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Incidentally, I've just started reading his novelization of Licence to Kill. That and GoldenEye are the only two of his I've never read. I found the introduction rather amusing actually. It gives some insight into his relationship to James Bond. Anybody who sticks with it through some 14 novels clearly has taken the mantle to heart.
Here's a portion of his introduction:
"In 1979...I was invited by Gildrose Publications—the literary copyright owners of James Bond—to take up the late Ian Fleming's mantle and write some continuation James Bond novels.
"Both Gildrose and myself realized that we could fall flat on our faces. We also knew that, as far as those self-appointed guardians of literary taste—the critics (known in the trade as the Sixth through Sixth-Thousand Horsemen of the Apocalypse)—we were in a no-win situation. As it turned out, our original deal for three books has grown into eight; I am writing the ninth, and the company who owns me has just signed me for three more.
"While the reviewers appear to dislike the fact that I am not Ian Fleming, the book-buying public seem to have eaten the new Bond novels alive. Nobody could be happier than I, for my job is to entertain, to possibly excite, certainly stimulate, and this I appear to have done with the James Bond books: no mean feat when you consider that I have produced an average of one a year, plus one of my own works of fiction a year since 1979 (I am well-known for my natural streak of modesty).
"I apologize for not being Mr. Fleming, just as I apologize for the reviewer who believes there are no moving parts in a computer, the one who imagines that all cigarettes are white, and the one who thinks the books are sexually tame because his memories of the Fleming novels are that his parents regarded them as dirty books so he read them in secret. Grow up all of you.
"I do not apologize for the book you are about to read. It is a collectors' item, for it has absolutely nothing to do with my series of James Bond books. It is unique, being the only book-of-the-film I am ever likely to write."
And he continues from there. But I found his straightforth remarks toward the critics particularly enjoyable.
Can probably be found individually on eBay if you don't mind 2nd hand.
As mentioned above, @Dragonpol may be your best bet.
James Bond Christmas Memories 2 and 3 (The most recent has been put first for specific reason). Now, this is quite a big post as I have had it prepared for days and have added as I’ve gone along. I hope that you all make it through the whole post without it getting boring for you. Please enjoy.
My next memory of a James Bond Christmas came in 2011 or 2012 (can’t remember which one I’m afraid). This wasn’t one of the movies watched on TV but a DVD that I’d thrown on, on Christmas Eve. It’s around 6pm, pretty much everything was prepared after a hectic day, for the following days activities at my mums. I needed something to watch, something festive but something that would keep me wide awake and engrossed for a couple of hours. Anyway, it was always going to be a James Bond movie, so I popped in the DVD of the following entry in the series:
Yes, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service was the obvious choice. Set, mostly, around Christmas time it was just what I needed.
Anyway, there I am, sat watching intently through the pts and then the titles, when all of a sudden my daughter, who was 8 or 9 at the time, sat down with and started asking questions about what I was watching. I explained to her that it was James Bond and her reply was “Well, I know that Dad……..which one, durr?”. Charming eh? Anyway, rather than carry on with the movie, I was asked, no sorry, ordered, to go back to the beginning so she could see what the whole fuss was about. I had mentioned to her that part of it was set at Christmas and there was lots of snow scenes and it looked beautiful. Thankfully, that piqued her interest and the movie was started again. I swear that, to this day, that was the quietest she has been for 2 hours or so during her 13 years on this earth.
We sat there, huddled under a blanket in complete silence all the way through the movie and it brought back memories of an earlier Christmas with my mum (which I will post about on my next advent day). It was wonderful sharing it with my little girl. My lads, who are older, while they do enjoy the odd James Bond movies (mainly the new ones), they have no interest in sitting with me to watch one so this was something special.
Suffice to say, this became my daughters favourite Bond movie. She has seen the others (no choice really, haha) but, while she does enjoy them, they don’t have the same impact on her OHMSS does. So, in a tradition that came into force during the Christmas I talk about, we now sit and watch OHMSS on Christmas Eve, time permitting, or any other day during the festive season.
