EXTRACTS: The Modesty Blaise Companion Expanded Edition © 2018 The Book Palace (425 PAGES in Full edition)

E X P A N D E D E D I T I O N THE MODESTY BLAISE COMPANION 2018 In the fifteen years since the first publication of The Modesty Blaise Companion a number of events have occurred that need to be recorded in this reprint. The most important of these was the death of Peter O’Donnell in May 2010 after losing his battle with Parkinson’s disease. For a man who had spent a lifetime telling stories on a typewriter – he claimed his handwriting was terrible – the loss of the ability to either type or write was devastating. Typically, he fought as long as he could. Modesty had been retired from The Evening Standard in April 2001 after a run of thirty eight years but when Titan Books announced their intention of reprinting all ninety five stories Peter was there to help. Starting in 2004 In “The Gabriel Set-Up” he contributed a superb introductory article and three story introductions. An interview and three more introductions followed in the second in the series, “Mister Sun” . His contributions continued, mainly in the form of story introductions, for the next fourteen books, ending with the final story in “The Scarlet Maiden” published in September 2009, just eight months before his death. With Peter’s approval I was privileged to be able to take up the role of introduction writer. From book number seventeen, “Death in Slow Motion” I did my best not to let both Peter and Modesty fans down and for the next four years and seven more books wrote the introductions for twenty five stories. The departure of the editor who had supervised the books for many years and had worked closely with both Peter and myself brought about change. New people have new ways, Peter had died and my input was no longer required. Titan went on to complete the final six books in the series with no further contributions from me. The thirty volumes that make up this series are a magnificent tribute to a wonderful writer and it is difficult to imagine a more fitting memorial to both the real man and the fictional characters he created. Titan number nineteen, “The Double Agent” published in April 2011, contained a tribute to Peter and my own contribution to this is reproduced here. One of the world’s oldest professions is that of storyteller and it has been my amazing good fortune to have known one of the most remarkable of them all. To say that he was quite good at spinning a yarn would be, as Willie Garvin might say, an absurd litotes. For three quarters of a century he wrote story after story after story, in beautiful English, with wit, humour and erudition and never failed to both entrance and entertain. Over the last twenty years we spoke on the telephone on average about once every ten days. We talked of homely and family things, perhaps a bit of business about Blaise, the news, the world in general, what we were both up to and what might be going on and these conversations are now among my fondest memories of the man. Peter created a character called Modesty and for me the name is more than appropriate as modesty was one of the most endearing facets of his personality. Despite our regular conversations, on those occasions when I wasn’t at home he would still leave me messages like: “This is Peter. Peter O’Donnnell in case there are many of them.” There was only ever one Peter O’Donnell and my wife Mary and I were privileged in that he called us his friends. Lawrence Blackmore T H E M O D E S T Y B L A I S E C O M P A N III