We all know how Bond likes to clean out Casinos, but was Ian Fleming any good and what kind of gambler was he? In Casino Royale, Fleming pontificates on the role of luck in gambling: “Luck was a servant and not a master. Luck had to be accepted with a shrug or taken advantage of…
By Matthew Chernov Like the iconic character he created, Ian Fleming has been depicted on screen many times over the years. In 2014, Dominic Cooper was cast in the title role of the BBC miniseries “Fleming,” and just last year Sean Maguire played the author in an episode of the NBC science-fiction show “Timeless.” Others…
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…
On this day in 2000, the writer and actor Mark Burgess performed a one man show about James Bond’s creator Ian Fleming in Brighton called ‘Fleming’s Bond’. It was well received and toured the UK between 2001 ans 2003, but Mr. Burgess decided to give up acting to concentrate on writing and the play was retired.…
Review by Jonathan Hopson ‘Who was Robert Harling?’ asks Fiona McCarthy in her foreword. The answer is a man of mystery who played many roles – type designer, advertising executive, sailor, commando, novelist, architectural critic, magazine editor, lothario in fedora and tight trousers. Fellow typographer Ruari McLean summed him up as ‘one of those people…
This is Robert Harling’s account of his close and enduring friendship with one of the twentieth century’s most iconic writers, a relationship forged in the Second World War that helped define the lives of both men. Their paths met in the early 1940s upon the creation of 30 Assault Unit, a British Commando unit Fleming…
This week we welcome Damian Stevenson in from the cold to talk about his two books about the fictional adventures of Ian Fleming: The Ian Fleming Files. 1. You have now written two books in ‘The Ian Fleming Files’. How does the second compare to the first and how do you approach your research of Ian’s…
By Matthew Chernov “Never say ‘no’ to adventures. Always say ‘yes’, otherwise you’ll lead a very dull life.” – Ian Fleming In 1959, at the behest of The Sunday Times’ features editor Leonard Russell, Ian Fleming set out on a five-week, all-expenses-paid trip around the world. One of his first stops was the city of…
Article by Julian Parrott For writers so inextricably linked to their respective countries and literary genres, Raymond Chandler and Ian Fleming had a lot in common. They forever changed the very nature of the literary genres they wrote for: Chandler brought style and respectability to noir detective fiction while Fleming revitalized the moribund spy thriller…
This month we kick off a 7-part series by 7 writers inspired by Ian Fleming’s ‘Seven Deadlier Sins’. In his foreword to the book The Seven Deadly Sins, published in 1962; Fleming declared that the traditional seven deadly sins — PRIDE, ENVY, ANGER, SLOTH [accidie], COVETOUSNESS, GLUTTONY and LUST — were no longer sufficient. Thereupon, he…
Now pay attention literary 007 fans … this just in from top brass. Today marks what would be Ian Fleming’s 107th birthday and it could not be more fitting than for Ian Fleming Publications in conjunction with Orion Publishing, to announce the title of the new James Bond continuation novel – Trigger Mortis! The author,…
We are very excited to welcome the former intelligence analyst for the CIA and author of 25 novels, Francine Mathews. Here new novel ‘Too Bad to Die, a tense and enthralling historical thriller in which British Naval Intelligence officer Ian Fleming attempts to foil a Nazi plot to assassinate FDR, Churchill, and Stalin at the…
Article by Craig Arthur with permission, originally published in 2007 James Bond was not the first fictional secret agent with a liking for martinis. W. Somerset Maugham’s Ashenden also drank them. “I move with the times,” Ashenden explains in Maugham’s story ‘His Excellency’. “To drink a glass of sherry when you can get a dry…
The legacy of the ‘Bond continuation novel’ began in 1968 with Kingsley Amis‘ ‘Colonel Sun’, published by Jonathan Cape on this day – March 28th. Kingsley had been a Bond fan “ever since he discovered the first paperback, ‘Casino Royale’, on a railway bookstall” (The Times Educational Supplement) and had already written the seminal The James Bond Dossier, and…
By Jon Pettigrew This Two Act play neatly book ends the start of the James Bond books and the beginning of the end for Ian Fleming. He dies young, but his alter ego lives forever. He only lives twice, you see. The settings make one feel that we are there, in the warmth of Jamaica at Goldeneye and we…
There are literally hundreds of books about Ian Fleming and James Bond, so here at Artistic Licence Renewed, we have made life easier for you and winnowed it down to the pick of the litter. Earlier in the year we published a Top 10 Books on Ian Fleming and James Bond part 1, so it…
(Source: The Times, Aug 13, 1964) Mr. Ian Fleming, whose death at the age of 56 is announced on another page was one of the most successful and controversial thriller writers in recent years. Ian Lancaster Fleming was born in 1903, son of Major Valentine Fleming, M.P., D.S.O. He was educated at Eton and Sandhurst.…
Words by Benjamin Welton Who doesn’t love a good conspiracy theory? From the pseudo-science of ancient astronauts to Alex Jones’s favorite hobby horse the Illuminati, conspiracy theories surround us, especially within the cold confines of the internet. Just last year, Jesse Walker, an editor at the libertarian Reason magazine, released The United States of Paranoia:…
The Fourth of June is the first novel by David Benedictus. This title was reviewed upon publication by Ian Fleming, who was an Old Etonian with David. In Fleming’s Sunday Times review he described it as ‘One of the most brilliantly written books since the war.‘ Fleming’s review of the book was complimentary of the writer but admittedly seemed out of…
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…
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