My daughter’s favourite scene in the movie is this one:
She just finds it very funny and I think she finds the food that they’re eating funny and a bit odd because that’s all that is on their plates. She, also like myself, thinks Ruby Bartlett is a hoot and loves the fact that she is from Morecambe Bay, which is down the road from us and where I work.
As for me, my favourite scene is this one, very exciting and a thrilling rush from start to finish:
But there is also an honourable mention to this one, a cracking scene:
Great stuff from a wonderful Bond movie.
Back to what I’m talking about. I love the fact that something I am passionate about, I can share with my daughter, especially this. With my lads, I have football and music and with my daughter I have James Bond (among other things – my daughter seems to enjoy most of the things I do, more so that the boys).
So, there you have it. A further James Bond Christmas memory from myself that I hope you find a good read. I have one more to go, below, one which means very much to me.
Away from the memory, I have always thought it such a shame that George Lazenby never did another Bond movie. I thought he was excellent in his first big acting job and could have gone on to be a great 007. At 29, when he made OHMSS, he could have had many years ahead of him. Alas, it wasn’t to be.
Therefore, please see below a clip from an episode of The Return Of The Man From U.N.C.L.E, where he get a nice cameo from Mr Lazenby as a character called JB, who drives an Aston martin.
Next up is this episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents that stars George Lazenby as a secret agent called James ????. He’s a bit older and greyer here but, still, he’s still looks and sounds good.
And to finish with this part of the post, here’s a little picture I found on the internet of George Lazenby as Bond, all Christmassed up.
Next – I go back to 1986 and one of my favourite Bond memories, not just at Christmas, but of them all (and there have been quite a few 007 memories over the years). This came on Christmas Day of 1986 and it saw the premier of the “rogue” (as I’ve seen it called) Bond movie. That, obviously, gives it away, but here’s the trailer anyhow.
Yes, Never Say Never Again was the first, Connery starring, Bond movie I saw over the Christmas period and, lucky for me, it was the network premier on ITV. It was on with the video recorder (the first time I had been able to do this) and as soon as it started I pressed record. I’ll admit to being surprised that there was no gun barrel and no title sequence, like I’d been used to, but this was Bond so it didn’t matter to this 13 year old as I was soon mesmerised by a cool Connery and the whole of the movie. I, specifically, remember laughing at the scene where he leaves the guy with the cigarette case, telling him not to move. Very funny. I also remember thinking that Small-Fawcett was a bit of a plonker and that the Pat Roach character was “him outta Auf Wiedersen, Pet”. Anyway, at the time, I loved it. It was a new Bond movie for me to see at home, it was full of action, girls and, pretty much all the elements I had come to expect from a 007 movie.
I have to say that, because I was 13 and none the wiser, I didn’t realise that it was an unofficial Bond movie until later years.
My favourite scene in the movie is probably the scene where Bond and Largo play the Domination game. I think as a 13 year old, the thought that there could be a game like this really appealed to me and I just loved it.
Anyway, all that is by the by and has no reflection on why this is one of my favourite Bond memories, if not the best.
The reason that this is such a cherished memory is easy – My Mum. Now, my mum wasn’t a big Bond fan like I am today, but she did always like any of the 007 adventures that starred Sean Connery. Connery was a big a hit with her and, when the subject of Bond arose, she would always tell me that Connery’s Bonds were the best. Not because she thought they were, but because she, quite obviously, had a soft spot for him. She especially loved his voice. So, on this Christmas Day in 1986, curtains were closed, the light was off and me and mum got comfy on the sofa, blanket around our legs, and we sat and watched NSNA. Bond movies had been on at Christmas time before but this was the first time that I had seen a Connery Bond at Christmas and, therefore, the first time mum would also sit and watch with me (she wasn’t a big fan of Roger Moore I’m afraid). It was great and I could have sat there and watched another one if I would have done. Afterwards, we talked about what had happened in the movie but all my mum would talk about is how good Connery was, even though he’d obviously aged in the time from DAF to this.
