Richard Burton was still the right age around the mid fifties. He'd have been good
Fleming would have agreed with you--Richard Burton was his first recorded choice for James Bond, and I wish journalists would emphasize that, instead of his later suggestion of David Niven.
I'm going to quit worrying about whether the films are true to Fleming. Fleming was working his connections for a Hollywood film deal before Casino Royale was even published, talking about his own books as his scheme to get rich quick, and following the McClory debacle did not care what prospective filmmakers did with the property just so long as he could sell the rights for big money. I'm sure he would not mind the hollowed out volcano or indestructible henchmen at all.
I think he would. True, Fleming was hungry for Hollywood dollars, and after heavily involving himself in the McClory fiasco he left film-making to EON and company. But he nevertheless cared about the results--he suggested Berkely Mather as a screenwriter for Dr. No, and we know from Pearson and Lycett that Fleming was concerned by some of the changes made by the filmmakers (such as the deletion of the scene where Honey is menaced by crabs). Fleming also showed his interest by accompanied the crew to Istanbul during the filming of FRWL and visiting the set of Goldfinger, whose script he'd read beforehand. Fleming was content to let the filmmakers do their job, but nevertheless monitored them, and I think he would have been upset and embarrassed by the filmmakers tossing out his work, especially since the first three films had adhered so well to it. I also think Broccoli and Saltzman would have been less eager to toss the originals had Fleming still been around.
I have a question for those who might know:
Pearson mentions many things Fleming wrote that were either unpublished or are long out of print ... did these ever get printed in the years since, or otherwise circulate amongst collectors' circles?
Two thirds of Fleming's Sunday Times journalism, and several of his pre-Bond creative writing exercises, were published in Talk of the Devil, which is only available as part of special edition of Fleming's complete works published in 2008 by Queen Anne Press (http://www.queenannepress.co.uk/books.html#IFlimited). The cheapest binding is £2,000, so pretty much no one has seen Talk of the Devil. However, the Fleming Bibliography lists much of its content:
“A Poor Man Escapes” (short story, 1927)
“The Dieppe Raid.” (1942/1961)
"Partner! You Have Trumped My Ace.” [Review of The Complete Card Player] Daily Graphic, 28th Sept. 1949.
“The Shameful Dream” (short story, 1951)
“Diving through 22 Centuries. An Underwater Report on Mediterranean Treasure.” The Sunday Times, 19th April 1953.
“El Dollarado--A Transient’s Scrapbook from New York.” The Sunday Times, 28th June 1953.
“Treasure Hunt at Creake Abbey.” The Sunday Times, 26th July 1953.
“The Caves of Adventure, Part One.” The Sunday Times, 16th Aug. 1953.
“The Caves of Adventure, Part Two.” The Sunday Times, 23rd Aug. 1953.
“The Secrets of Interpol.” The Sunday Times, 4th Sept. 1955.
“The Great Riot of Istanbul.” The Sunday Times, 11th Sept. 1955.
“Delinquents and Smugglers.” The Sunday Times, 18th Sept. 1955.
“Birth Pangs of a Thriller.” W. H. Smith’s Trade News, 31st March 1956. Original manuscript, (titled “Bang Bang, Kiss Kiss--How I Came to Write Casino Royale”) reprinted in Talk of the Devil.
“London’s Best Dining.” Holiday, April 1956. Original manuscript (titled “When Did You Stop Eating Your Wife?”) reprinted in Talk of the Devil.
“Adventures in the Sun: The Remora’s Fearful Kiss.” The Sunday Times, 1st April 1956.
“Adventures in the Sun: Blue Mountain Solitaire.” The Sunday Times, 8th April 1956.
“Adventures in the Sun: To Flamingo Land.” The Sunday Times, 15th April 1956.
“Dangerous Know-How” [review of Scarne on Cards]. The Sunday Times, 22nd April 1956.
“More Adventures in the Sun: My Friend the Octopus.” The Sunday Times, 24th March 1957.
“More Adventures in the Sun: Treasures of the Sea.” The Sunday Times, 7th April, 1957.
“More Adventures in the Sun: He Sells Sea-Shells.” The Sunday Times, 14th April 1957.
“Nightmare Among the Mighty.” The Sunday Times, 30th June 1957 (aka “My Golfing Nightmare”).
“The Tragic Spy” [review of The Spy’s Bedside Book]. The Sunday Times, 17th Nov. 1957. [aka “The Heart of the Mata”]
“The Secret of Edgar Hoover” [review of The FBI Story]. The Sunday Times, 15th Dec. 1957. [aka “The Great Policeman”]
“Treasure Hunt in Eden: Pirate Gold.” The Sunday Times, 17th August 1958.
“Treasure Hunt in Eden: Butterflies & Beachcombers.” The Sunday Times, 24th August 1958.
“Treasure Hunt in Eden: Gold or No Gold.” The Sunday Times, 31st August 1958.
“Trouble in Havana” [review of Our Man in Havana]. The Sunday Times, 5th Oct. 1958.
“If I Were Prime Minister.” The Spectator, 9th Oct. 1959.
“Raymond Chandler.” The London Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 12, Dec. 1959.
“Russians Makes Mistakes Too.” Esquire, Nov. 1960. (aka “Soviet Espionage, Inc.”)
