A Licence To Read Octopussy and The Living Daylights

The last publication in the original series of James Bond books was the short story anthology, Octopussy and The Living Daylights. The first edition, published by Jonathan Cape on June 23rd 1966, only contained the two titular short stories. Over the years, later editions have included two more short stories: The Property of a Lady and 007 in New York.

Like the earlier collection of short stories, For Your Eyes Only, these tales are unrelated episodes in the life of James Bond, and they have been used to provide titles and story elements to some of the James Bond films.

Octopussy

In the first story of the book, Bond is sent to uncover the details of a murder mystery which leads him to Major Dexter Smythe in Jamaica. The murder victim is an Austrian named Hannes Oberhauser, who was discovered frozen in a glacier. The last person to see him was Major Smythe and Bond suspects that Smythe may have murdered Oberhauser after using him as a guide to find a cache of Nazi gold. Fans of the film series might recognise this scenario from the film version of Octopussy, as this story is told by Octopussy (the character) to Bond in the film.

The Living Daylights

This story will also be familiar to Bond film fans as it provides roughly the first ten minutes of the film (not including the pre-title sequence). Bond is sent to Berlin to assist in the defection of a double agent to the West. The reason Bond is sent is to eliminate a KGB sniper who will be waiting for the double agent to attempt to cross the Berlin wall. The short story is retold quite faithfully in the film, but with the action moved to Bratislava rather than Berlin. The short story was first published in 1962 in an edition of the Sunday Times colour magazine. This tense and exciting story is regarded by many as Ian Fleming's finest short story.

The Property of a Lady

Written for the auction house, Sotheby's, The Property of a Lady first appeared in The Ivory Hammer - Sotheby's yearbook in 1963. The story was used in the film version of Octopussy. Bond attempts to identify the KGB head of station at an auction in which a Faberge egg is being sold in order to pay a double agent.

007 in New York

Bond is sent to New York to warn an MI6 secretary that her boyfriend is working for the KGB. This very short story was first included in US editions of Ian Fleming's travel book, Thrilling Cities, as a consolation to New Yorker's following the negative opinions Fleming had voiced about the city. It is most notable for including James Bond's recipe for scrambled eggs and the mention of a female character named Solange. The name would later be used for a character in the 2006 film adaptation of Casino Royale.

Octopussy and The Living Daylights marks the end of the original James Bond series. Fortunately for James Bond fans, it was not to be the end of the literary James Bond as two years later the first James Bond continuation novel was published. This first continuation novel, Colonel Sun, will be subject of the next article in the Licence To Read series.

Cover Gallery

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