From my first experience of Bond, my mum would always end up buying me something Bond related and, even though not the biggest fan herself, she would encourage me to be the best fan I could, even in to adulthood (I’m now 43).
Anyway, from this time on, anytime Bond came up in conversation, my mum would always tell he that Connery was the best and her favourite and I’d tell her how Sir Rog was mine. It was always great fun having these little chats and something that I will never forget. She always made sure that every Christmas there would be something related to 007 in my Christmas box, every single year.
Unfortunately, I lost my mum in January 2015 suddenly, just after her 59th birthday. I miss her terribly and I have such amazing memories of her from all sorts of things. I will miss our little Bond chats and her little playful little comments and winks to the missus as she’s winding up that Roger Moore wasn’t very good. RIP Mam…
So, Never Say Never Again, while not my favourite Bond movie by any stretch of the imagination, back in 1986 it really was and it will serve as one of my favourite Bond memories of all. And because this half of the post relates to Never Say Never again, I’ve attached a couple of videos below.
This first one features a Film ’83 special where we see Barry Norman interview Sean Connery:
Secondly – here is the Lani Hall music video for the title track. Not sure about her tuxedo.
And finally on Never Say Never Again, here’s a video from the Royal Premiere.
Next, and for my mum, who I’m sure will be reading this, I have popped a couple of videos below. The first one, is the quote the introduced Sean Connery as Mr Bond and the most immortal line in Bond movie history. Don’t think I need to say anymore, as I’m sure you know what’s coming:
And secondly, again for Mum as well as you lovely lot on here, is a tribute video to his time as James Bond:
So, a Merry Christmas to you all once again and a special one to me Mam. For my last little items on this thread, please enjoy this picture of a festive Sean Connery. I know Mum will approve.
Also, here is one of my favourite pictures of Bond and, the lovely, Moneypenny with a little update for Christmas.
And one final thing – something I am sure we can all agree on –
Hope you all found this interesting in some way and you enjoyed the pics and videos. This was a tough write up for me, typing about Mum, who had a big influence on me growing up and with Bond. I had to make sure I had this written up in advance as there were a few tears shed while I was typing.
So, as this is my second and last date for posting an advent calendar post, may I wish you all the very best for Christmas and for the New Year ahead.
Cheers
John (Shark_0f_Largo)
I really like your OHMSS tradition :D
I lost my mum this June. The first Bond I saw on cinema was AVTK. With Her. Nothing more to add.
Apologies about the Diamonds Aren't Forever video. However, it is available to view on the YouTube website for your enjoyment.
OK, Jason, I'll do 24th December 2016 - Christmas Eve as well if that suits?
I know Christmas Eve will be in good hands with you!
I will do the last day December 31st, that's fitting I guess as I also did the first day December 1st.
My pleasure. I'll do my best for you and the thread! Hopefully we can get the other dates filled.
Happy Christmas to you in the meantime, Jason! :)
I will take Dec. 30th. :)
Remaining days: 24th, 27th, 28th, 30th
December 19th: @Dragonpol
December 20th: @PropertyOfALady
December 21st: @Shark_0f_Largo
December 22nd: @CraigMooreOHMSS
December 23rd: @0BradyM0Bondfanatic7
December 24th: @Dragonpol
December 25th: @TR007
December 26th: @BeatlesSansEarmuffs
December 27th:
December 28th:
December 29th: @MajorDSmythe
December 30th: @4EverBonded
New Year's Eve: @BondJasonBond006
Great post! Funny you mention watching NSNA on Christmas Eve 1986. I remember the film had it'e television premiere in The States on the ABC network about a month earlier and of course I had taped it. Luckily, unlike most of the other Connery Bond's, very little was cut.
That Christmas Eve, my folks were out doing something so I got to spend Christmas Eve with my Grandma, and we watched NSNA. Probably the only Bond movie we ever watched together all the way through. I've always had a soft spot for that rival Bond. 1986's Christmas Eve was one I always think about around the Holidays.
