This week we welcome world class Bond collector Brad Frank in from the cold. Brad has been one of literary Bond’s main curators of rare Bondiana and was instrumental in the completion of Jon Gilbert’s indispensable Ian Fleming Bibliography. How did your lifelong involvement with Bond begin, particularly on the literary side? The school I…
Submitted by: Oliver Buckton, Professor of English, Florida Atlantic University, South Atlantic Modern Language Association (SAMLA) Conference, Jacksonville, FL, November 4-6 2016. The 88th South Atlantic Modern Language Association (SAMLA) Convention—held in Jacksonville, Florida, from November 4-6, 2016– proved to be, among other things a festival of James Bond and Ian Fleming. There were two panels…
Article by Larry Loftis Rear Admiral John Godfrey, Britain’s Director of Naval Intelligence during World War II, had always said that his personal assistant was such a great administrator and intelligence planner that the roles should have been reversed. The assistant, of course, was Lieutenant Commander Ian Fleming. In the early days of 1941, when…
This week we are delighted to welcome the esteemed lecturer Christine Berberich in from the cold to discuss Ian Fleming and James Bond in the context of Britain in the 1950s and 60s. In your essay ‘Fleming’, James Bond and the Question of England’, you mention how Bond (and Fleming by extension) were both ‘at…
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Peter Janson-Smith, who was the literary agent to Ian Fleming, passed away on April 15, 2016, at the age of 93. After Fleming’s death, Peter became the chairman of Glidrose Publications (now Ian Fleming Publications) and was directly responsible for hiring new authors to write new Bond novels. We pay tribute to him with various…
Bond websites pop up all the time but very few provide a truly original take. Step up Matt Bunnell who has set about mapping various geographical routes from the novels. Here Matt tells us how he does it. How did you get into literary Bond and what are your favourite novels? I have been a…
We are delighted to welcome one of the standard bearers of James Bond online in from the cold. Peter Lorenz is not only a collector of James Bond artwork but a talented artist in his own right who discusses his craft with us. How do approach your painting and what are your favourite mediums? My…
Article by David Craggs. As a sexagenarian espionage aficionado who had first-hand experience of the 1960s, this particular ‘Field Agent’ has long been as obsessed with the literary phenomena brought about by ‘Bond Mania’. As with most things ‘60s, you had to have been there to appreciate it. The absolute tsunami of literary spies that…
We recently had the pleasure of attending a very special book launch at the Special Forces Club in London. This private members club was founded in 1945 by men and women who had served in the Special Operations Executive (SOE), on the initiative of the last Chief of the SOE, Major-General Sir Colin Gubbins, KCMG, DSO, MC.…
Here is something to brighten up your day. Gerry Wadsworth is back with a striking homage to Dr. No! The Back Story After reading Dr. No several times, I realized that there was no way I could paint anything that would compete with the scene in the movie where a gorgeous Ursula Andress rises from…
This week, our special guest is the actor and playwright Mark Burgess. Mark has an esteemed association with 007 as the man who brought the one-man play about Ian Fleming to the stage and also has adapted Fleming’s works for BBC radio working alongside Ian’s niece Lucy Fleming. What drew you to write the play…
Today marks a very special day, for on this day in 1957 Ian Fleming met a young illustrator that was to prove pivotal in the lives of both men and the future of the James Bond novels. That illustrator was Richard Wasey Chopping. We spoke to one of Chopping’s trustees – Jon Lys Turner –…
Review by Revelator This is a wonderful book, a long overdue one. For anyone who cares about Ian Fleming’s work, The Man With the Golden Typewriter will be a must-have reference, deserving to rest on the same shelf as Fleming’s biographies, Kingsley Amis’s Bond Dossier, Matthew Parker’s Goldeneye, and Henry Chancellor’s James Bond: The Man…
On January 1 2015, something odd happened and the works of Ian Fleming entered the public domain in Canada. You can read about how that came about here. As to be expected, many people jumped upon this news including Canadian authors Madeline Ashby and David Nickle, who brought together an anthology of collected stories based on…
Today marks the anniversary of the death of Ian Fleming and the birthday of his only son – Caspar. We pay tribute to them both. 1952 was a momentous year for Ian Fleming. He had begun Casino Royale in January and completed a rough draft six days before marrying Ann O’Neill on March 24. Last…
Herbert O. Yardley seemed Fleming’s kind of man – gambler, code-breaker, rascal and whistle-blower. On the anniversary of his death, Graham M. Thomas delves into his incredible story. *** In early 1959, Ian Fleming contributed a three page preface to a book on how to win at poker: ‘The Education of a Poker Player‘ was a…
Today is the anniversary of the death of the great Richard Burton. Once considered for the role of James Bond, he was a voracious reader and one wonders what he thought of Ian Fleming. The closest we might get is a short diary entry published in ‘Richard Burton: A Life’ (p. 292). On March 28th…
Continuing with the 60th anniversary celebrations of ‘Diamonds are Forever’, we bring you the latest offering to the Bond temple with Gerry Wadsworth‘s homage to the great novel. The Inspiration Iconic Ian Lancaster Fleming at his best, Diamonds are Forever is one of those stories that suck you into the pages of the book and…
Recently we celebrated Ian Fleming’s birthday outside his old writing office in Mitre Court in London. Here, Fleming would return from his yearly two month sojourns to Jamaica to polish off the manuscript for his latest Bond adventure. In this elegantly decorated office with Regency-striped wallpaper, was a solid antique desk with a green leather…
Artistic Licence Renewed 