Book brings back Pussy Galore

Honor Blackman captivated a generation when she played Bond girl Pussy Galore opposite Sean Connery in Goldfinger.

Bond girl resurrected when author sets Fleming continuation novel in 1957.

She captivated a generation in one of cinema's most memorable roles, a vision in gold swapping quips with James Bond. Now Pussy Galore, it appears, is back.

Bestselling author Anthony Horowitz has revealed the title and first details of his new James Bond continuation novel, which will mark the return of one of the franchise's best-loved Bond girls.

Trigger Mortis will return the spy to 1957, two weeks after the events of Goldfinger. It will feature Bond reunited with Pussy Galore, played in the film version by Honor Blackman. The British agent will find himself in the midst of the Soviet-American space race, in a plot centred on a "critical rocket launch".

The book will also introduce new characters including Bond girl Jeopardy Lane and Jai Seung Sin, described as "a sadistic, scheming Korean adversary hell-bent on vengeance". The Fleming family have already hailed the novel, saying it could have "come from Ian's own typewriter".

Horowitz is the latest contemporary novelist to be officially commissioned by the Fleming estate to write a continuation novel. He said he intended to "go back to the true Bond" with his own creation, after being given access to original material from Fleming's own notepad.

Publishers said: "Fleming's text sees Bond in the high-octane world of motor racing and it is his never-used plot that kicks off the action of Trigger Mortis."

The author, who has also written a Sherlock Holmes continuation novel, was given permission to study a script for Murder on Wheels, an episode of a television series that was never made. In the plot, James Bond is called into M's office for a mission to make sure that a Russian plot to sabotage Sir Stirling Moss is intercepted.

Horowitz, writer of the bestselling Alex Rider series, Midsomer Murders and Foyle's War, said: "It was always my intention to go back to the true Bond, which is to say, the Bond that Fleming created and it was a fantastic bonus having some original, unseen material from the master to launch my story.

Trigger Mortis will be released on September 8, which would have been Fleming's 107th birthday.

Lucy Fleming, his niece, said: "What a brilliant birthday present for Ian - Anthony has written a James Bond book with a nail-biting adventure that could have come from Ian's own typewriter."