Ah, fantastic. No matter the movie, rogue or not, there's always a really great memory. Thank you.
:D
Yes, which remaining date would you like to do, @Agent_99? There are only two left to fill now.
@ggl007 thank you for posting yesterday :) otherwise it would have been an empty window, I think CraigMooreOHMSS forgot about it.
Remaining days:
December 22nd: @ggl007 (for CraigMooreOHMSS)
December 23rd: @0BradyM0Bondfanatic7
December 24th: @Dragonpol
December 25th: @TR007
December 26th: @BeatlesSansEarmuffs
December 27th: @Birdleson
December 28th: @Agent_99
December 29th: @MajorDSmythe
December 30th: @4EverBonded
New Year's Eve: @BondJasonBond006
Let me thank you all for your posts so far. Such a great place this community is.
XOXO Jason
See the OP by Jason. It gives all the details.
Christmas is now just days away, meaning that not long after that the new year of 2017 will arrive with its unique pains and pleasures not yet known to us. I don’t know about any of you, but I’m not a fan of New Year’s Resolutions or the cultural emphasis on making them annually. I’m the kind of person that hates making self-promises because the premature expectation I’ve set to do something or act in some way almost surely guarantees I will buckle under the pressure and strain of that pact. Because of this, New Year’s Resolutions feel more like the lies we’re forced to tell ourselves we’ll improve on with a fresh start in 2017, instead of actually living up to ideals of healthy life and living.
Because this is a Bond forum and the new year is just a week away, I wanted to give an alternative to doing resolutions. Though he is misrepresented as a misogynist, sexist and an all-around cold bastard by some out there in this cruel world of ours, James Bond has characteristic traits that make him a perfect model of how-to living. In this holiday season I thought I would compile a list of qualities Bond has that would do us personal good to adopt in order to make 2017 and all the years beyond it a more enjoyable, enriching and worthwhile experience.
0PERATION: NEW YEAR, NO FEAR
6 WAYS TO LIVE LIKE BOND IN 2017 AND BEYOND
7
1.) Cool Under Pressure- Whether he’s being held at gunpoint in a train carriage while a sadistic blonde assassin mocks him or praying his privates don’t get singed by a laser being pointed at him by a madman with a gold fetish, James Bond is always cool under pressure. He quite frankly wouldn’t be as successful an agent as he is if he trembled at the sight of every gun barrel he saw pointing toward his center of mass or release his bladder alongside the hint of any danger to life or limb.
Although none of us are spies like Bond with a licence to kill (at least, I don’t think so…), we can adopt his unflappable nature to our own lives. Heading to a job interview for a position you want with heavy competition from other applicants? Shove down your anxieties, hold your chin high and walk confidently. Don’t let your fears or lack of confidence show and purport to be a cool-headed and assured applicant. Do you have a person you’d like to ask out to get to know better? Go by Bond’s playbook, axe the pick-up lines and talk to the person with a confidence that isn’t arrogant on the face of it. Make it seem like your life depends on his or her every word and suppress the anxiety and fear of rejection you have by realizing you’re just two people talking things over and searching for similar interests.
Bond isn’t a superhuman robot; he feels fear all the time, but by not showing it or letting it rule him, he is able to do his job with efficiency. And because none of us in our everyday lives will ever have to face something quite so dramatic as the theft of NATO nuclear missiles or the death of plant and animal species through the threat of bacteriological warfare, we should have a leg up on Bond when it comes to facing our problems head on and coming out on top.
2.) Live Life to the Full- When you’re secret agent James Bond “danger” becomes your default middle name and you face death with such an intimate frequency that you and the Grim Reaper are basically on speaking terms. Because he realizes that his life could be taken from him at any moment, whether it’s from an arch-villain like Blofeld or a random thug shooting a bullet from the shadows, James Bond makes a point to live his life to the fullest. He enjoys all the simple and complex pleasures on offer to him, whether those may be the best wines, women, suits and fast cars or coffees, breakfast meals and a good game of baccarat. This is a man who has “The world is not enough” as his family motto after all; he doesn’t settle for the ordinary or get complacent with the status quo.
