Features

A look at the career of Bond 25 screenwriter John Hodge. Born in 1964, John Hodge is a British screenwriter and dramatist best known for his big screen adaptation of the novel Trainspotting (1996) by Irvine Welsh. The film became a cult classic and as well as winning the 1995 BAFTA for Best Adapted Screenplay it was […]

A look at the career of Bond 25 director Danny Boyle. The son of Irish immigrants, Danny Boyle was born in Manchester in 1956. Realising from an early age that he wanted to make movies, Boyle abandoned his studies at the University of Wales to pursue theatre. Boyle cut his teeth on projects for organizations like […]

Anthony Horowitz discusses writing his second James Bond novel, Forever and a Day, available today. Earlier in the week we had the chance to quiz the Anthony Horowitz on his new book and find out a bit about what it takes to write a Bond novel. Among other things he told us how writing Bond […]

A look at the new James Bond novel by Anthony Horowitz. There was always a good chance Anthony Horowitz would be invited back for another stab at 007. Trigger Mortis was well received by critics and many fans considered it to be the best continuation novel in the series. Little surprise really, as Horowitz is […]

Today marks the anniversary of the birth Ian Fleming, the author who introduced the world to James Bond in Casino Royale and went on to write a total of fourteen James Bond books. Born in Mayfair on 28 May 1908, during the war Fleming excelled as assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence. In this capacity he […]

Edward Biddulph reports from the preview of a new exhibition at Bletchley Park. Hut 12 at Bletchley Park has become home to an exhibition that celebrates the literary James Bond through contemporary art and explores Ian Fleming’s connection with the centre of British World War Two codebreaking. I was present for a preview of the […]

Doctor No once again finds 007 in Jamaica. At the beginning of Doctor No James Bond has just been released from hospital. After nearly dying at the end of his previous mission, Bond’s doctor urges M to send him on an easy assignment. And it turns out that’s exactly what the head of the Secret Service […]

James Bond is sent by M to Jamaica to investigate the sudden disappearance of the local secret service man and his assistant. It’s not much of an assignment though. An investigation by local police has come to nothing and the view of the island’s Governor, with which M agrees, is that the pair have eloped. Before […]

A look at the locations in Ian Fleming’s fifth 007 novel. By the time we finally meet James Bond in From Russia, With Love he’s bored with “the soft life”. He’s at home at his flat off the King’s Road and dreading the thought of another day at headquarters as he finishes his breakfast. But […]

While James Bond is mentioned while Smersh hatches a plot to discredit the British Secret Service, it’s not until chapter 11 of From Russia, With Love that 007 is properly introduced. Waking in his flat off the King’s Road, Bond finds himself bored with the prospect of the day ahead. To try and throw off his […]