 In 1981 writer John Gardner was approached by the Fleming estate and asked to write a continuation novel for Bond . Although he initially almost turned the series down , Gardner subsequently wrote fourteen original novels and two novelizations of the films between Licence Renewed in 1981 and COLD in 1996 . With the influence of the American publishers , Putnam 's , the Gardner novels showed an increase in the number of Americanisms used in the book , such as a waiter wearing " pants " , rather than trousers , in The Man from Barbarossa . James Harker , writing in The Guardian , considered that the Gardner books were " dogged by silliness " , giving examples of Scorpius , where much of the action is set in Chippenham , and Win , Lose or Die , where " Bond gets chummy with an unconvincing Maggie Thatcher " . Ill health forced Gardner to retire from writing the Bond novels in 1996 . 
