It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
You’re welcome. Always happy to help a fellow out. It goes to show that EON is truly a family. That’s why it’s worked out so well for over half a century. And why EON should NEVER sell Bond.
Bit pricey, innit? Well, it is the 007 Store I suppose...
Apparently, they have some last copies left for sale. I have one and can highly recommend it.
I guess that their excuse is that a book that expensive must take a long time to put together. 8-|
I know some people here don't like Daniel Craig getting a lot of the blame for the way the movie series went, but it really does seem he had a hell of a lot of sway. I'm not going to buy a £30 book to find out more though.
Casino Royale and Skyfall were fab, but he's my least favourite Bond actor.
True, but the reprints don't always reproduce all the images and text from the originals. Taschen's small-size reprint of its Mickey Mouse book is missing an entire chapter from the original.
I'm hoping for a more affordable version but can vouch for the small-size being limiting. I bought the Kubrick Archives in that format and it's inconvenient with the print size small, the photos being less grand than in the bigger book and a little harder to appreciate overall.
I suppose it's a case of "You get what you pay for." ;)
Love and Let Die: James Bond, The Beatles, and the British Psyche, by John Higgs
There were a few points where I thought the author didn't quite 'get' Bond, and even a couple where I wanted to shout, Partridge-like, "STOP GETTING BOND WRONG!", which cast doubt on the Beatles knowledge I was shakier on. And sometimes he didn't seem to like Bond all that much
Some of the coincidences and parallels were superb - I'd never picked up on the fact that the lovely Richard Vernon was in GF and A Hard Day's Night in the same year! - while some were a bit of a reach: "While Bond was battling SPECTRE, the Beatles were working with Phil Spector."
Thumbs up from me, overall; fun and fascinating, with a conclusion I loved.
I saved you all some money.
Haha!
These are lovely.
It's surprising how clear-eyed, and often critical, he is about Fleming in this soon after his death, with little of the mythology (he did this-and-that during the war, he was a connoisseur, etc.) that would later build up around Fleming's legacy.
While on the subject: in 2020 Queen Anne Press published Ian Fleming – The Notes by John Pearson, which collects his write-ups on the interviews he conducted for the biography. It's a fascinating book with lots of details that never made it into the finished book. By putting all the interviews and Pearson's commentary together readers can construct their own version of Fleming's life. Unfortunately it's out of print and pricey, but it belongs on every Fleming fanatic's shelf.
I'm really enjoying it; makes some excellent points, it's laugh-out-loud funny, and where he pokes fun at Bond it's from a position of knowledge and love.
Interestingly, in chapter 3 Amis argues that Bond is in fact an old-fashioned Byronic hero, namechecking Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. And who has played the male romantic lead in adaptations of both those stories?
Congratulations! I like this cover much more than that of bland American hardback, which is what I have.
And that's more than one can say about the many academic studies that have come afterward! They may be more analytical but certainly not more enjoyable.
That's something I noticed too. Dalton, more than any other Bond, had the Byronic good looks of a Heathcliff or Rochester. Oddly the point was lost on Amis himself.
Agreed. It should be on the shelf of every fan of the literary Bond, right next to Fleming (or Colonel Sun).
Oddly some prefer Snelling's book to Amis's. But from what I remember Snelling spent too much time going over the inconsistencies in the books, whereas Amis spent more time on proper literary criticism, which he was very skilled at.
I have Snelling on my shelf - like @Dragonpol, I acquired it in the '90s, that golden age for acquiring '60s books. I must give it a re-read as I can't remember it at all.
I acquired it in 1997 myself. There definitely seemed to be more of those classic '60s books around then before everything of value went on eBay. I recall Snelling giving the reader a rundown of the plot and the characters like the Bond girl and villain whereas Amis just got on with it. Of course Snelling had some interesting criticisms and observations in there too but he used a different approach to Amis. The James Bond Dossier is definitely the better book in my opinion but Double O Seven James Bond: A Report actually sold more copies with over a million copies sold in paperback alone. The two books make a nice companion piece and Snelling's book is good at conveying what it was like to be a James Bond fan in about 1963 or so.
An interesting, quick read. Sir Roger Moore, charming as always. Based on his interview, I think Peter Hunt didn't want to come back when Moore was Bond. Simply, because he didn't view Moore as Bond, even after working with him. That's a shame, as they would have been an interesting pair. I think Tom Mankiewicz was interesting, but he seemed to view Bond as a unique individual. Not in the way that Fleming wrote him. Props to Timothy Dalton, as he was truly trying to do something different. John Glen was fun to read as well. I'm thankful that Michael G. Wilson is seemingly open about talking about the Bond process. That will be missed when he's gone.
The only bad interview in it was the Richard Maibaum interview. He was disgustedly so full of himself, while criticizing others. While egos are always in the media business, he was as much of a hothead like Lazenby. Dear Richard "The Dick" Maibaum in the afterlife: You were NEVER the only one who could write Bond successfully. I'm still conceived that EON wouldn't let him direct a Bond movie because he would be more of a dictator than a director. He also criticized actors, for either changing his words, or not saying them the way he wanted. However, Goldberg said that he and Maibaum (rightfully so) got in trouble with EON for that particular interview. So, while I am thankful for Maibaum's scripts, I can't respect him as a team player. He was honestly lucky that he didn't get fired for that interview. I'm sure that if he was offered NSNA he would have taken it.
So overall, I do recommend it. A great blast from the past.
Thanks for this review. I didn't even know this was out there as there are countless small press Bond books out there, but I recognized Lee Goldberg's name. I think he may have been a contributor to Starlog, a great source for Bond interviews back in the pre-internet days.
You're welcome. Even the NSNA stuff was interesting. I sometimes wish that Lorenzo Semple Jr. would have written an EON Bond or two. He could have been more witty than Tom Mankiewicz at times. Like I said, a quick, addicting read.
https://www.amazon.com/James-Bond-Films-1962-1989-Interviews/dp/1954840896/ref=pd_ci_mcx_mh_mcx_views_0_image?pd_rd_w=Ng0RJ&content-id=amzn1.sym.bb21fc54-1dd8-448e-92bb-2ddce187f4ac:amzn1.symc.40e6a10e-cbc4-4fa5-81e3-4435ff64d03b&pf_rd_p=bb21fc54-1dd8-448e-92bb-2ddce187f4ac&pf_rd_r=S1NWDE2X3HY2N51BCJXE&pd_rd_wg=77TkH&pd_rd_r=6575f1c2-bc50-485d-814f-a333a53ffad8&pd_rd_i=1954840896
Yes, thanks from me too, @MaxCasino. I didn't know this was out so I've ordered a copy. This covers my favourite era of James Bond films to be honest (1962-1989) not that I don't appreciate much of what came after too. These earlier films just had a more classic feel to them I think.