“Gary Powers and the Big Lie.” The Sunday Times, 11th March 1962.
“The Guns of James Bond.” Sports Illustrated, Vol. 16, No. 11, 18th March 1962.
“The Art, or Craft, of Writing Thrillers.” Oxford student body lecture from May 1962.
“Intrepid.” The Sunday Times, 21st Oct. 1962. Reprinted as introduction to Room 3603.
“The Case of the Painfully Pulled Leg--Some Caen--Some Cain’t.” San Francisco Chronicle, 16th Sept. 1963.
“Ian Fleming’s Jamaica.” The Sunday Times, 15th Aug. 1965.
Fortunately most of these items can be tracked down if you have access to a good library that has access to the British newspaper databases. I have managed to collect all of Fleming's Sunday Times material (including the third that isn't in Talk of the Devil) and most of his other published articles.
As for the Atticus columns, they haven't been reprinted (though Devil might feature a couple). Fleming apparently worked on the column from November 1953 to sometime in 1956, having switched the subtitle from "People" to “People and Things," since he didn't care much for pure gossip.
Fleming's Kuwait book State of Excitement has never been printed--though I hope someone can strike a deal with the Kuwaitis! In the meantime, the manuscript can be read in the Fleming collection at the University of Indiana.
The ultimately Holy Grail of unprinted Fleming would be the script for Moonraker, which wrote for the Rank organization. Unfortunately, no one has any idea what's become of it.
wow thanks for that huge list Revelator
and you're right, I'm not going to be able to get that Queen Anne Press collection ... that Talk of the Devil volume included is the only part I would want (the other 17 volumes being the same books we all already have), and of course they're not selling that separately ... analogous to when a band like Pink Floyd puts out an expensive box set full of all the same old albums, which you have to buy again just to get a few previously unreleased bonus tracks
I just noticed, this Queen Anne Press is mentioned in Pearson: it was once owned by Lord Kemsley, Fleming's boss, "the literary policy of which Fleming himself was directing" ... no wonder they have exclusive rights to publish the Rarities volume
True, Fleming was hungry for Hollywood dollars, and after heavily involving himself in the McClory fiasco he left film-making to EON and company. But he nevertheless cared about the results
that's good to hear, since I tend to rate the films according to Fleming content. Pearson moves very fast once Casino Royale gets published, and the deal with Saltzman seems to come and go in a couple paragraphs before the final heart attack. I don't think Pearson mentioned any involvement with the filmmaking, nor reaction once the first two films had come out (Pearson just says he attended both premieres, and started to make a lot more money). Also the many long quotes from Fleming's correspondence are so self-deprecating it is hard to tell how seriously he takes his own creation.
The ultimately Holy Grail of unprinted Fleming would be the script for Moonraker, which he wrote for the Rank organization. Unfortunately, no one has any idea what's become of it.
I think Pearson also skipped this bit, but that's right, Moonraker also began as a film proposal.
One thing Pearson does describe is the "dog-eared and heavily corrected" manuscript of Casino Royale Fleming sent to his friends to read, imagine if someone could publish a photographic facsimile of that
and you're right, I'm not going to be able to get that Queen Anne Press collection ...
Neither am I, alas. I have checked libraries and booksellers all over the world, and none has Talk of the Devil.
I don't think Pearson mentioned any involvement with the filmmaking, nor reaction once the first two films had come out.
Try Lycett's biography--it's not as well-written as Pearson but is longer and more comprehensive.
Here's a letter Fleming wrote to the Spectator (Oct. 26 1962) that touches on the movies:
Sir, -- Since James Bond has had the honour of being mentioned in three separate departments of your issue of October 12, and since Bond is at present away in Magnetogorsk, I hope you will allow me to comment on his behalf.
'Spectator's Notebook': Queequeg asks what happened to the crabs in the film Dr. No. Alas, they went the way of the giant squid, despite urgent representations from me and from one of the producers. The black crabs had not started 'running' in Jamaica last February when the Jamaican scenes were being shot, but on my return to London in March I received an excited invitation to visit Pinewood and inspect a consignment of spider crabs obtained from Guernsey. A large tank was unveiled. All the crabs were dead. I asked if they had been preserved in sea water and was told that, since none was available, they had been put in fresh water with plenty of salt added! After that the crab faction gave up.
Letters: Mr. Snell suggests that my serial biography of James Bond is 'a barrier to international understanding.' He seems not to have noticed that since Thunderball the international organisation 'SPECTRE' has taken over as enemy Number One from SMERSH, the murder apparat of the then MWD, dissolved, as I wrote in Thunderball, by Khrushchev. As the recently concluded spy trial in Karlsruhe, involving the liquidation of two Ukrainians by a Soviet assassin with a cyanide gas pistol, shows, the machinery of cold-blooded murder by the, now, KGB is again in business and I cannot promise that Bond may not be called upon in the line of duty to involve himself with these new ambassadors for 'international understanding' sent out into the world by Moscow.
Cinema: Mr. Ian Cameron, with a fastidious stamp of his grey suede winkle-pickers, scrunches the Dr. No film, while describing James Bond as 'every intellectual's favourite fascist.' James Bond's politics are, in fact, slightly left of centre.
IAN FLEMING
c/o Jonathan Cape Ltd.
