Books News

A number of love letters written by Ian Fleming to his Austrian lover in the early 1930s will be auctioned next week in New York. The letters were written in German to Edith Morpurgo, the daughter of a Salzberg businessman. Fleming went to Kitzbuhel both on holiday as well as attending a finishing school and […]

Sam Peffer, who provided the artwork for many Pan paperback editions of the James Bond novels, has recently died at the age of 92. He created pulp fiction style covers for the novels after taking over the job in 1957, although moved to film posters after the work for paperback covers dried up. You can […]

  Ian Fleming Publications has today unveiled the cover artwork for the forthcoming paperback editions of Solo, by William Boyd. The UK edition is published by Random House on 8th May 2014, with the US and Canadian edition by HarperCollins hitting bookshelves on 3rd June. You can pre-order the Solo paperback from Amazon UK or Amazon.com. IFP says […]

Ian Fleming Publications last week unveiled a smart new logo comprising of the signature of James Bond’s creator and a “Doctor Bird”, Jamaica’s national bird. There are numerous links to the bird, also known as the Streamer-tailed Huming Bird; all the Bond books were written at Goldeneye in Jamaica; 007 was named after the ornithologist who […]

Several reviewers have commented on the amount James Bond drinks in Solo, the latest 007 novel, and author William Boyd has recalled in interviews how heavy drinking was part of daily life in those days. Back then drinking and driving still wasn’t taboo and a couple of martinis were part of a normal lunch for […]

Syd Cain died in 2011 after more than half a century in the film industry and remains one of the most acclaimed production designers and art directors in British cinema history. Cain published his autobiography in 2002, “Not Forgetting James Bond”, in which he talked about his time in the film business, with behind the […]

I was recently asked to respond to a series of questions by fellow Bond website Artistic License Renewed, which focuses on literary Bond, with a particular interest in the covers by Richard Chopping. The questionnaire consisted of just five questions including my favourite Chopping cover, first editions, and my favourite Bond novel, which you can read […]

Solo, the new James Bond novel by William Boyd, has been nominated for two book awards, according to an article on MI6. The book has been nominated for the ‘Specsavers Popular Fiction Book of the Year’, which goes to a British author of successful adult fiction, and ‘Audible.co.uk Audiobook of the Year’ for an unabridged […]

Solo author William Boyd recently spoke to John Mullan for The Guardian’s book podcast, available to download from iTunes. The podcast includes a reading from the latest James Bond novel, as well as how he went about writing the book, Ian Fleming and how he had to ignore the films. Download Podcast from iTunes

Jon Gilbert of Adrian Harrington Rare Books has been awarded the 16th ILAB Breslauer Prize for Bibliography for his Bibliography of Ian Fleming published last year. The prize is awarded every four years by the International League of Antiquarian Booksellers, with this year’s prize being presented next April at the 41st Congress of the International […]