fleming's 100th birthday, went on sale on Wednesday, with fans queuing overnight to secure the first copies.

Scores of people waited in line outside the Waterstone's bookstore in Piccadilly, central London, where 200 signed and numbered luxury editions of "Devil May Care" went on sale for 100 pounds (126 euros, US$198) each.

The suave British super-spy's 15th adventure in print was written in Fleming's sparse style by Sebastian Faulks, the novelist famous for his trilogy "Birdsong", "The Girl at the Lion D'Or" and "Charlotte Gray".

Steve Norris, a 39-year-old housing manager from east London, began queuing at 4:00 pm on Tuesday and was first in line, saying he had to be there because he had been a Bond fan "ever since I can remember".

He received a round of applause from others in the queue after buying copy number seven (007) as theme tunes from the Bond film franchise filled the store, which opened early to accommodate the queues.

Jo James, Waterstone's events and local marketing manager, said they were excited about selling the book.

"We were expecting people to arrive early but we weren't expecting people to arrive overnight," she added.

Internet bookstore amazon.co.uk said the book has already shot to the top of its chart and was its biggest fiction pre-order of the year.

The first handful of copies went from the printers under military escort down the River Thames to Waterstone's on Tuesday, under the watchful eye of the Royal Navy, helicopters and Tuuli Shipster, the model on the jacket cover.

Faulks and members of the Fleming family received the books on board the warship HMS Exeter with the final stage of the journey undertaken in a fleet of Bentley cars.

Details of the plot have been kept a closely-guarded secret but Faulks has so far revealed the action takes place at the height of the Cold War in 1967 and takes Bond to Paris, Rome and the Middle East.

He also goes for the first time to Iran, the author told a news conference in central London on Wednesday, and comes up against a power-crazed drug baron, Dr Julius Gorner, who has begun producing heroin on a large-scale.

Publicity material for the book said Gorner - whose gloved left hand conceals a monkey's paw - "is possibly the biggest threat the (secret) service has ever encountered".

Faulks told reporters he wrote the book in six weeks, imitating Fleming's "crisp, clean journalistic style" and describing his depiction of Bond as "an affectionate homage to the character".

"You want to imitate somebody's style but you don't want to parody it. I made it clear it's a 'jeu d'esprit': it's Sebastian Faulks writing as Ian Fleming," he added.

"In comparison with films, Bond's character is much more vulnerable, he doesn't rely on all that gadgetry." - AFP/de