Features

Supporting cast M Although the head of the Secret Service appears in the first two James Bond novels, Moonraker is the first time the reader encounters him outside his office. Bond joins him for dinner at his private member’s club, Blades,  prior to partnering him against Sir Hugo Drax at bridge. As the result Ian […]

Uniquely among the James Bond novels, the action of Moonraker takes place exclusively in Britain. At the beginning of Moonraker, M invites Bond to Blades, his private club. As the best card player in the service Bond is asked by his chief to help sort out a problem with another member in a personal capacity. Sir […]

After the success of The James Bond Bedside Companion, American author and Bond fan Raymond Benson was appointed by Glidrose to lead the literary 007 into the late 1990s. At the time, the book Bond and the cinematic Bond seemed to merge universes, as a female M was introduced in GoldenEye and Admiral Sir Miles […]

Bentley In Moonraker Fleming gives more information about James Bond’s 1930 4½-litre supercharged Bentley coupé, “which he kept expertly tuned so that he could do a hundred when he wanted to”. Later in the book though it is destroyed by several tons of newsprint from the back of a lorry. After beating Drax at Blades, […]

It was one hot Saturday afternoon in August 1975 when I got my first taste of James Bond on the big screen. The Man With The Golden Gun had been released in December the previous year, but this was my first opportunity to see it. Hard as it is to imagine today, it took months […]

British writer John Gardner wasn’t new to the world of James Bond in 1989, when Timothy Dalton’s second film as agent 007, Licence to Kill, was released.   By that time, the former Royal Marine commando and writer was firmly established as the man who resurrected Ian Fleming’s spy for the 1980s. After Ian Fleming’s […]

Welcome to the world of the James Bond films novelizations. The trend for turning films or TV series into novels started during the second half of the 20th century. It was the era prior to the home video boom and a way to experience the film at home. This technique is still continued in many franchises […]

Author: Ian Fleming Publication date: 5th April 1954 Publisher: Jonathan Cape Cover artist: Kenneth Lewis Contents What we say Brands Locations Food & drink Friends & foes Buy online 1954 saw the publication of Live And Let Die, set in the US and Fleming’s second home of Jamaica. Full of imagination, it saw a change of pace from […]

Guest writer Nicolás Suszczyk revisits SPECTRE and looks at the relationship between 007 and a rebooted Blofeld. More than a year has passed since SPECTRE, the latest James Bond film, was released. To many people it was fantastic; tough to some others it was rather disappointing. Bond fans didn’t reach the consensus of – let’s […]

A look at the best books on James Bond published from the 1960s right up to the modern day. Over the years many books covering a variety of aspects of the James Bond phenomenon have been published. Over the years I’ve gradually added many of these to my library, some paid for with my own […]