Article by Revelator This month we conclude our 7 part series inspired by Ian Fleming’s “Seven Deadlier Sins.” Fleming conceived the idea for a series on the Seven Deadly Sins in the Sunday Times, and though it did not materialize for the paper, a book was published in 1962 that contained essays by some of…
Albert R. ‘Cubby’ Broccoli and Harry Saltzman remain the most successful producing partnership in movie history and together they were responsible for the phenomenally successful James Bond series. Loved and hated in equal measure, respected and feared by their contemporaries, few movie people have loomed as large over the industry as Broccoli and Saltzman, yet…
On 18 March 1959 Fleming had written to Richard Chopping about the cover he had undertaken for Goldfinger, saying that: “The new jacket is quite as big a success as the first one and I do think [Jonathan] Cape have made a splendid job of it”. Once again, Chopping was asked to provide the cover…
Jack Barclay Bentley, the world’s oldest Bentley dealership, is hosting a free James Bond exhibition from 11-16 June in partnership with Peter Harrington Rare Books. The Mayfair dealership will play host to original Bond cars and visitors key objects from the genesis of the James Bond story. The first James Bond cars – from the…
Article by Matt Sherman Dear ALR readers, Mr. Fleming gave us the best possible travelogues, didn’t he? His exciting real-world details filled the spaces between the action scenes, making his Bond and other stories eminently readable. “That’s how it’s done,” to quote Bond author and expert John Cork. I’ve been reading Bond since age 9,…
This website just celebrated its 6th anniversary and for the last 4 years we have invited readers and contributors to the site, on an annual celebratory walk and party. This free event, is our way of saying thanks and on the 27th May 2019, Artistic Licence Renewed led it’s 4th Ian Fleming-James Bond Walking Tour of…
In A Spy Is Born, Jeremy Duns follows the trail of a largely forgotten writer through memoirs, newspaper archives, declassified M.I.5 files and dog-eared paperbacks to reveal the surprising literary roots of James Bond. His name? Dennis Wheatley. We asked Jeremy to share more of his intelligence. 001. You wrote about the links between Fleming…
We’re giving away 2 copies of SHAKEN for the perfect Father’s day gift by answering this question: Kina Lillet was the vermouth used in the Vespa Martini, but in Diamonds Are Forever the Vermouth was a different brand, that Bond said was the ‘best vermouth I ever tasted.’ What was it? Terms & Conditions: This…
In the wake of the announcement of Bond 25 at Ian Fleming’s Goldeneye retreat where the 007 books were written, it seems appropriate to revisit the road to Bond 25 and the roots of Fleming’s writing which remain in the films. This history is contained in the paperback of Matthew Field’s and Ajay Chowdhury’s “Some…
We all know how Bond likes to clean out Casinos, but was Ian Fleming any good and what kind of gambler was he? In Casino Royale, Fleming pontificates on the role of luck in gambling: “Luck was a servant and not a master. Luck had to be accepted with a shrug or taken advantage of…
Article by Graham M. Thomas According to Robert Harling, the main topic of conversation when he first met Ian Fleming at a party in 1939 was typography; Fleming mentioned that he subscribed to Typography, a magazine that Harling edited. ‘I’ve been a subscriber to your magazine with its singular title from its very first number,’…
One of the rarest pieces of Fleming literature is possibly Ian Fleming’s 128-page scrapbook, in which he wrote down ideas, plot outlines, short sentences and even lengthy excerpts which he considered to feature in future Bond adventures. The scrapbook was never published officially, the known excerpts were jotted down by a reporter of the Daily…
