We welcome Jeff Quest in from the cold, to discuss his impressive collection of first-edition, signed spy novels. What drew you into collecting spy novels? I’ve always been a reader. I started with kid mysteries before branching out into stories with spies, like Gordon Korman’s “Our Man Weston” and the Hardy boys books. As I got…
On this Bastille Day, we are delighted to welcome our French cousins commander007.net at Station F, to contribute their thoughts on James Bond in France. Profitez! In 11 novels and 9 short stories, Bond travels five times through 1950’s France. While Bond is now famous for being a great globe-trotting spy, it is surprising that Fleming, an author…
On July 4,1952, Ian Fleming wrote ‘Pleasure Islands?’ for The Spectator shortly after completing the draft of Casino Royale, in which he discusses race relations in Jamaica. Article by Revelator; first published here. There are several notable things about this article, starting with the date. Perhaps it’s true that “after forty it is difficult to start a new life,”…
We continue with our dispatches from the Spies on British Screens conference at Plymouth University from one of our top agents in the field – Edward Biddulph. *** Day 2 at the ‘Spies on British Screens’ conference at Plymouth University promised to be every bit as exciting as day 1. I was there to give…
Plymouth University recently put on a conference exploring how spies and the intelligence community have been represented in British cinema and TV and looked at how these representations impact on our perceptions of the security services. Our man in the field Tom May reports. *** On a mild summery Friday morning, the Spies on British Screens…
We are thrilled to welcome Graham M. Thomas in from the cold, who is the author of Fleming, Bond, and Connery in Japan: The Japanese Story of You Only Live Twice. Graham’s first hand knowledge of Japan coupled with his love of Bond has produced a fascinating account of the legacy of Bond in Japan. What inspired…
On a cool August evening in 1941, a Serbian playboy created a stir at Casino Estoril in Portugal by throwing down an outrageously large baccarat bet to humiliate his opponent. The Serbian was a British double agent, and the money which he had just stolen from the Germans belonged to the British. From the sideline,…
Article by Revelator It’s one of the most obscure mysteries in Bondology. In July 1965 a “magazine for men” named Saga published what it offensively called “Ian Fleming’s Last Interview: How to Take Any Woman…James Bond Style!” The note from the editor read: In the summer of 1964, French journalist Alain Ayache interviewed Ian Fleming, the…
Sad news reached the offices of ALR recently of the death of John Griswold at only 65. John had been suffering from Alzheimer’s, the cruelest of afflictions, especially for someone with an encyclopedic knowledge of James Bond. John’s rich legacy however, is his book ‘Ian Fleming’s James Bond: Annotations and Chronologies for Ian Fleming’s Bond…
This week we welcome the return of our Field Report series and spoke with Kent native Mark Ashby, about his literary Bond collection! 1. What is your favorite Chopping cover and why?: Thunderball. I love the simplicity. It is a cleaner and more direct image than some of the other Chopping’s. The others seem a…
The 3rd annual Whitstable Literary Festival in Kent this year, took on a spy theme and in particular Ian Fleming and his many Kent connections. Fans of the genre were delighted to witness some of the best names in the literary espionage trade, including many who we have interviewed in the past such as Matthew Parker,…
Sophie is also well known throughout the world for designing the legendary Algerian Love Knot necklace and earrings for the James Bond film Casino Royale which further endorses her British credentials. How did the collaboration with the Bond film franchise come about and what was the inspiration behind the designs? The Bond collaboration came about…
When artists Richard Chopping and Denis Wirth-Miller died in their nineties, their friend Jon Lys Turner inherited an extensive personal archive. When he began to look through it, he discovered letters and other material that revealed Chopping and Wirth-Miller to be a previously missing link in the twentieth-century art world and pivotal figures in the…
We’re giving you the highly rare opportunity to win all 3 signed copies of Nicholas Anderson’s explosive NOC trilogy about his time working for SIS, more commonly known as MI6. One can’t fail to be swept up in the narrative, which Mr. Anderson writes with effortless energy, fine prose and a sprinkling of philosophy which was…
To mark the 60th anniversary of the publication of Ian Fleming’s Diamonds Are Forever (and 45th birthday of the film version) a panel discussion will be held on the novel/film for the SAMLA conference held in Jacksonville, Florida from Nov 4-6 2016. Following the all-English setting of Moonraker (the third Bond novel), Fleming sought to…
We are delighted to welcome back in from the cold, the former SIS officer and author Nicholas Anderson, to talk about his new (and final) book in his explosive NOC trilogy out on May 1 and available for pre-order now – NOC Three Times: Knock-On Effect. What has been the over-arching experience been like writing and…
Join us to celebrate the birthday of Ian Fleming on May 28, 2016! This special evening, in collaboration between literary007.com and Maxus Movie Walks, will begin with a special walking tour of Ian’s City life at 5pm from Bank station. This exclusive version of the Maxus Walks Ian Fleming Tour will include the actor Michael Chance, who played Ian in the one-man show, The…
Comrade Wadsworth has done it again and we are thrilled to present Gerry’s homage to From Russia, With Love. We’re spoiling you! The Inspiration When actress and singer, Lotte Lenya, was asked about her nearly 60 year career in theatre and film, she confessed that the character of “Rosa Klebb” in the 1963 film “From Russia…
No, this is not an April Fool’s joke for literary Bond fans! The third Whitstable Literary festival (WhitLit) returns from May 11-15 and this year the programme will take on a ‘super spy’ theme, celebrating James Bond creator Ian Fleming and his Kent connections. There will be a very special Ian Fleming evening on Friday…
To celebrate the 60th anniversary of Ian Fleming’s 1956 novel Diamonds Are Forever on March 26, 1956, we asked American artist and Bond fan Gerry Wadsworth, to take us on a tour of some of the Americana found in the novel. *** Ian Fleming was a master of description with an ability to convince the…
Artistic Licence Renewed 