I also recall that somewhere Fleming says those familiar with the book would be disappointed by the film of Dr. No, but that everyone else would have a wonderful time.
One thing Pearson does describe is the "dog-eared and heavily corrected" manuscript of Casino Royale Fleming sent to his friends to read, imagine if someone could publish a photographic facsimile of that
Here's a letter Fleming wrote to the Spectator (Oct. 26 1962) that touches on the movies:
...
'Spectator's Notebook': Queequeg asks what happened to the crabs in the film Dr. No. Alas, they went the way of the giant squid, despite urgent representations from me and from one of the producers. ....
cool! Fleming himself thought the film would be better with a giant squid! Ian Fleming now has official permission to be my Bond-film buddy
you can almost read those scans, maybe with a bit of photoshop magick you could save £150,000 ... is the whole thing there? I gave up scrolling before I clicked through all the scans
I recently read Dr No. I kept noticing things in the book that were used in the film. For example, the electrified vent cover when Bond does No's endurance test and Bond being offered a choice of either a British, American and Turkish cigarette to smoke, when he and Honey are being inducted.
Have you ever heard of the Emancipation Proclamation?"
My current on going books are: The Pigeon Tunnel by John le Carré and Sandstorm by Lindsey Hilsum.
The pigeon Tunnel is "non fiction" and I highly recommend it to anybody who has enjoyed Carrés' writing before.
I have not formed my opinion on the Sandstorm as of yet. I need to read it through first and then fact check it, as is my habit with books with a documentary nature.
"I mean, she almost kills bond...with her ass."
-Mr Arlington Beech
I just started reading 'Charlie Muffin' by Brian Freemantle.
I've been listening to a fairly new podcast called Spybrary, and the Charlie Muffin series has come up regularly on the podcast, so I decided to check it out. I managed to find the first 7 novels in the series in second hand book shops and I'm halfway through book one. Based on what I've read so far I would certainly recommend it to spy fiction fans who have never read the series.
Also, check out Spybrary podcast as well. They have done a few Bond related episodes, as well as looking at authors like Le Carre, Deighton and Freemantle.
I just started reading 'Charlie Muffin' by Brian Freemantle.
I've been listening to a fairly new podcast called Spybrary, and the Charlie Muffin series has come up regularly on the podcast, so I decided to check it out. I managed to find the first 7 novels in the series in second hand book shops and I'm halfway through book one. Based on what I've read so far I would certainly recommend it to spy fiction fans who have never read the series.
Also, check out Spybrary podcast as well. They have done a few Bond related episodes, as well as looking at authors like Le Carre, Deighton and Freemantle.
I used to love the Charlie Muffin books. IIRC, as with most long book series, the earlier ones are better but I'd Freemantle was an excellent writer. A very good TV movie was made of the first book starring a perfectly-cast David Hemmings. For some reason it's never had a dvd release, but I kept my old VHS because I loved the film so much. You can see on YouTube, though.
EDIT I tell a lie - it's available on DVD via this collection from Network
I just started reading 'Charlie Muffin' by Brian Freemantle.
I've been listening to a fairly new podcast called Spybrary, and the Charlie Muffin series has come up regularly on the podcast, so I decided to check it out. I managed to find the first 7 novels in the series in second hand book shops and I'm halfway through book one. Based on what I've read so far I would certainly recommend it to spy fiction fans who have never read the series.
Also, check out Spybrary podcast as well. They have done a few Bond related episodes, as well as looking at authors like Le Carre, Deighton and Freemantle.
I used to love the Charlie Muffin books. IIRC, as with most long book series, the earlier ones are better but I'd Freemantle was an excellent writer. A very good TV movie was made of the first book starring a perfectly-cast David Hemmings. For some reason it's never had a dvd release, but I kept my old VHS because I loved the film so much. You can see on YouTube, though.
EDIT I tell a lie - it's available on DVD via this collection from Network
I am aware of the screen adaptation. I do plan to watch it once I'm done with the novel. I have been very tempted to buy that Armchair Cinema collection, but its fairly expensive to order it from South Africa so I might have to settle for the lower quality Youtube version.
I've been listening to Spybrary too, great podcast. I just finished Quiller Memorandum based off of his recommendation. I definitely plan to pick up the Charlie Muffin books next.
He recently interviewed Jeremy Duns, who has written several essays on Bond and his own series of spy novels.
I've been listening to Live and Let Die, read by the excellent David Rintoul.
Just reached the part where Bond and Solitaire arrive in St Petersburg, Florida. Fleming really didn't like the lifestyle of the old folks there!!! His description is not flattering, at all.
It's like he was cheerful when he was writing the scene where Bond was kissing solitaire and then fell on a short term depression when he typed out the scene in the awful diner and the old timer's town.
BTW, the fight with the guy who was cleaning his rifle and started shooting Bond among the fishes in containers was very LTK.
I'm starting to appreciate LTK a lot more with LALD (the novel).
Just started reading The Hunter by Tom Wood. Must say, to use a cliché, a real page turner.
When checking his website http://www.tomwoodbooks.com/
You see "somewhat" of our own 007. To say the least.
However, the Dutch book cover (back) says forget James Reacher, forget Jason Bourne and forget James Bond. Of course I must disagree to the lastmentioned.
