Features

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 […]

Well it’s that time of year again and if you’re like me you have’t got a clue what to buy anyone. Here we take a look at James Bond Christmas gifts to suit all budgets. Looking for inspiration for Christmas gifts for a Bond fan? This article is for you. Or are you a Bond […]

Surprised at Goldfinger’s certification in Spain, I compared the ratings of all the James Bond films with those in Britain and the United States. Back in the summer the company that provides my internet, phone line and TV started showing the James Bond films. For a period of a few weeks most of the Bond […]

After being briefed by M on his new mission, James Bond briefly discusses his forthcoming assignment with Chief of Staff, Bill Tanner. Bond then invites him to lunch at Scotts’ for dressed crab and a pint of black velvet. After assuming the identify of diamond smuggler Peter Franks, Bond heads to New York on a BOAC Monarch […]

Friends 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 Fleming […]

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 […]