Features

Edward Biddulph attends book launch at the London Library marking the 70th anniversary of Casino Royale. The London Library was the sumptuous setting for a double-O celebration of Ian Fleming and James Bond, organised by Ian Fleming Publications. The event was a double celebration, because, held on 13th April, it marked the 70th anniversary to […]

When Casino Royale was first published on 13th April 1953 no one could have predicted that James Bond would still be relevant 70 years later. Today marks the 70th anniversary of the publication of Casino Royale, the very first book in the James Bond series. Written by Ian Fleming – according to him to help […]

Robert J Binney weighs in on the controversy over updating Ian Fleming’s texts. At least they’re being talked about. Ian Fleming and Roald Dahl have both been in the headlines over cries of their material being “censored”; I don’t need to repeat the news. Despite the similarities of the stories, the issues – and the […]

A look at the third and final James Bond novel by Anthony Horowitz. By the time you read this review it may well be redundant. The publishers kindly sent me a review copy earlier in the year, but – thanks mainly, I suspect, to the Spanish postal service – it never arrived. They couriered a […]

Kathryn Smith returns to John Gardner’s continuation novels with Icebreaker. 

Kathryn Smith looks at John Gardner’s second James Bond novel. The first chapter in For Special Services is just two pages long and, much like Licence Renewed, the novel starts with planes, airports and flights. Air traffic controller Frank Kennen, and to some extent the reader, is thrown into the deep end with a worrying […]

Eoghan Lyng reviews a short collection of essays inspired by Ian Fleming. It feels both reductive and redundant to refer to this collation as timely, but in the eyes of many readers, that is how it will appear. Chasing the waves No Time To Die started, the book ponders the imponderable aspects of 007’s social […]

After reading all Ian Fleming’s 007 adventures in 2019 Kathryn Smith started 2020 by delving into Colonel Sun. As I delved into the first chapter of the first 007 continuation novel Kingsley Amis (writing as Robert Markham) begins by having Bond reflect on how he is has no major assignments and that his life has […]

In the last of this three part series Kathryn Smith shares her thoughts and impressions of Ian Fleming’s final 007 books. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service I really did enjoy this book and found that it was very close to the film adaptation. There were still a few things mentioned in the book that were […]

This latest edition of Bond vs Bond is reviewed by Eoghan Lyng. This Coronavirus is a bugger. It’s buggered up the workplace, the shopping trips, even the Bond series. In fifty years, no one has proven bigger or stronger than Bond. Then an invisible disease arrives to scurry the film into an undisclosed corner for […]