Did any of the forum member read Tom Wood and his Victor series and what were your thoughts on his character Victor?
I'd forgotten a couple of things about it from previous readings.
1. Mr Big isn't physically present in many of the scenes. Not like in the movie where he was much more visible. One scene in NY and another in Jamaica. Of course he is ever present, behind the scenes.
2 The climax on Skeleton Island takes place very quickly. Once Bond arrives in Jamaica(after a week long preparation which involves spending time on the beach!), the action passes very quickly. One minute they're in the cave with all the gold coins and the next Bond and Solitaire are being keelhauled behind Mr Big's big boat on which Bond has planted a timed limpet mine.
Don't get me wrong, it was great. Just seemed a bit rushed compared to other of Fleming's books.
Just started reading The Hunter by Tom Wood. Must say, to use a cliché, a real page turner.
When checking his website http://www.tomwoodbooks.com/
You see "somewhat" of our own 007. To say the least.
However, the Dutch book cover (back) says forget James Reacher, forget Jason Bourne and forget James Bond. Of course I must disagree to the lastmentioned.
Did any of the forum member read Tom Wood and his Victor series and what were your thoughts on his character Victor?
I read this a few months ago: I enjoyed it but I can't really remember it that well, so I'm afraid I can't give a detailed opinion. It's worth a read, and I've got the sequel "The Enemy" on my reading list.
I'm currently reading "The Samaritan" by Mason Cross, the second novel in his Carter Blake series. Blake is a 'locating consultant', finding people who don't want to be found, such as serial killers. I'm really quite hooked on this one, and would recommend the series (at least so far!).
I have recently finished "The Black Widow" by Daniel Silva, the latest in a series of novels about Gabriel Allon, an Israeli assassin and secret agent. This was okay, but it seemed a little formulaic to me, and in parts it was possible for me to guess what was going to happen. Still worth looking at for Bond fans though.
I've just started reading The Honourable Schoolboy by John Le Carre.
I read Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy about 7 years ago, and not long afterwards I started reading the next in the trilogy but my reading of it stalled when I was about 75% done. I haven't returned to it since then, so I decided to start again and give it another go. I'm really keen to finish the Smiley vs Karla trilogy, so as much as I hate returning to the beginning, I had to just bite to bullet and start again because I remember very little of what I read before.
I'm just past the halfway point in Live and Let Die. I'm enjoying comparing how different it is from the movie that is kind of inspired by it, and glad that it's so different and new. Mr. Big as a character, and the set-up of his organization and how he operates is fascinating to me. He really is built up as a daunting foe, and he's just one SMERSH operative. I like how the book is playing with the possibility of the supernatural. And there's a Pirate's treasure in the mix, too! So far, so good.
Finished Live and Let Die, which I really enjoyed. It really picked up toward the end, but it had a lot going for it from the get-go. I really liked Mr. Big as an adversary, and I kind of felt like it's too bad that he's a one-off.
As a character, as a villain concept, with the SMERSH connection, and with the Voodoo connection, and his pattern of concealing himself and mundane crime operations behind a veil of superstition (and a simple action to harness natural predators to do his work) made him seem more fascinating than, say, the collective impression of the different versions of JB films' Bloefelds. Bloefeld is the adversary of at least a trilogy of stories, but Mr. Big actually seems like a lot more could be done with him.
One interesting thing is that, while many fans say the original Ian Fleming works are so different from the films, and I very much agreed with that based on my reading of Casino Royale, with LaLD I've double the sample size of Fleming. LaLD somehow felt like it had a closer kinship to the movies. It started out with the atmosphere of a 50's Hardboiled Crime Noir kind of thing, but as it got to the stuff with Bond shooting match in the aquarium warehouse, it started to take on a slightly different flavor (or maybe, an additional layer of flavor). I think part of it was how he went shopping for a few simple items that he used to discreetly break into the warehouse, even though these aren't Gadgets, they kind of feel like the prelude to an evolution towards the gadgetry-happy trope. The sequence were he orders and gets outfitted for his underwater journey, and is supplied by the Q Branch feels like part of this, too; even though it's just normal equipment: frog suit, a breathing apparatus, and a harpoon gun, they hit that "want gadgets" longing in a JB story.
Having read a large back catalogue of posts commenting on and analysing Fleming's work, I've notice that quite a few of the books are identified as "experimental." Which is something that I'm excited about, when I continue with the series. Yet, I'm kind of wondering. Casino Royale seemed pretty experimental; in terms of story structure it's wildly unconventional. Which I liked very much about it! Who would think to kick of a series of novels with such a strangely structured story? But now, looking at this second book, even if there is something of a sense that Bond is on a mission in this story that might very well set the pattern for books that follow on from it (killing off tentacles of SMERSH, one adversary per story at a time). But there's still experimenting going, a little bit, the playing with superstition as a practical means of getting a large number of people to obey out of fear; and then there's Solitaire, who is described clinically as having telepathy (but with the surrounding Voodoo trappings in the background, she is essentially a witch). I'm starting to wonder, though, are all the books in the series experimental, in one sense or another?
Interesting thought! Some certainly are (eg Bond being off-stage for the first section of FRWL, TSWLM being written in first person by the female lead, FYEO (and posthumously OP) being short stories) but I'm not sure about all being classifiable in that way.
