BOOK: James Bond Style. All style no substance.
Asp9mm
Over the Hills and Far Away.Posts: 7,535MI6 Agent
It’s a big tome. Splendidly massive like an encyclopaedia Britannica that ate some pies. Beautifully big and bound and well presented.
I had high hopes for this as it’s co-penned by Lindy Hemming, who by far in my opinion, got Bonds style absolutely spot on.
And when I got the box, I really wasn’t expecting such a great big heavy cloth bound book that looked so good.
On opening the book however, I quickly learned that although Lindy gives some insight into her tenure on the films, this book is mostly filled with double page spreads of weirdly chosen shots of heads, shoulders and faces, that show little of the clothes and style. With massive quotes of few words taking up whole pages, and the pages are big so the text can be read by my neighbours 200 metres away. Which is great as the neighbourhood can club together, buy one book and read it all at the same time if you rent a big field. Most of the pictures are stock that we’ve all seen before ad nauseum, with nothing much new at all apart from a few small production drawings.
The quality of many of the images are low in a small format book, but this is a big book, so they look awful. Not all of them. But a lot. And just odd choices of pictures too. Again, mostly of the actors heads showing nothing of the style alluded to in the text, what little of that we actually got. At £100 you expect Taschen level quality filled with exclusive content, anecdotes, filled to bursting with written content and stunning images of the Bond Style promised on the cover and spine and marketing blurb. Something to keep the Bond juices flowing in this barren time we are experiencing.
What you get is something else. Entirely…. something else.
No doubt “influencers” that got free copies will tell you this is the bestest of the bestest Bond books eveeer. They may be er….. influenced. I guess that’s why they got the moniker.
The thing that really annoys me though is page 7. Such a great new shot of Isabella, and it’s so blown up and low res that it makes you want to throw the whole book out of the window. But you’d need three people to do that, and they are all too busy looking for that same image on line in hi resolution.
Save your money. Bond is still dead.
At least the charity shop will do some good with the proceeds of this disappointing waste of trees.
This was a half arsed review influenced by a half arsed publication, brought to you by an uninfluenced Asp9mm.
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Comments
Yikes. Any redeeming qualities?
I agree with you about Lindy. He choices are aging well on the shelf.
Thanks for the review @Asp9mm ….I’ll save my money👍🏻 and the postman’s back 👀
Let me have a think on that first one and I’ll get back to you.
Lindy was brilliant. However, this is one choice that won’t be aging on my shelf. Charity shop in an hour.
Always like to take one for the team. It is a massive book. Such a waste.
Hmmm. My pre-ordered and eagerly anticipated copy shipped earlier this week and is currently winging its way across the Atlantic by FedUp and due to be delivered next Thursday. Too late to cancel, but as the nights get colder and longer, I will be in need of kindling.
My local Assouline showroom got the book in so I went to see it yesterday. I came to the same conclusions. I was hoping to learn something from it or see a new photo of a stylish outfit. But there's none of that.
This is part of the official description: "Thanks to its never-before-seen sketches, detailed fashion analysis, and extensive research by the series official archivist, no book in history has chronicled the sartorial aspect of the Bond franchise as comprehensively as James Bond Style."
My book chronicled the sartorial aspect of the Bond franchise far more comprehensively, at least as the character of Bond is concerned. The people involved with this book are aware of my book, and yet they still said this. It's insulting enough that I won't say anything kind about this book except for Lindy's foreward. That's the only good part of the book, but it's not worth buying this book for that. My book has some of the same stories from Lindy and can be had much more cheaply because I couldn't get permission to print any photo from the films.
As far as I know, no "influencers" were given free copies. I certainly was not. The book has been out for two weeks and I have yet to hear anyone rave about it.
Yours and Pete’s book is the polar opposite to this. Sure it doesn’t have the nice glossy screen shots or behind the scenes, never seen before images. Despite that insanely massive handicap, it rises head and shoulders above this tome, and will continue to do so for a very very long time into the future.
Thank you for that. This new book doesn't have the "nice glossy screen shots or behind the scenes, never seen before images" either. However, it will satisfy the people who were disappointed in the book Pete and I wrote because it didn't have photos. The average person looking for a James Bond style book just wants a picture book, not something they have to read. There have been some official Bond books released over the past few years that have been excellent. The Taschen Dr. No book, despite its insane price, offers something incredibly unique. Pete and I spent years on our book. James Bond Style looks like it was put together in weeks. While in some ways I'm glad that the book doesn't compete with mine, I am more disappointed that this book couldn't teach me anything new. Llewella Chapman's book taught me new things, and I'm grateful to her for that.
Well that is rather disappointing. I'm glad I didn't take the plunge to purchase this book. It sounded interesting.
That’s the kind of endorsement I prefer…I’ll grab this book instead when I’m more settled 🙂
Thank you, sir. And I feel that we charge a reasonable price for our book.
It’s certainly far more reasonable than the ‘official’ stuff 😁 and, undoubtedly, far more interesting and informative 🍸
Massively.
@Asp9mm WRT the opening post, is that a publicity shot for the book or did you take it? The reason I ask is, if the latter, I'd just like to say that's an impressive collection of items.
Author of 'An Ungentlemanly Act' and 'Execution of Duty'. The WW2 espionage series starring Harry Flynn.
It’s my photo. Cheers. It was quickly done with a few items that were easily accessible around me, but I wanted to do something that when you kept on looking deeper, you saw more stuff, but if you didnt, they’d be easily missed.
Thanks @Asp9mm, good review, so off the Christmas list 🍸️
Great review @Asp9mm. Thank you. That has certainly saved me a few quid!
I also agree that Matt and Pete's book is a gem and well worth the humble asking price!
I wonder, what about the Assouline Destinations publication. Is that equally as disappointing?