The stellar cast that narrated all of Ian Fleming’s James Bond books is finally being released in the United States on MP3 by Blackstone Audio.

In 2012 Ian Fleming’s Bond novels were released as brand new 007 Reloaded audiobooks by AudioGo, but the company disbanded. The original CD versions are now out of print and scarce, so this is  welcome news to Bond fans distressed at missing out on these wonderful recordings, read by a spectacular cast of British acting talent including Bill Nighy, Damian Lewis, Hugh Bonneville, David Tennant and Sir Kenneth Branagh.

Actor Damian Lewis in the recording studio narrating Diamonds Are Forever

In 2013, the final two unabridged audiobooks in the 007 Reloaded collection, For Your Eyes Only, was read by Samuel West and Octopussy & The Living Daylights, read by Tom Hiddleston.

Over three years in the making, the project was the brainchild of Lucy Fleming, Ian Fleming’s niece, and was headed by distinguished director Enyd Williams. Lucy Fleming in fact, read the short story 007 in New York, and each story includes a special interview with the narrator.

Lucy describes the experience:

I particularly enjoyed working with all of the actors during the recordings. It was a fascinating and humbling experience because it takes a huge skill to read any book  for audio– let alone the Bond books with all the different and familiar characters, accents and places.

It was fun doing the “casting” as it were. David Tennant was an obvious reader for OHMSS because of his wonderful  Scottish voice. Bill Nighy was brilliant at all the nasty characters  and Gala Brand in Moonraker. Damian Lewis with his fantastic American accent was  an obvious choice for Diamonds Are Forever.

We were lucky to get Rosamund Pike to read The Spy who Loved Me as she knows Canada where it is mostly set and does the most amazing Canadian accent. And, of course, Martin Jarvis can do any accent so we were thrilled when he tackled all the Japanese in You Only Live Twice.

Here is the full list of titles:

• Casino Royale (read by Dan Stevens)
• Live and Let Die (read by Rory Kinnear)
• Moonraker (read by Bill Nighy)
• Diamonds Are Forever (read by Damian Lewis)
• From Russia With Love (read by Toby Stephens)
• Doctor No (read by Hugh Quarshie)
• Goldfinger (read by Hugh Bonneville)
• Thunderball (read by Jason Isaacs)
• The Spy Who Loved Me (read by Rosamund Pike)
• On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (read by David Tennant)
• You Only Live Twice (read by Martin Jarvis)
• The Man With The Golden Gun (read by Kenneth Branagh)
• For Your Eyes Only (read by Samuel West)
• Octopussy and The Living Daylights (read by Tom Hiddleston and Lucy Fleming)

Incidental Intelligence

Buy the books from Blackstone Audio