While most of us don’t have access to any lover we want, an Aston Martin or Bentley to tear down winding roads nor a set of suits tallying thousands or dollars in cost (again, at least I don’t think so), we can take Bond’s stance on existence to heart in our own ordinary lives. While regrets in life are inevitable, there’s no excuse for not doing the things your heart is calling for at every opportunity presented to you. Ever wanted to travel to a specific location? Try to line up the right time to take a trip and save up for it as a treat for your hard work in a calendar year. Been wanting to dive into a book or series everybody has been telling you that you need to experience? Try to carve in some time for yourself at the end of each day and engross yourself in those worlds to see if they’re for you. Ever wanted to tell someone close to you something important, but you can never find the right time to address it? Speak up and realize that things can change forever in a second’s time, with you possibly losing your chance to say something you’d regret not telling the person later on.
As Bond muses in the last Fleming novel, life should be experienced in full without you taking strict precautions that extend it in sacrifice of truly living and taking risks and chances that could change things forever and enrich you indescribably. Don’t get too crazy though, as smoking the packs of cigarettes Bond does a day and guzzling his steep level of drink orders will kill your lungs and liver, and you kinda need those to stick around for as long as I hope you all do.
3.) A Culture Maverick- Because the life of a licensed agent of the British government demands a heavy load of globe-trotting, James Bond has gotten to visit an amazing spectrum of locations near and far from his homeland, experiencing rich cultures of the world firsthand. One of the greatest and most admirable things about Bond is that he doesn’t just travel to a location and shut himself off from everything but the mission. Instead he opens his heart and mind in quiet moments to the culture and people of the location he finds himself in to enrich his own spirit and learn a few new things about the fascinating world he finds himself inside along the way. While in Turkey on the scent of a duplicitous Lektor plot, Bond takes some time to relax and enjoy a belly dance in a gypsy village just as he carves out time to let the culture of Japan overtake him (literally and figuratively) while investigating the theft of space shuttles. There’s never a bad time to investigate a culture and let a bit of the land into your blood, wherever you may be.
I know many of us have the travel bug, and Bond’s love for culture and a thirst for fresh knowledge and experiences make this particular ideal of his easy to live up to. Whenever you find yourself outside your comfort zone or native nation, do yourself a favor and get to know the place you find yourself in beyond visiting all the biggest tourist centers. Try any foods and drinks you can to get that local flavor, seek out locations that ignite your interest and try to pick up a few tricks and insight about life from the people who call it home as you go along. I followed Bond’s playbook on a recent trip I took to Ireland, and by navigating the place in a fashion not unlike his, my experience of the place was far more profound. I allowed myself to open up to all the stimuli of the place, and sought out locations rich in history to the Irish people in order to understand why their culture means so much to them.
Whether you find yourself in a town just hours from your home or across the globe in a France, London, Denmark or Switzerland, let the location become you, and you it to widen your experience of the world through your surroundings and its amazing history, as echoing and strong as a pulsating heartbeat. The next time you’re around friends you will then be able to impress them with a bit of the location’s native language, share an experience you had visiting a notable historical location or wax poetic about the scents, textures and moods of the areas you frequented.
4.) Dress For Every Occasion- When you’re a 00 agent visiting new and varying locales every other week you need to have a diverse rotating wardrobe of styles on hand to look the best in every moment with strict attention paid to comfort and relevancy. For example, if you’re heading to Florida in the heat of summer and need to dress looking ready to conduct business, opt for a lighter fabric to your suits like a linen as opposed to the thick and heavy flannel so that you don’t have a waterfall cascading down your underarms and atop your brow. In the same token, if you’re heading out to a dinner with friends that is relaxed and fun by design, select a style that is at the middle road of casual and formal so that you look presentable but not overly styled (Bond would probably go for a polo with khakis here).
