Whitstable Literary Festival will this year focus on Ian Fleming and his Kent connections, as well as thrilling contemporary spy stories and tales of real life espionage from Guy Burgess to Bletchley Park. The highlight of WhitLit 2016 will be a special Ian Fleming evening on Friday 13th May with his biographers Andrew Lycett and Matthew Parker as well as Fleming’s step-daughter, Fionn […]

Today we learnt of the sad news that Guy Hamilton, who directed Goldfinger and three other James Bond films, died yesterday at the age of 93. Hamilton was born in Paris on 16 September 1922, where his English parents were living. His first exposure to the film industry came in 1938 when he was the clapper […]

I was sad to read Raymond Benson’s Facebook post that Ian Fleming’s literary agent, Peter Janson-Smith, has died at the age of 93. Janson-Smith became Fleming’s literary agent in 1956 and was tasked with the foreign translation rights of the James Bond books. As well as acting as agent to Fleming, Janson-Smith also represented thriller […]

After the iconic beach scene from Dr No, perhaps no other image conjures up visions of James Bond more than a casino. For Ian Fleming, however, the order would probably be reversed.  The first words of the Bond world, we must remember, came on this date, 1953, in Casino Royale: “The scent and smoke and […]

Today BAFTA announced that Barbara Broccoli has been appointed Vice President for Film. Following the recent appointment of Greg Dyke as BAFTA’s Vice President for Television, Barbara Broccoli will join Dyke in co-chairing BAFTA’s Council, supporting the Academy’s President, HRH The Duke of Cambridge, and assuming an ambassadorial role for the charity. Previous Vice Presidents […]