Bond on the Radio

If you like to listen to James Bond’s adventures while working or relaxing, then check out these BBC radio play productions on YouTube, not to mention the priceless Desert Island Discs interview with Ian Fleming. Sadly, not the whole broadcast. From Russia, With Love: In writer Archie Scottney’s brilliantly evocative ‘radio screenplay’, we see another…

Len Deighton Lunches with Ian Fleming

Ian Fleming as a big influence on Len Deighton and here is a piece written by Deighton about Fleming. It’s fascinating in it’s timing, just as Fleming was finishing You Only Live Twice and Deighton was publishing The Ipcress File, as the torch was being passed on. Deighton provides insight into Fleming’s approach, goals in…

Ian Fleming on Screen

There seems to be a never-ending cycle of Bond and Ian Fleming documentaries and docu-dramas but finding a good one can be tough. Many have missed the mark in terms of accuracy and acting. Making this task even more difficult is the availability of some of them.  Well, after exhaustive research and picking up the…

John Pearson and the James Bond Authorized Biography

John Pearson graduated from Peterhouse Cambridge with a double first in History, then worked on the Economist Intelligence Unit and as a BBC trainee producer before being offered a job by Ian Fleming as his assistant on the ‘Atticus’ column for the Sunday Times. James Bond: The Authorised Biography is a fictional biography of James Bond and…

Ian Fleming and JFK … 50 Years Later

President John F. Kennedy was a fan of Fleming’s books. In March 1961, Hugh Sidey, published an article in Life Magazine, on President Kennedy’s top ten favourite books. It was a list designed to show that Kennedy was both well-read and in tune with popular taste. It included Fleming’s From Russia With Love. Up until this time, Fleming’s books had…

O.F. Snelling’s ‘Double O Seven James Bond: A Report’

Oswald Frederick Snelling, “Freddie” or O.F to his friends, worked in Sotheby’s Rare Book Department and was highly regarded in the rare book trade. He was also a cartoonist, critic, journalist, soldier, and biographer with a particular interest in boxers’ lives. He became Chief Clerk until the firm was closed in 1981. It was there he met author Ian Fleming,…

Flower Motifs in Literary James Bond

Ian Fleming had a lifelong fascination with flowers and this motif would permeate many of his books and corresponding artwork for years to come. His first and only poetry collection, privately printed in 1928, was titled The Black Daffodil (unfortunately no copies exist today). His good friend Ivar Bryce remarked on reading The Black Daffodil: “He read me…