While we might not have access to the kinds of mega-expensive suits Bond has worn in the past, from his Sinclair cuts to his Tom Ford styles, the way our favorite secret agent approaches his wardrobe can teach us lessons about dress on any budget heading into a new year. The Connery films are a perfect visual aid of how to wear any kind of style items, especially when it comes to suits. In those movies Bond wears fine suits with perfect fits that look great on him and fashionable for the day without being too “loud” in their appearance, fitting for a spy who endeavors to hide in plain sight out in the field. Bond’s default suit in the early Bond films was a gray suit with a simple white or pale blue dress shirt, accentuated with a navy tie. It’s a consciously simple palette of colors because Anthony Sinclair, Terence Young and Sean Connery knew that Bond’s style had to be timeless and hold up decades after the films were released. And sure enough, walking down a busy business district in 2017 dressed in the kinds of suits Bond wore in films like "Dr. No" and "From Russia with Love" will look as natural as it did in the heat of the 60s.
Whatever your personal style heading into 2017, shoot for the timeless quality Bond strives for and be mindful of color. Choose clothing whose palettes accentuate your own features to best realize yourself as a style maverick in the vein of a Sean Connery. Brunettes with brown eyes wearing a blue polo will pop because of that color mixture, just as a blue-eyed woman would in a nice summer dress of the same vibrant color. If you need to seek out formal styles for business a navy suit is a go-to suit for any season, and gray palettes will set you up for success just as well. If you’re seeking more casual looks, Bond’s polo shirts are a surefire and timeless style item to fall back on if you’re an enterprising male, whereas the Bond ladies out there could seek out the kind of ageless looks expressed by women like Daniela Bianchi, Claudine Auger and Eva Green in their respective films. Dressing to your strengths and assembling ensembles that avoid a loudness in style and hue will put you that much closer to meeting the high fashion mark of the best of Bond style embodied by Sean Connery in the old days and Daniel Craig in the new.
5.) Prepare to Be Prepared- With the familiar knowledge that the status quo is simply a soft name given to the quiet that precedes a storm that can upset any situation, James Bond makes a point of being ready for any eventuality before he’s backed into a corner he can’t escape from. Thinking twelve steps ahead, Bond is the kind of man to lay little traps in his hotel rooms to catch stealthy intruders in the act of eavesdropping, always makes sure his PPK is cleaned and jam-free and makes a point to vet every contact and source of information in the field before acting on any of it. Such behavior is only inevitable for the climate in which he finds himself in as a 00, as natural to him as breathing by his age.
Although we won’t ever find ourselves wishing we’d set up an escape plan when we’re caught red-handed by a SPECTRE assassin or reprimand ourselves for not listening to Q’s gadget briefing when we’re searching for the “flamethrower” button (or was it a lever?) in an Aston that’s being tailed in hot pursuit, Bond’s preparedness can serve us even in our less exciting lives. Do you face the dragon of time management on a daily or weekly basis? Seek out a planner to jot down all the important events and appointments coming down the pipeline so that nothing passes you by or surprises your manufactured order of things. If you’re a student with dreams of applying to a specific college, put all your energy towards realizing that dream, but be smart and apply to back-up colleges that meet your needs and aspirations as well to avoid a completely catastrophic outcome to your academic future if you don’t make it into that university. If you’re traveling and have heard conflicting news reports about the coming weather bring along supplies that will allow you to face both weather patterns, whether it’s a heavy hail, slippery snow or rampaging rain.
If you ever find yourself asking the internal question of, “What could go wrong?” that should be an immediate red flag to your brain’s wiring that you need to prepare for an unfortunate or dissatisfying outcome to the approaching problem, whatever it may be. It’s a very human error to think that the misfortunes of others witnessed in the aftermath of their failed planning can’t happen to us, so compensate this biological fault in our programming by preparing for any number of outcomes to an event. You can remain as confident as Bond would be when planning for any possible setbacks or failures in life’s planning, and can rest easy knowing that the groundwork you put in to avoid these outcomes will save you untold time and energy later.
