David Oyelowo to narrate Bond audiobook

David Oyelowo between the UK and US covers of Anthony Horowitz's novel

David Oyelowo has been lined up to narrate the audio version of Anthony Horowitz's new James Bond novel.

"I am officially the only person on planet Earth who can legitimately say 'I am the new James Bond'," he said.

Horowitz, whose novel Trigger Mortis is published on 8 September, said it was "an honour to have an actor as talented as David to read my take on Bond".

Oyelowo starred in BBC spy drama Spooks and played Martin Luther King in Selma.

The 39-year-old said it had been "really special" to be "specifically" offered the job by the Ian Fleming estate.

"Even saying" James Bond's name, he went on, was "the cinematic equivalent of doing the 'To be or not to be' speech" from Shakespeare's Hamlet.

Horowitz said the actor - who was born in Oxford and is of Nigerian descent - had "a brilliant voice and talent for bringing out the nuances of dialogue and characters".

Horowitz is the author of the Alex Rider series of young adult spy novels

Trigger Mortis will see Bond reunited with old flame Pussy Galore in an adventure that begins two weeks after the end of Fleming's 1959 novel Goldfinger.

The book is set against the backdrop of the Soviet-American space race and begins with a motor racing scene Fleming created for an unmade James Bond TV series.

Contrary to some reports and Horowitz's own Twitter feed, Oyelowo is not the first black actor to be recruited to narrate a James Bond audiobook.

A recent "classic" collection of audiobooks saw Casualty star Hugh Quarshie narrate Dr No, one of Fleming's original 007 novels.