To celebrate the anniversary of the publication of You Only Live Twice, we take a closer look at Fleming, Bond and Sean Connery’s experiences in Tokyo. Article by Graham Thomas Fleming came to Tokyo in 1959 and 1962, Bond arrived in 1963 or maybe early 1964, and Connery in 1966. In the early 1960s about…
Review by David Salter LA FRANCE DE FLEMING James Bond, une passion francais by Pierre-Olivier Lombarteix (Le Temps Editeur – 2017) In his new book Pierre-Olivier Lombarteix explores the relationship between Ian Fleming, his creation James Bond and France – in Fleming’s original books and in the films that followed. He goes further and looks…
Article by Graham M. Thomas Is there a more thrilling city than Tokyo? Today it would certainly come near the top of many people’s bucket list and, from a personal perspective, it comes top of mine. After all I lived there for five years and although home is now in south-western Japan, a visit to…
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…
First published on The Trebuchet Britain – it could be argued – invented the archetypal spy novel. Born out of political fears and insecurities during two World Wars and a subsequent Cold War, heroes and anti-heroes were dreamt up by a distinguished line of novelists including Erskine Childers, John Buchan, Eric Ambler, Somerset Maugham and Graham…
Shortly after handing over an early manuscript of Moonraker to William Plomer, Ian Fleming told him: “In my opinion, it isn’t much of a book, but it should make a good film.” How wrong he was to be as it turned out. A film version never materialized in his lifetime and when it did, it…
Artistic Licence Renewed 