Author Profile: David Leigh

Knightsbridge auction house Bonhams is to run a sale of entertainment memorabilia on December 18th that includes a number of lots related to James Bond. Of particular interest to many collectors will be the original screenplays for Thunderball written by Jack Whittingham, the rights of which Danjaq/MGM has recently obtained from the heirs of Kevin […]

ITV has signed a deal with MGM, rumoured to be for three years, that will see the entire James Bond series return to its original UK broadcaster. Last year Sky Movies caused a stir when it struck a one year deal for the rights to all the films, including Skyfall, which it aired on a […]

After half a century of legal wrangling and bad blood, it was announced yesterday that the rights to Thunderball, which were in the hands of the relatives of Kevin McClory since his death in 2006, will revert to MGM and Danjaq. The announcement was made in a press release: Los Angeles, CA (November 15, 2013) […]

One thing that disappointed me in Skyfall was the absence of the James Bond theme at the start of the film and I think we can safely say it’s not going to return there any time soon now the precedent has been set. But to me it makes no sense having it at the end of the […]

Solo author William Boyd recently spoke to John Mullan for The Guardian’s book podcast, available to download from iTunes. The podcast includes a reading from the latest James Bond novel, as well as how he went about writing the book, Ian Fleming and how he had to ignore the films. Download Podcast from iTunes

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Bond producers Michael G Wilson and Barbara Broccoli are to be awarded by the Producers Guild of America according to a story posted in Variety. The pair are to receive the David O. Selznick Achievement Award in Motion Pictures at a ceremony at the Beverly Hills Hilton in January. Source: Variety

Over the summer several newsletter subscribers got in touch to let me know what they were doing over the summer. One of those was Laurent-Jean Gacher, who shared a number of great photos of 007 related locations in Switzerland and Italy. Piz Gloria Greeted by George Lazenby at Piz Gloria   Piz Gloria’s Bond World […]

Jon Gilbert of Adrian Harrington Rare Books has been awarded the 16th ILAB Breslauer Prize for Bibliography for his Bibliography of Ian Fleming published last year. The prize is awarded every four years by the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers, with this year’s prize being presented next April at the 41st Congress of the International […]

This isn’t really news; Ralph Fiennes has confirmed he’ll be returning as M in Bond 24, saying he is “looking forward to it very much”, according to an article in Metro quoting Yahoo Movies (which I’ve been unable to source). The Metro piece then goes on to trot out the normal tabloid nonsense about Bond […]

The buyer of the submarine Lotus Esprit used in the filming of The Spy Who Lived Me that was auctioned last month for £550,000 has been revealed to be Elon Musk, who is behind Tesla and SpaceX. The car turned up in a storage locker and after being authenticated as the original vehicle seen on […]

A first edition copy of Dr No, which was handed into an Oxfam shop earlier in the year, has sold for £600 at auction. The book was in good condition and of the six Bond books on sale at the auction, by Bloomsbury, fetched the largest amount. Two copies of Goldfinger also went under the […]

Following the first week’s disappointing sales, William Boyd’s new James Bond novel has dropped out of the UK’s top ten new publications and sits in 22nd place, according to MI6. This must question whether Ian Fleming Publication’s can afford to continue with their policy of hiring big name authors to pen further continuation novels. Household […]

Fifty years ago today saw the world premiere of From Russia With Love at the Odeon Leicester Square. With a few notable differences, including the substitution of SPECTRE for SMERSH, the film closely followed Ian Fleming’s novel and following on from Dr No, a year earlier, was eagerly awaited by audiences hungry for 007. From […]

Ian Fleming Publications has this morning announced a new series of Young Bond novels, to be written by Steve Cole. The series will consist of fout books and be published by Random House starting Autumn 2014. The books will continue the life of a young James Bond from where Charlie Higson’s series of five books left […]

Today sees the publication of Solo in the United States, not quite two weeks after its debut in the UK. Written by William Boyd, the book is published in the US by Harper and available in both hardback and Kindle versions from Amazon. Solo is set in 1969 and introduces 007 as he celebrates his […]

All the John Gardner Bond books are now available as a bundle for Kindle. The bundle includes all fourteen of his 007 novels as well as the novelisations of Goldeneye and Licence To Kill. If you want to read most of his first James Bond novel for free then you can select Send Sample Now […]

Six gold coloured Corgi Aston Martins that were recently unearthed in their original packing were sold at auction for £5,500. The cars should have been sold in the 1960s following the release of Goldfinger, but instead the salesman hung into them. The are wrapped together in cellophane, the fact of them being in an unopened […]

Vintage Classics and Bentley have combined forced to release a special limited edition version of Casino Royale to celebrate the book’s 60th anniversary. The edition includes a foreword written by British motor racing legend Sir Stirling Moss, features hand bound beluga leather with hand stitched embroidery and are illustrated by Damian Gascoigne. There is also […]

The publication of Solo last week managed to get plenty of press coverage, but figures released by trade publication The Bookseller show that the 8,692 copies of Solo sold in its first week were 48 percent down on the previous Bond novel, Jeffrey Deaver’s Carte Blanche (2011). However, that is still a personal best for William […]