Finished Live and Let Die, which I really enjoyed.
...
One interesting thing is that, while many fans say the original Ian Fleming works are so different from the films, and I very much agreed with that based on my reading of Casino Royale, with LaLD I've double the sample size of Fleming. LaLD somehow felt like it had a closer kinship to the movies.
Live and Let Die follows more of the conventional thriller structure formulized in the films. Lots of globetrotting (which he did not do in the first book), several major action scenes with corpses piling up (Bond does not actually kill anybody in the first book), a damsel in distress and a big explosion at the end, along with a horrific yet fittingly ironic death for the main villain.
I think part of it was how he went shopping for a few simple items that he used to discreetly break into the warehouse, even though these aren't Gadgets, they kind of feel like the prelude to an evolution towards the gadgetry-happy trope. The sequence were he orders and gets outfitted for his underwater journey, and is supplied by the Q Branch feels like part of this, too; even though it's just normal equipment: frog suit, a breathing apparatus, and a harpoon gun, they hit that "want gadgets" longing in a JB story.
Theres a method Fleming uses where he presents the reader with a lot of verifiable brandnames, or well-researched background on how some technology works, persuading us that the author knows what he is talking about therefor all this could be real. Then suddenly there's a giant squid or a gang of hoods robbing Fort Knox. Something utterly fantastic, but it must be credible because Fleming got all the brandnames and technobabble correct. A bit of a magic trick.
I think preceding the warehouse shootout with several pages of equipment assembling is part of that trick, as the shootout in the warehouse is rather outrageous.
Having read a large back catalogue of posts commenting on and analysing Fleming's work, I've notice that quite a few of the books are identified as "experimental." ... I'm starting to wonder, though, are all the books in the series experimental, in one sense or another?
some moreso, some less so. There are a few he began as movie scripts before turning them into books (Moonraker, Dr No, Thunderball) and they tend to follow the more formulized plot structures, with damsels in distress, car chases, and big explosions. He always wanted to create a marketable series of adventures that could be sold to someone like Saltzman-Brocolli. But he also seems to have gotten bored or frustrated with the limitations, and would then do something very different. Aside from his plans to sell out, he hung out in literary circles and may have felt conflicting urges what he was doing with his writing. I think some days he wanted to be a literary type, some days he wanted to get rich from film rights, depending on his mood swings.
I'm not sure why he started the series with something so oddly structured as Casino Royale. Maybe because he was not confident there would even be a series when he wrote it. It was something he'd been playing with in his mind for several years, and he referred to his planned novel as "the spy story to end all spy stories". So maybe the success of his long-planned novel caused him to think in terms of a series, and therefor of a saleable formula? which he would then follow or divert from over the next decade, as he lost or regained faith that the film-rights would ever get sold.
would it be possible to split this thread in two? What are you Currently Reading? (that is Bond related), and What are you Currently Reading? (that is not Bond related?)
and maybe move the not-Bond-related child thread to the Non James Bond Discussion area, alongside What Film Did You Watch and Whats on TV etc?
I think this thread was originally all about Bondbooks until I started talking about Flashman above, but that was only because I couldn't find a general bookreview thread and misunderstood the purpose of this one. There's now probably a couple dozen non-Bond-related posts intermingled with the proper Bond-related posts over the last several pages.
If they can't be easily separated out, maybe I or some other volunteer should start a new general book review thread in the Non James Bond Discussion area
there might be and I just couldn't find it
next time I finish a book, I'll look very very carefully, and if I still cant find an existing one, I'll start a new thread
youd think such a thread would already exist so I probably gave up too soon before
Taking a break as I'm very busy at the moment but I'm in the middle of reading Moonraker. I'm reading the books in order for the first time and so far I can say Moonraker is the standout favorite, with Casino Royale coming a strong second and Live and Let Die third.
Looking forward to reading all the books. I'm surprised at how much I enjoy them. They are fast paced, thrilling reads and I enjoy them as time capsules into the past. Truly something special about the 40s-60s era that is lost in our technological age.
Comments
Me too- LOVE Chandler!
Fleming would have agreed with you--Richard Burton was his first recorded choice for James Bond, and I wish journalists would emphasize that, instead of his later suggestion of David Niven.
I think he would. True, Fleming was hungry for Hollywood dollars, and after heavily involving himself in the McClory fiasco he left film-making to EON and company. But he nevertheless cared about the results--he suggested Berkely Mather as a screenwriter for Dr. No, and we know from Pearson and Lycett that Fleming was concerned by some of the changes made by the filmmakers (such as the deletion of the scene where Honey is menaced by crabs). Fleming also showed his interest by accompanied the crew to Istanbul during the filming of FRWL and visiting the set of Goldfinger, whose script he'd read beforehand. Fleming was content to let the filmmakers do their job, but nevertheless monitored them, and I think he would have been upset and embarrassed by the filmmakers tossing out his work, especially since the first three films had adhered so well to it. I also think Broccoli and Saltzman would have been less eager to toss the originals had Fleming still been around.
