JAMES Bond investigating a plot to pollute one of Europe’s biggest rivers leads the secret agent to Fenland to search for clues in March in the new 007 novel.

In Carte Blanche Bond starts in Serbia and prevents an environmental catastrophe which leads him to Cambridgeshire where he teams up with another special agent.

Set within a week in May, Bond races to save thousands of lives and ends up facing his enemy and gets trapped in a fictitious army building outside Manea.

John Tully, who lives in March, was told about Bond’s Fenland adventure by a friend and couldn’t believe that the Fenland town had been chosen as a location.

He said: “It’s amazing our town has been selected, you normally get really exotic locations in other countries so I was shocked when I found out.”

Jeffery Deaver is the fifth author to write a James Bond book since Sir Ian Fleming died in 1964, after Sebastian Faulk’s Devil May Care which was published in 2008.

The author’s father served in the Second World War and was stationed in East Anglia. Mr Deaver came to the eastern region last year to visit Cambridge and Fenland to research possible avenues for 007 to explore.

Mr Deaver, who is best known for Kathryn Dance and Lincoln Rhyme novels, said: “When first approached by Ian Fleming’s estate and the publishing company that oversees his work to ask if I’d be interested in writing the next book in the series, I can’t describe the thrill I felt.

“I was about eight or nine when I picked up my first Bond novel. I was allowed to read every Bond book my father brought home or that I could afford with my allowance.

“I felt Fleming’s influence early. My first narrative fiction, written when I was 11, was based on Bond. It was about a spy who stole a top-secret aircraft from the Russians. The agent was American but had a British connection, having been stationed, like my father, in East Anglia during WWII.”

Mr Tully said: “It would be great if they produce a film for the new book and set it here. It would be a big boost to the economy and the community.

“It would put the town on the map and make residents proud of where they live.”

COMMANDER James Bond is a fictional MI6 agent created by Ian Fleming in 1952.

Jeffery Deaver was given copies of the book from four Royal Marines in St Pancras abseiling from the roof before locking them in a safe before releasing the book the next day.

Ian Fleming would have been 103 on May 28.

The 23rd film is currently being produced with Daniel Craig playing 007.

James Bond films have made more than $11.5billion at the box office.

Jeffery Deaver is the second American to write a 007 novel.

WE are offering the opportunity to win one of two copies of the latest Bond novel.

To be in with a chance to win a copy of Carte Blanche answer this question:

What was the name of the last James Bond Novel?

To enter, send your answer on a postcard including your name, address and daytime contact number to James Bond Competition, 51 High Street, March, PE15 9JJ. Alternatively, e-mail gavin.caney@archant.co.uk

Closing date is Friday July 22. The winners will be the first two answers drawn at random from all correct entries.

Archant competition rules apply.