If you’re a James Bond or Ian Fleming fan, then you probably appreciate a well-made drink; just perhaps not in the bibulous daily amounts of Bond or Fleming! Despite the reputation of James Bond as a vodka drinker, Ian Fleming – who was a known bourbon and gin drinker – toured the drinks cart comprehensively in his novels.…
Chicago is the kind of city that James Bond would have loved. He might well have needed to go there more often on assignments but there always seemed to be enough trouble off the coast of Miami to pull him away. Ian Fleming however made it there and used it for inspiration for some his…
With the exciting news recently that literary James Bond will be re-appearing in the comics medium, we took the opportunity to go back in time to the original run of Bond comics in the Daily Express beginning in 1958. Words by Benjamin Welton Some stories are just too cutesy, or too damn perfect to be…
Words by Benjamin Welton Ever since Casino Royale first saw publication in 1953, commentators have noted that James Bond began his rise just as the sun was setting on the British Empire. Indeed, worldwide interest in British culture, especially the more garish, almost pulpy elements, found greater appreciation at the same time as Great Britain…
The use of real life people in novels is common so it’s surprising how little Ian Fleming has turned up – that is until fairly recently. His most famous appearance was in Solo author William Boyd’s masterpiece, Any Human Heart – but is that it? Not quite, we did manage to find more: Any Human…
Ian Fleming Publications Ltd., The Ian Fleming Estate, the Orion Publishing Group, and HarperCollins US and Canada are delighted to announce that international bestselling and award-winning writer Anthony Horowitz is at work on an official new James Bond novel. Currently dubbed Project One, the novel is due for worldwide release on 8th September 2015. The…
Words by Benjamin Welton On Halloween of last year, Gérard de Villiers died at the age of 83. A lifelong Parisian, de Villiers was at the time eulogized for being one of the Francophone world’s most beloved spy fiction writers and the one popular novelist that French intellectuals actually read (although few would ever fess…
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…
Writer Anthony Burgess, author of A Clockwork Orange, provided an unlikely footnote to Bond lore. In 1975, he was commissioned by Albert R Broccoli to write a screenplay for The Spy Who Loved Me. Fleming’s original novel was considered unsuitable for adaptation but the title was retained with the aim of building a new story around it. Broccoli and…
In the 1930s, Ian Lancaster Fleming worked in the City of London before he became a wartime spy, then worked in Fleet Street until it started to rain money from his fantasy spy James Bond books and movies. To acknowledge and re-discover the City connections of Ian Fleming, Maxus Walks runs a set of two…
No doll’s house is complete without a set of 1st edition James Bond novels! These are handcrafted 1/12th scale complete set of miniature replicas of all fourteen of Ian Fleming’s James Bond books. Each miniature measures a mere 9/16″ x 13/16″ x 1/8″ in size and reproduce the dustjacket cover art of all the original Jonathan…
The life of James Bond’s creator, Ian Fleming, has been celebrated in a set of stamps and limited edition items to be released by Guernsey Post, to celebrate 50 years following his death on August 12, 1964. The stamps will be issued on 30 July. Dawn Gallienne, head of philatelic at Guernsey Post, said: “Our commemorative…
On Ian Fleming’s 104th birthday, he will hopefully be pleased to have got himself into the smart phone app market! Latest intelligence gathered in the field has come up with this lovely little app for James Bond collectors. There are quite a few James Bond apps on the market but very few dedicated to Ian Fleming,…
What to get the James Bond fan who has everything? Here are some gifts the discerning literary Bond fan may not have yet: 10. Ian Fleming’s Stamps by the Guernsey Post Office The life of James Bond’s creator, Ian Fleming, was celebrated in a set of stamps and limited edition items to be released by Guernsey Post, to…
Article by Fleming’sBond.com Even a cursory reading of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels reveals that the author enjoyed using brand placement within his work. Many of these reflected the writers own taste in various areas of life, but it also served to ground the series in reality. Readers could go out and in many cases…
Something a little different this week. I chatted with Matt Spaiser who runs the fascinating website dedicated to the sartorial Bond from the films and books. 1. In which book or books do you think Bond is the best dressed? James Bond’s wardrobe is quite consistent throughout all of the books, so there’s no single…
There is a certain paradox about James Bond’s relationship with all things America. Devoted to the Anglo-American war against Communism, there is a level of contempt that runs through the novels during a time when the British Empire was winding up and the new American one was burgeoning. The contempt tended to be about material…
Graham Greene and Ian Fleming are often mentioned in the same breath by espionage fans as two of the most influential of all time. They had many differences in their literature and also shared a personal and slightly fractious relationship. Fleming’s admiration for Greene was there from the beginning, having feasted on novels such as…
Article by Benjamin Welton. Straddling the ancient Bosphorus, Istanbul (alias Constantinople and alias Byzantium) has always been more of an idea and an ideal than a city. Istanbul is where the Orient and the Occident meet. It has been home to Greek traders, Roman emperors, Byzantine bureaucrats, and Turkish sultans. Istanbul, in the words of…
Broken Antler were asked by Brewery VFX to help develop the titles for the 4 part Sky Atlantic series ‘Fleming’. This is the process they went through, different versions and the different ideas they tried. Sky Atlantic ‘Fleming – The Man Who Would Be Bond’ Title Design Development. from Broken Antler on Vimeo. They developed…
Artistic Licence Renewed 