Author Profile: David Leigh

Sign up to receive all five issues of MI6 Confidential in 2017 and pay for just four.  Get 5 issues for the price of 4 when you pre-order MI6 Confidential MI6 Confidential is again offering readers the chance to snap up all five issues planned for 2017 for the price of four. The full colour magazine […]

Eon Productions’ co-producer Andrew Noakes visited Abu Dhabi last week in what is described as a showcase tour. Noakes joined producers from Disney and Universal Studios in a five day tour hosted by the Abu Dhabi Film Commission (ADFC). In recent years the Emirate has seen a number of big film projects, such as Star Wars: The […]

A look at what did and didn’t happen in the world of 007 during 2016, mainly focusing on Bond 25.

Issue number 38 of the full colour magazine dedicated to 007 is now available exclusively online. Bond girls are forever, but in the last two decades the 007 producers have shaken up the ‘Bond girl’ archetype significantly. Strong, independent and critical of Bond’s actions and motives are now the norm. But even this change hasn’t […]

A US website claims Barbara Broccoli produced Daniel Craig’s current stage run of Othello to entice him back for Bond 25. The article on Page Six, part of the NY Post network, quotes an unnamed source as saying Craig wants to “stretch his artistic muscles” and Broccoli did the play as a gift in order to […]

On Saturday BBC Radio 4 will broadcast a radio production of Thunderball, staring Toby Stephens as James Bond. Directed by Martin Jarvis, who also appears as Ian Fleming, and produced by Rosalind Ayres, the radio play will also feature Tom Conti as Largo, Alfred Molina as Blofeld and Janet Montgomery as Domino. Thunderball was Ian Fleming’s ninth James Bond […]

Anthony Horowitz spoke to the BBC this week about his second James Bond continuation novel, due out in 2018. Speaking on BBC Radio 5, Horowitz said he’ll write the book in 2017 and that he “sort of” has a plot, but no title. He also revealed he came up with a “killer” first line that […]

The cover artwork for Steve Cole’s next Young Bond novel was yesterday revealed by Ian Fleming publications on Twitter. Red Nemesis will be released on 4th May 2017 in hardback, paperback and ebook formats. According to the blurb on Amazon.co.uk: James is on home soil when he receives a package with a message from beyond the […]

Casino Royale is Ian Fleming’s first novel and the book that introduced James Bond to the world. In it Fleming  also introduced Bond’s taste for high living – and his vices – in a vivid writing style that led to accusations of “sex, sadism and snobbery”. Author: Ian Fleming Publication date: 13th April 1953 Publisher: Jonathan Cape […]

I just got back from a short visit to Lisbon in Portugal. I had a fantastic time there and although the trip was short and sweet, managed to get to see one location from On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

In the week of Casino Royale’s 10th anniversary we take a look at how the 21st Bond film came into being and the introduction of Daniel Craig as 007. After Die Another Day (2002) there can have been few who believed that Pierce Brosnan wouldn’t return for a fifth outing as 007. Today the film is […]

Hard as it is to believe, today marks the tenth anniversary of Casino Royale’s Leicester Square premiere. Here I revisit my experience of that day. The world premiere of any Bond film is a huge event. However, with a new actor playing 007 and a change in direction for the series, there was a huge […]

Earlier this week the Mexico Tourism Board announced its strategic marketing plans to deliver high growth in the UK market. Its efforts will focus on expanding connectivity; strengthening industry partnerships; developing tourism products and destinations; increasing special promotions, and consumer-targeting programmes. The UK is the third largest market for Mexico’s tourism industry, with over 475,000 […]

Your chance to try Vespers made to the original recipe with genuine Kina Lillet before sitting down to a screening of Casino Royale. Ian Fleming specified Kina Lillet in his first James Bond novel for the drink, and the same recipe was specified by Bond in the 2006 film version. The problem is that Kina Lillet […]

A collection of four posters featuring Sean Connery as 007 are to be auctioned later this month by Bonhams. The lot numbers for these posters are 819 (Dr No), 820 (Goldfinger), 821 (Thunderball) and 822 (From Russia With Love). The latter two are from Italy. Also up for auction are a Tom Ford suit worn […]

Ian Fleming joins Ernest Hemingway, JRR Tolkien, F Scott Fitzgerald and James Joyce as the five twentieth century authors whose first editions are most expensive. Casino Royale lies fourth in that list, after Joyce’s Ulysses ($460,500), Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby ($300,000), Tolkien’s The Hobbit ($210,500) and ahead of Hemingway’s In Our Time ($25,000). Remember though that […]

A house owned by a close friend of Ian Fleming has gone on sale for $2.9 million.  Above: Andrew Lycett’s biography of Ian Fleming Fleming knew Ivar Bryce from his schooldays and Bryce and his wife, heiress Josephine Hartford, bought the colonial style mansion on Long Island in 1936. Like Fleming, Bryce worked in intelligence during the […]

The latest edition of MI6 Confidential is now available. Click here to order the latest issue, or get five issues for the price of four. Designer Peter Lamont followed in some giant footsteps. Ken Adam had applied a heavy, but lavish and breathtaking, hand to the look of the early Bond films. Taking over in an era […]

This week we take a look at some of the items in the collection of Sirvent, Francesc Sirvent. When and how did you first get bitten by the Bond bug? When I saw From Russia With Love in a local cinema and years later, the extravaganza Moonraker. What’s your favourite item in your collection and […]

Last Friday Daniel Craig was interviewed onstage at the New Yorker Festival. In this segment posted on the New Yorker’s YouTube channel, Craig explains how he landed the role of James Bond back in 2005.