It is our honour to welcome in from the cold, Ian Fleming’s nephew James Fleming. James’ Russian Blood trilogy of “Cold Blood”, “White Blood” and “Rising Blood” features the Scottish/Russian character Charlie Doig and we caught up with him about this, his stewardship of The Book Collector and naturally, his Uncle Ian. 001 Could you…
The potency of James Bond novel literature is so strong, that many people have blurred the lines in their imagination between fictional and real life spies. A former naval intelligence man himself, Ian Fleming was able to draw from a rich seam of fellow members of the intelligence community. Here is a roll call of…
Article by David Salter Although his notoriety, today, stems entirely from his creation of Britain’s foremost literary spy, Ian Fleming was, essentially and first-and-foremost, a journalist. It was his skill in reportage, honed in his early years during a period with Reuters and polished in his forties as Foreign Manager at the Sunday Times, that…
You know you are going up in the world when you score an interview with the talented Mr. (Mike) Ripley. His non-fiction reader’s history Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, a survey of the boom in British thrillers 1953-1975 was published in May 2017 and we caught up with Mike in-between book signings to find out more. 001.…
By Matthew Chernov Like the iconic character he created, Ian Fleming has been depicted on screen many times over the years. In 2014, Dominic Cooper was cast in the title role of the BBC miniseries “Fleming,” and just last year Sean Maguire played the author in an episode of the NBC science-fiction show “Timeless.” Others…
Article by Matthew Bellamy On May 25th, 1951, Guy Burgess arrived at the house of Donald Maclean. The two Foreign Office diplomats packed a few bags and boarded the Falaise, a pleasure boat headed to Saint-Malo. Though Burgess shouted “Back on Monday!” to one of the dockworkers as he boarded the boat, neither man would…
First published in 2012 and having rapidly sold out, this award-winning bibliography is available once more! We caught up with the man behind this exquisite book, Jon Gilbert. What can readers expect from this new re-print of the bibliography? The 2017 edition includes occasional new material and there are numerous textual revisions throughout. It is…
KISS KISS, BANG BANG is a reader’s history of the boom in British thrillers 1953-1975 (roughly, Casino Royale to The Eagle Has Landed), a period when Britain lost an Empire, was demoted in terms of global power and status and was economically crippled by debt yet its fictional spies, secret agents, soldiers, sailors and even (occasionally)…
Article by David Salter James Bond lived in Chelsea, a pleasant and, these days very expensive, area south-west of Central London. Beyond that the information provided by Ian Fleming is pretty blurred. The most detailed source of information on this subject is “Moonraker”, possibly the most personal of the Bond books, taking place, as it…
In the run up to the hotly anticipated biography of Maxwell Knight, we caught up with its author Henry Hemming to discuss this enigmatic spymaster. What drew you to write about Maxwell Knight? Initially I was taken by the story of one of Knight’s agents, Olga Gray, but it was my US editor, Clive Priddle,…
Article by Revelator In his foreword The Seven Deadly Sins, published in 1962, Ian Fleming declared that the traditional seven deadly sins — PRIDE, ENVY, ANGER, SLOTH [accidie], COVETOUSNESS, GLUTTONY and LUST — were no longer sufficient. Thereupon, he proposed seven deadlier sins more worthy of a one way ticket to Hell: AVARICE, CRUELTY, HYPOCRISY,…
This week we welcome a fine gentleman in from the cold to discuss his love of Fleming and appreciation of Richard Chopping’s iconic dust jackets. What is your favourite Chopping cover and why? Without a doubt, Thunderball. It incapsulates the world of Fleming’s Bond so perfectly. I remember the first time I saw it in…