Two thirds of Fleming's Sunday Times journalism, and several of his pre-Bond creative writing exercises, were published in Talk of the Devil, which is only available as part of special edition of Fleming's complete works published in 2008 by Queen Anne Press (http://www.queenannepress.co.uk/books.html#IFlimited). The cheapest binding is £2,000, so pretty much no one has seen Talk of the Devil. However, the Fleming Bibliography lists much of its content:
“A Poor Man Escapes” (short story, 1927)
“The Dieppe Raid.” (1942/1961)
"Partner! You Have Trumped My Ace.” [Review of The Complete Card Player] Daily Graphic, 28th Sept. 1949.
“The Shameful Dream” (short story, 1951)
“Diving through 22 Centuries. An Underwater Report on Mediterranean Treasure.” The Sunday Times, 19th April 1953.
“El Dollarado--A Transient’s Scrapbook from New York.” The Sunday Times, 28th June 1953.
“Treasure Hunt at Creake Abbey.” The Sunday Times, 26th July 1953.
“The Caves of Adventure, Part One.” The Sunday Times, 16th Aug. 1953.
“The Caves of Adventure, Part Two.” The Sunday Times, 23rd Aug. 1953.
“The Secrets of Interpol.” The Sunday Times, 4th Sept. 1955.
“The Great Riot of Istanbul.” The Sunday Times, 11th Sept. 1955.
“Delinquents and Smugglers.” The Sunday Times, 18th Sept. 1955.
“Birth Pangs of a Thriller.” W. H. Smith’s Trade News, 31st March 1956. Original manuscript, (titled “Bang Bang, Kiss Kiss--How I Came to Write Casino Royale”) reprinted in Talk of the Devil.
“London’s Best Dining.” Holiday, April 1956. Original manuscript (titled “When Did You Stop Eating Your Wife?”) reprinted in Talk of the Devil.
“Adventures in the Sun: The Remora’s Fearful Kiss.” The Sunday Times, 1st April 1956.
“Adventures in the Sun: Blue Mountain Solitaire.” The Sunday Times, 8th April 1956.
“Adventures in the Sun: To Flamingo Land.” The Sunday Times, 15th April 1956.
“Dangerous Know-How” [review of Scarne on Cards]. The Sunday Times, 22nd April 1956.
“More Adventures in the Sun: My Friend the Octopus.” The Sunday Times, 24th March 1957.
“More Adventures in the Sun: Treasures of the Sea.” The Sunday Times, 7th April, 1957.
“More Adventures in the Sun: He Sells Sea-Shells.” The Sunday Times, 14th April 1957.
“Nightmare Among the Mighty.” The Sunday Times, 30th June 1957 (aka “My Golfing Nightmare”).
“The Tragic Spy” [review of The Spy’s Bedside Book]. The Sunday Times, 17th Nov. 1957. [aka “The Heart of the Mata”]
“The Secret of Edgar Hoover” [review of The FBI Story]. The Sunday Times, 15th Dec. 1957. [aka “The Great Policeman”]
“Treasure Hunt in Eden: Pirate Gold.” The Sunday Times, 17th August 1958.
“Treasure Hunt in Eden: Butterflies & Beachcombers.” The Sunday Times, 24th August 1958.
“Treasure Hunt in Eden: Gold or No Gold.” The Sunday Times, 31st August 1958.
“Trouble in Havana” [review of Our Man in Havana]. The Sunday Times, 5th Oct. 1958.
“If I Were Prime Minister.” The Spectator, 9th Oct. 1959.
“Raymond Chandler.” The London Magazine, Vol. 6, No. 12, Dec. 1959.
“Russians Makes Mistakes Too.” Esquire, Nov. 1960. (aka “Soviet Espionage, Inc.”)
“Gary Powers and the Big Lie.” The Sunday Times, 11th March 1962.
“The Guns of James Bond.” Sports Illustrated, Vol. 16, No. 11, 18th March 1962.
“The Art, or Craft, of Writing Thrillers.” Oxford student body lecture from May 1962.
“Intrepid.” The Sunday Times, 21st Oct. 1962. Reprinted as introduction to Room 3603.
“The Case of the Painfully Pulled Leg--Some Caen--Some Cain’t.” San Francisco Chronicle, 16th Sept. 1963.
“Ian Fleming’s Jamaica.” The Sunday Times, 15th Aug. 1965.
Fortunately most of these items can be tracked down if you have access to a good library that has access to the British newspaper databases. I have managed to collect all of Fleming's Sunday Times material (including the third that isn't in Talk of the Devil) and most of his other published articles.
As for the Atticus columns, they haven't been reprinted (though Devil might feature a couple). Fleming apparently worked on the column from November 1953 to sometime in 1956, having switched the subtitle from "People" to “People and Things," since he didn't care much for pure gossip.
Fleming's Kuwait book State of Excitement has never been printed--though I hope someone can strike a deal with the Kuwaitis! In the meantime, the manuscript can be read in the Fleming collection at the University of Indiana.
