Here you can find the thoughts of James Bond

Even if film makers have tried to increase the value in cinema going by offer us films in 3D the last couple of years, it is within the books you can really enjoy that extra dimension. Compared to films the books offer you to travel inside the characters mind and hear there thoughts and understand why someone choose to act like they do.

The Bond films can never offer you to travel inside the mind of Agent 007, but the books sure can. And that is one of the reason that they are so delightful. 

Below you can see a short passage from Ian Flemings Live and let die, the second novel in the series. This is the beginning of chapter 20.

IMMEDIATELY BOND understood why all these barracuda and shark were lurking round the island, how they were kept frenzied with bloodlust by this nightly banquet, why, against all reason, the three men had been washed up half-eaten by the fish.
Mr Big had just harnessed the forces of the sea for his protection. It was a typical invention – imaginative, technically foolproof and very easy to operate.
Even as Bond’s mind grasped it all, something hit him a terrific blow in the shoulder and a twenty-pound barracuda backed away, black rubber and flesh hanging from its jaws. Bond felt no pain as he let go of the bronze propeller and threshed wildly for the rocks, only a horrible sickness in the pit of his stomach at the thought of part of himself between those hundred razor-sharp teeth. Water started to ooze between the close-fitting rubber and his skin. It would not be long before it penetrated up his neck and into the mask.

So as I have said before, If you have not read the Bond books yet you have a great treat in front of you. Especially since there are no news what's so ever on the upcoming Bond film. Hopefully you will understand that films, compared to books are only the top of the iceberg.

You can order your first James Bond book from Amazon UK here, and Amazon US here.

The sly pornographic British magazine MAXIM copies blog news

Yet another British magazine has copied the blogs news about the upcoming James Bond book by author Anthony Horowitz coming in October 2018.

Last week I wrote about the fact that British tabloid Daily Express wrote about the blog's scoop in an on line article.

Now the sly pornographic magazine MAXIM does the same without mentioning either the Daily Express or my blog. But they do have a screen dump with my face on there site taken from my twitter account.

As before there is no link to this blog what so ever. The article has been shared 2 400 times according to their website. That is a sad miss on spreading this blog.

MAXIM uses the head line "THE NEXT JAMES BOND SAGA IS COMING IN 2018" as click bait for their article making all fans assume the article is about the next James Bond film. Especially since they use a picture of Daniel Craig for there article.

You can read there article here!

If I were to contact Maxim about the matter I am sure they would say that they only took the news from Twitter and never thought I had a reason for asking my question to Horowitz.

I did contact DAILY EXPRESS on the phone about it and when I asked them to at least ad a link to the blog they replied "Are you for real?"

So far the scoop has showed up at:

Daily Express
Maxim
Digital SpySensacine (spain)

Lets see if the news pops up elsewhere... Please let me know if you see it somewhere!

What a great birthday gift I got!

During December I turned 40 years old. To celebrate the occasion me and my wife travelled from Sweden to England. And one of the highlights of that trip was to meet some other James Bond fans and also arrange THE FLEMING WALK.

On the Friday during the weekend in England I meet with to new Fleming fans that I had not meet before. We decided to meet at the house of one of them and take a closer look at his magnificent literal James Bond collection. I dare to say that this must be the biggest Fleming collection in United Kingdom.

It was a very great day and we talked about all things book collecting, and other topics like Brexit and differences between UK and Sweden.

At the end of the stay the house owner presented to me a 40th birthday present. He had recently read my blog post about the value of the Domino letter and decided to give me one.
So there and then I received a 14th printing of the Pan Books Paperback version of Thunderball from 1965 with an original Domino letter.

I was stunned and very surprised by such a fantastic gift. It is truly nice, what social media has done to us fans and collectors. Something that years ago could be very lonely and nerdy is today very social.

So thank you so much for your kind gift my friend!

Below you can see a scan of the actual letter I received but to make it harder for fake letter to surface on the market I have changed the original colour of the letter. There are many small things that actually  needs to be looked at before knowing if your letter is an original.

JBIFC wrote an article about the letter last week. You can find that article here!

UK newspaper THE DAILY EXPRESS prints my blog news

Great start this morning.

I was contacted by two dear friends this morning with a link to the UK newspaper Daily Express and The Sunday Express. 