6.) Great Sport, This!- Whether it’s golfing, boxing, swimming, bunting or a bit of frolicking in the sheets of a king size with a lover whose name he may or may not remember the next morning, James Bond knows the inherent value of recreation and its importance to sanity and relaxation. When you spend your weeks bouncing from Istanbul to Tokyo, Paris and Austria dodging whizzing bullets from overhead, take pains to untangle your neck from the garrote wires of enemy assassins on the regular and spend hours cleaning up your Aston after it gets scuffed and punctured with bullets following a heavy pursuit through tourist heavy districts, the weekends should offer you some kind of respite from all that craziness, however fleeting.
Whether you like to throw around the old pigskin with friends, charge the fairways with your best drivers and wedges or fancy a quiet drive through the country that takes you just a little above the speed limit, moments like these reset your system, energize your body and get your head clear. Jobs and their workloads, bill payments and heavy social entanglements can spell doom for human energy and drive, and the best way to reset yourself after being crushed under these particular weights month to month is to get some fresh air, get your heart pumping and lungs sucking in that nice, clean oxygen outside those claustrophobic confines of adulthood’s many mind-numbing malaises.
Life in unpredictable, so like Bond you may be called away on appointment in the middle of one of these mini “vacations” to work, but the effort you put into making time for such relaxed moments of recoupment every once in a while will energize you anew and allow you to tackle the next set of challenges coming your way because you made sure you reset yourself the proper and healthy way. I’d recommend staying away from health clinics, however, because I have it on good authority from an anonymous source that those dreadful places are a breeding ground for Red Tongs and conspiracies to pilfer nuclear weaponry from crashed military planes. And trust me, you do not want any of that in your lives.
I hope you all take some of these Bond tenets to heart and are able to adopt as many of them as you are able to going into the new year and beyond to make your lives all the more rich in the process. If you keep anxieties and fear in check, live life without regret to the best of your ability, open your heart and mind to the world’s vast cultural fabrics, dress smart for every occasion, prepare for unsavory eventualities at work or at home and give your body and brain some time to recharge with a bit of recreation every once in a while, like Bond you will live a happier and healthier life.
I’ll finish this post on my last calendar day by posting a tribute I created to the spy we love so much around the time Skyfall came out. I wanted to give a visual and textual symbol of all that Bond means to me and other fans as a figure of great strength, endurance and bravery, using images of the past 23 films and the immortal words of Alfred Tennyson’s beautiful poem, “Ulysses” to do it:
http://orig12.deviantart.net/9e27/f/2014/118/6/6/tennyson__a_james_bond_tribute__by_bradymajor-d7gekmi.png
Though many things in life change, a lesson this year has taught us in spades, one thing will always remain, and that is our deep and unflinching love of Bond and the special six that gave and continue to give him cinematic life, along with the granddaddy of them all, Ian Fleming.
A Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to each and every one of you, with all my love going out to you and your friends and family in this special time of celebration, joy and giving.
XOXOXO
Brady
Thanks, @0BradyM0BondFanatic7!
As you could see previously, I loved your Tennyson tribute and I post it everywhere!
^:)^
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
Well, apart from the Lord Dragonpol making a bloody racket on his typewriter...
Which is my way of saying welcome to the Christmas Eve 2016 window on the MI6 Community Advent Calendar.
And for this special day I have some more literary Bond treats up my sleeve. First off here is a commercial; to promote Jeffrey Deaver's adult Bond continuation novel Carte Blanche (2011):
New James Bond Carte Blanche - Jeffery Deaver New Bentley Continental - 2011 CCTV Car TV HD
Followed by The Guns of James Bond which features Geofferey Boothroyd who inspired Major Boothroyd in Ian Fleming's Dr. No (1958) and who may have even indirectly inspired Q in the film series: