Next James Bond mission due in September

William Boyd also wrote Any Human Heart

A new James Bond novel will be released in September, written by Booker Prize nominee William Boyd, the estate of Ian Fleming has announced.

The title is being kept under wraps, but publishers Jonathan Cape say the book will feature a slightly older 007, in keeping with the latest film.

Boyd has also said his 1960s-set story will mark a return to "classic Bond".

He is the third author in recent years to be invited by the Ian Fleming estate to write an official Bond novel.

Before him came American thriller writer Jeffery Deaver, who penned Carte Blanche in 2011; and Sebastian Faulks, whose Devil May Care was published to mark Ian Fleming's centenary in 2008.

Boyd said he had "accepted at once" when offered the chance to take on the famous spy franchise.

His previous novels include A Good Man in Africa (1981), which won the Whitbread First Novel Award; An Ice-Cream War (1982), shortlisted for Booker Prize; Brazzaville Beach (1990); Any Human Heart (2002) and Restless (2006).

His Bond book is due on 26 September, which could turn out to be this year's "Super Thursday", when more than 200 new hardbacks reach the shelves in anticipation of the Christmas market.

The publication also comes in the 60th anniversary year of Ian Fleming's Casino Royale, the first novel in the series.