They have turned my recent blog post about the new James Bond book by author Anthony Horowitz into a news article.
That is a big steep for my blog even if the newspaper deliberately do not name the blog as a source and only mentions the questions as being asked by a "fan". But do remember where you read the news first.

It was right her on this blog post that this was mentioned for the first time. Sadly the Daily Express does not include a link to my blog. I could really need that support and it only teaches me to always remember to name the source even if I borrow some text or a picture. What goes around, comes around.

If you wish to head down to Daily Express and read their article on the matter you can click here. 

The article is on the Daily Express top spot chart at the moment.

I hope to be able to bring the true fans of the James Bond books more news in the future. Stay tuned and do follow the blog on facebook.

World exclusive: New release date for new James Bond story

There was may of us that got exited when Ian Fleming Publications announced that they had hired author Anthony Horowitz to write a second James Bond novel after his success with his first novel titled Trigger Mortis.
In the press release on the matter it was said that Horowitz second book will be released in the spring of 2018. I and many with me thought that the book would be released on Ian Flemings birthday on May 28th.

But today Anthony Horowitz told James Bond - The secret agent blog that he will not start working on the book until October 2017 and the book is sett to be released according to him in October 2018.

He does not state a reason for the date change but for the film fans this just might be a tiny hint that, maybe, just maybe, the estate wish to release the book in conjunction with a film to be released in Nov-Dec 2018. (far fetched?)

The date change has not yet been updated on the Ian Fleming Publications site. But as you can see below. The information comes from the writer himself.

It will be truly fun to follow Anthony Horowitz journey when he writes his second James Bond novel. I just cant wait to read it.

The different Swedish titles

If you live in a country where English is you native tongue I believe that subtitles or translations is not a normal part of your daily life. But if you, like me, live in Sweden then subtitling is something we get every day.

Title changes on books and films are also common even if you do not see them as often today as before, thanks to internet and day and date releases across the globe they are are not as beneficial as they used to be. The reason they do change the title is because the local managers simply think they will sell more units /admissions if they do localise them. 

Many of the James Bond continuation novels have sadly not been released in Sweden but all Ian Fleming novels has. Below is therefore a list of all the novels released in Sweden and the local title chosen for novel I have also added pictures of all 14 James Bond Swedish first editions.

Read them and weep of laughter.

Original title / Swedish title

Ian Fleming: 
Casino Royale / Casino Royal
Live and let die / Live and let die
Moonraker / Attack
Diamonds are forever / Death plays false
From Russia with love / Comrade killer
Dr. No / Death on Jamaica
Goldfinger / Goldfinger
For your eyes only / From a view to a kill
Thunderball / Thunderball
The spy who loved me / Beloved spy
On her majesty's secret service / In her majesty's secret service
You only live twice / You only live twice
The man with the golden gun / The man with the golden gun
Octopussy and The living daylights / Octopussy

Robert Markham / Kingsley Amis

Colonel Sun / Colonel Sun

John Gardner: 
Licence renewed / With a licence to kill
For special services / Special assignment for 007
Icebreaker / Icecold for 007
GoldenEye / GoldenEye

Sebastian Faulks

Devil may care / In the service of the devil

William Boyd
Solo / Solo

Charlie Higson
SilverFin / Silver fin
Blood fever / Blood fever

Below you can see all the artworks for the Ian Fleming Swedish first editions. 

 

Exclusive: Ian Fleming drawing by Jeffrey Marshall given to the blog

I have always been a fan of artist Jeffrey Marshall's James Bond drawings.
I am sure you have seen them on the internet or maybe even on the James Bond toys sold by Spy Guise many years ago.

Jeffrey has a great ability to make his drawings look glossy and three dimensional.

I therefore contacted him a few days back, suggesting that he would draw the new header for this blog. I was very happy when I received a prompt reply that Jeffrey sometimes visits the blog and that he would be happy to make such a drawing. And boy was he fast.

I suggested that he should use the below photo as inspiration for his drawing. I myself like that photo of Ian Fleming a lot. He looks a lot just like he writes, both indifferent and troubled at the same time.

I asked Jeffrey how he makes his drawings and his answer was:

I work in traditional pencil work and digital renderings combining both at some point. With all of the digital advancements, I have been  utilizing digital platforms more and more.