The ultimately Holy Grail of unprinted Fleming would be the script for Moonraker, which wrote for the Rank organization. Unfortunately, no one has any idea what's become of it.
and you're right, I'm not going to be able to get that Queen Anne Press collection ... that Talk of the Devil volume included is the only part I would want (the other 17 volumes being the same books we all already have), and of course they're not selling that separately ... analogous to when a band like Pink Floyd puts out an expensive box set full of all the same old albums, which you have to buy again just to get a few previously unreleased bonus tracks
I just noticed, this Queen Anne Press is mentioned in Pearson: it was once owned by Lord Kemsley, Fleming's boss, "the literary policy of which Fleming himself was directing" ... no wonder they have exclusive rights to publish the Rarities volume
that's good to hear, since I tend to rate the films according to Fleming content. Pearson moves very fast once Casino Royale gets published, and the deal with Saltzman seems to come and go in a couple paragraphs before the final heart attack. I don't think Pearson mentioned any involvement with the filmmaking, nor reaction once the first two films had come out (Pearson just says he attended both premieres, and started to make a lot more money). Also the many long quotes from Fleming's correspondence are so self-deprecating it is hard to tell how seriously he takes his own creation. I think Pearson also skipped this bit, but that's right, Moonraker also began as a film proposal.
One thing Pearson does describe is the "dog-eared and heavily corrected" manuscript of Casino Royale Fleming sent to his friends to read, imagine if someone could publish a photographic facsimile of that
Neither am I, alas. I have checked libraries and booksellers all over the world, and none has Talk of the Devil.
Try Lycett's biography--it's not as well-written as Pearson but is longer and more comprehensive.
Here's a letter Fleming wrote to the Spectator (Oct. 26 1962) that touches on the movies:
I also recall that somewhere Fleming says those familiar with the book would be disappointed by the film of Dr. No, but that everyone else would have a wonderful time.
That would be a must-buy. And if I had £150,000 I would also buy this:
http://www.peterharrington.co.uk/corrected-typescript-the-man-with-the-golden-gun.html
Fleming hand-corrected typescript of The Man With the Golden Gun, with the final three lines added in his own handwriting!
cool! Fleming himself thought the film would be better with a giant squid! Ian Fleming now has official permission to be my Bond-film buddy
you can almost read those scans, maybe with a bit of photoshop magick you could save £150,000 ... is the whole thing there? I gave up scrolling before I clicked through all the scans
" I don't listen to hip hop!"
My current on going books are: The Pigeon Tunnel by John le Carré and Sandstorm by Lindsey Hilsum.
The pigeon Tunnel is "non fiction" and I highly recommend it to anybody who has enjoyed Carrés' writing before.
I have not formed my opinion on the Sandstorm as of yet. I need to read it through first and then fact check it, as is my habit with books with a documentary nature.
-Mr Arlington Beech
I've been listening to a fairly new podcast called Spybrary, and the Charlie Muffin series has come up regularly on the podcast, so I decided to check it out. I managed to find the first 7 novels in the series in second hand book shops and I'm halfway through book one. Based on what I've read so far I would certainly recommend it to spy fiction fans who have never read the series.
Also, check out Spybrary podcast as well. They have done a few Bond related episodes, as well as looking at authors like Le Carre, Deighton and Freemantle.
I used to love the Charlie Muffin books. IIRC, as with most long book series, the earlier ones are better but I'd Freemantle was an excellent writer. A very good TV movie was made of the first book starring a perfectly-cast David Hemmings. For some reason it's never had a dvd release, but I kept my old VHS because I loved the film so much. You can see on YouTube, though.
EDIT I tell a lie - it's available on DVD via this collection from Network
I am aware of the screen adaptation. I do plan to watch it once I'm done with the novel. I have been very tempted to buy that Armchair Cinema collection, but its fairly expensive to order it from South Africa so I might have to settle for the lower quality Youtube version.
He recently interviewed Jeremy Duns, who has written several essays on Bond and his own series of spy novels.
Highly recommended.
Just reached the part where Bond and Solitaire arrive in St Petersburg, Florida. Fleming really didn't like the lifestyle of the old folks there!!! His description is not flattering, at all.
BTW, the fight with the guy who was cleaning his rifle and started shooting Bond among the fishes in containers was very LTK.
I'm starting to appreciate LTK a lot more with LALD (the novel).
When checking his website http://www.tomwoodbooks.com/
You see "somewhat" of our own 007. To say the least.
However, the Dutch book cover (back) says forget James Reacher, forget Jason Bourne and forget James Bond. Of course I must disagree to the lastmentioned.
Did any of the forum member read Tom Wood and his Victor series and what were your thoughts on his character Victor?
I'd forgotten a couple of things about it from previous readings.
1. Mr Big isn't physically present in many of the scenes. Not like in the movie where he was much more visible. One scene in NY and another in Jamaica. Of course he is ever present, behind the scenes.
2 The climax on Skeleton Island takes place very quickly. Once Bond arrives in Jamaica(after a week long preparation which involves spending time on the beach!), the action passes very quickly. One minute they're in the cave with all the gold coins and the next Bond and Solitaire are being keelhauled behind Mr Big's big boat on which Bond has planted a timed limpet mine.
Don't get me wrong, it was great. Just seemed a bit rushed compared to other of Fleming's books.
I read this a few months ago: I enjoyed it but I can't really remember it that well, so I'm afraid I can't give a detailed opinion. It's worth a read, and I've got the sequel "The Enemy" on my reading list.
I'm currently reading "The Samaritan" by Mason Cross, the second novel in his Carter Blake series. Blake is a 'locating consultant', finding people who don't want to be found, such as serial killers. I'm really quite hooked on this one, and would recommend the series (at least so far!).
I have recently finished "The Black Widow" by Daniel Silva, the latest in a series of novels about Gabriel Allon, an Israeli assassin and secret agent. This was okay, but it seemed a little formulaic to me, and in parts it was possible for me to guess what was going to happen. Still worth looking at for Bond fans though.
I read Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy about 7 years ago, and not long afterwards I started reading the next in the trilogy but my reading of it stalled when I was about 75% done. I haven't returned to it since then, so I decided to start again and give it another go. I'm really keen to finish the Smiley vs Karla trilogy, so as much as I hate returning to the beginning, I had to just bite to bullet and start again because I remember very little of what I read before.
As a character, as a villain concept, with the SMERSH connection, and with the Voodoo connection, and his pattern of concealing himself and mundane crime operations behind a veil of superstition (and a simple action to harness natural predators to do his work) made him seem more fascinating than, say, the collective impression of the different versions of JB films' Bloefelds. Bloefeld is the adversary of at least a trilogy of stories, but Mr. Big actually seems like a lot more could be done with him.
One interesting thing is that, while many fans say the original Ian Fleming works are so different from the films, and I very much agreed with that based on my reading of Casino Royale, with LaLD I've double the sample size of Fleming. LaLD somehow felt like it had a closer kinship to the movies. It started out with the atmosphere of a 50's Hardboiled Crime Noir kind of thing, but as it got to the stuff with Bond shooting match in the aquarium warehouse, it started to take on a slightly different flavor (or maybe, an additional layer of flavor). I think part of it was how he went shopping for a few simple items that he used to discreetly break into the warehouse, even though these aren't Gadgets, they kind of feel like the prelude to an evolution towards the gadgetry-happy trope. The sequence were he orders and gets outfitted for his underwater journey, and is supplied by the Q Branch feels like part of this, too; even though it's just normal equipment: frog suit, a breathing apparatus, and a harpoon gun, they hit that "want gadgets" longing in a JB story.
Having read a large back catalogue of posts commenting on and analysing Fleming's work, I've notice that quite a few of the books are identified as "experimental." Which is something that I'm excited about, when I continue with the series. Yet, I'm kind of wondering. Casino Royale seemed pretty experimental; in terms of story structure it's wildly unconventional. Which I liked very much about it! Who would think to kick of a series of novels with such a strangely structured story? But now, looking at this second book, even if there is something of a sense that Bond is on a mission in this story that might very well set the pattern for books that follow on from it (killing off tentacles of SMERSH, one adversary per story at a time). But there's still experimenting going, a little bit, the playing with superstition as a practical means of getting a large number of people to obey out of fear; and then there's Solitaire, who is described clinically as having telepathy (but with the surrounding Voodoo trappings in the background, she is essentially a witch). I'm starting to wonder, though, are all the books in the series experimental, in one sense or another?
I think preceding the warehouse shootout with several pages of equipment assembling is part of that trick, as the shootout in the warehouse is rather outrageous. some moreso, some less so. There are a few he began as movie scripts before turning them into books (Moonraker, Dr No, Thunderball) and they tend to follow the more formulized plot structures, with damsels in distress, car chases, and big explosions. He always wanted to create a marketable series of adventures that could be sold to someone like Saltzman-Brocolli. But he also seems to have gotten bored or frustrated with the limitations, and would then do something very different. Aside from his plans to sell out, he hung out in literary circles and may have felt conflicting urges what he was doing with his writing. I think some days he wanted to be a literary type, some days he wanted to get rich from film rights, depending on his mood swings.
I'm not sure why he started the series with something so oddly structured as Casino Royale. Maybe because he was not confident there would even be a series when he wrote it. It was something he'd been playing with in his mind for several years, and he referred to his planned novel as "the spy story to end all spy stories". So maybe the success of his long-planned novel caused him to think in terms of a series, and therefor of a saleable formula? which he would then follow or divert from over the next decade, as he lost or regained faith that the film-rights would ever get sold.
would it be possible to split this thread in two?
What are you Currently Reading? (that is Bond related), and
What are you Currently Reading? (that is not Bond related?)
and maybe move the not-Bond-related child thread to the Non James Bond Discussion area, alongside What Film Did You Watch and Whats on TV etc?
I think this thread was originally all about Bondbooks until I started talking about Flashman above, but that was only because I couldn't find a general bookreview thread and misunderstood the purpose of this one. There's now probably a couple dozen non-Bond-related posts intermingled with the proper Bond-related posts over the last several pages.
If they can't be easily separated out, maybe I or some other volunteer should start a new general book review thread in the Non James Bond Discussion area
next time I finish a book, I'll look very very carefully, and if I still cant find an existing one, I'll start a new thread
youd think such a thread would already exist so I probably gave up too soon before
https://www.ajb007.co.uk/topic/22080/last-book-read/page/23/
https://www.ajb007.co.uk/topic/19484/last-book-you-have-read/page/6/
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Looking forward to reading all the books. I'm surprised at how much I enjoy them. They are fast paced, thrilling reads and I enjoy them as time capsules into the past. Truly something special about the 40s-60s era that is lost in our technological age.
This thread might be of interest. To post some reviews
and thoughts as you work your way through the Bond
Novels. {[]
if you have it you should read it and give us a review