Features

Before 007 appeared on the big screen Ian Fleming was involved in an aborted series for US television. When the project fell through many of the stories were reworked by Fleming  and published in the collection For Your Eyes Only.  At the beginning of last month Ian Fleming Publications announced a new James Bond novel to be written […]

Can you imagine that soon after watching your first James Bond film you learnt your grandfather worked for Eon Productions? That’s exactly what happened to Mark O’Connell, who relates his story in Catching Bullets, reviewed here. Published back in 2012 in the lead up to Skyfall, I’d been meaning to get a copy of Catching Bullets by Mark […]

We all know that James Bond will return. After all, we’ve been told as much by 23 movies. 007 originated in 1953’s novel Casino Royale and has been off and on the page ever since. For the most part, one adventure followed another and Bond slowly aged throughout the series. After 2002’s The Man With […]

A secret agent? You wouldn’t think so from some of the films, when Bond’s name and reputation appear to be widely known. So, just how did 007 become the world’s most famous secret agent? The first chapter of Casino Royale is titled The Secret Agent and, in introducing the world to James Bond, Ian Fleming explains the […]

In the novel On Her Majesty’s Secret Service we get to share Christmas Day with 007 after his narrow escape from Piz Gloria. He visits M’s house to report on Blofeld’s activities and is served roast turkey, plum pudding, a small  glass of old Marsala and most of a bottle of a bad Algerian wine that M […]

Recently I was looking for information on 007’s cars from John Gardner’s books and was surprised to find that a definitive list doesn’t appear to exist. While the Saab 900 Turbo is well known from this era, it is a long way from being the only car Bond drives and the “Silver Beast” itself only […]

A look at the most recent release of the James Bond audio books. These days, with a large proportion of people owning smartphones and tablet computers, the choices for consuming content is much more varied. Yes, we can read the James Bond novels and short stories in book form, but they are also available for […]

One of the best loved characters from the James Bond films is Miss Moneypenny, whose first flirtatious encounter with 007 we see in Dr No after being called in for a briefing by M during a night on the town. From then on she became a fixture of every Bond film until Die Another Day […]

One of my favourite and most frequently used culinary insights from the James Bond books is the recipe for scrambled eggs from 007 in New York, originally from the US edition of Fleming’s collection of travel writing, Thrilling Cities. Author of the new Bond book Solo, William Boyd, writes his book having been inspired by the […]

William Boyd’s explanation of his decision to give Bond’s age as 45 in 1969 has prompted me to write up some thoughts on the tricky subject of Bond’s age. Boyd offers his contention that as You Only Live Twice was the last Bond novel published in his lifetime, Fleming’s statement, via M’s premature obituary, that Bond […]