Feeling so happy about this collaboration James Bond - The Secret Agent and artist Jeffrey Marshall can now offer this drawing for sale as a print made by Jeffrey. All profits from this sale will then be donated to Wounded Warriors (a charity of Jeffreys suggestion). If you wish to order a print you can contact either the blog or Jeffrey on these links.

Drawing by Jeffrey Marshall

Photo of Ian Fleming 

Another James Bond connected drawing by Jeffrey Marshall

Rare Hebrew James Bond book added to the collection

A few days back I noticed a very rare book on Ebay.

It looked just like the UK Pan Books movie tie in for FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE (see photo below) but the text was in exotic Hebrew and the publication had been done in Israel. 

The price was not high. Including postage I paid £14 for the book and it arrived just a few days later.

It was then I noticed two funny things about the book.

First of all Hebrew is read from right to left so for me the book is read the other way around.

Secondly the story in the book is not FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE. It is actually THUNDERBALL.

It is hard to tell when the book was published but it says "Copyright 1691 by Glidrose Publications". I think they mean 1961, the correct year when THUNDERBALL was published.

Since the cover design comes from the FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE movie tie in the release of this book must be after September 1963 when that cover was released in the UK.

My guess is that this book was released in spring/summer of 1965 in Israel and I consider it a fun thing to have added to the collection. Especially since the book and cover does not match each other.

Hebrew version 

UK movie tie in version

Worst James Bond birthday card ever?

So this blog post does not have anything to do with the literary James Bond but I felt the need to share this with you any way.

A few days back it was my fortieth birthday. Actually it was December 15 that was the big day.

two of my brothers had therefore joint forces and bought me a present together.
But since they know I am a James Bond nut they decided to give me a James Bond card.

You can see the card below. is it not the worst James Bond card in history? They just do not come uglier then this. I laught out load when I saw it! What is it? A duck? I guess that there is no licensing fees involved this time :0).

Have you seen uglier James Bond greeting cards? Feel free to share them below.

 The card is made by Amanda Seymour and is owned by AB Pictura.

Christmas card from Ian Fleming Publications

Last year I received this Christmas card from Ian Fleming Publications. Today I had the great pleasure of receiving there new Christmas card for 2016.You can read their entire Christmas card/year in review below.

Last year this email included a lot of new information on what was to come later on. Sadly this year does not contain much to get extra exited about. But it is interesting to notice that Ian Fleming Publications works together with Random House Enterprises to make revenue from potential upcoming collectables. I myself sees a collaboration opportunity between IFPL and Floris, The London based fragrance maker that I wrote about here.

Below is the letter from Ian Fleming publications.

Dear All

Here we are again looking back at another busy year. 

Having seen the publication of the English language paperback editions of Trigger Mortis earlier in May, we were absolutely delighted to be able to announce in the Autumn that Anthony Horowitz will be writing a second James Bond novel for publication in 2018.  As with his first 007 novel, Anthony is planning to use one of Ian Fleming's television script outlines and, from what we've seen so far, it will be a cracker.

2016 has been a particularly colourful year in the IFPL office, as we've had a constant stream of wonderful comic book art for approval.  The two contemporary Bond series, Vargr and Eidolon by Warren Ellis and Jason Masters have been very well received, as has the mini-series Hammerhead by Andy Diggle and Luca Casalanguida. More excellent, creative partnerships are on board to continue the Bond series in 2017, and Felix Leiter will be having his own adventures in the capable hands of James Robinson and Aaron Campbell from January.   We thank Mike Lake and Dynamite for guiding us carefully through this vibrant medium.

Staying in the illustrated world, Titan Books are continuing their re-mastering of the original Express comic strips and published their second collection, Dr No - The Classic Comic Strip 1958-60, in the same stunning hardback format as their 2015 SPECTRE Collection.   And the Folio Society published beautiful editions of Casino Royale and From Russia With Love with illustrations by Fay Dalton.

Young Bond has been particularly active courtesy of Steve Cole with escapades in both May, Heads You Die, and September, Strike Lightning.   Red Nemesis, Young Bond's final adventure, is listed for May next year.

We were delighted when Pan MacMillan included Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in the launch of their new Collector's Library.   Chitty is in very good company, and the pocket, hardback format suits Joe Berger's illustrations extremely well.  

Our international publishing partners have continued to delight us with new editions of the Fleming titles as well, of course, as our new releases.

Random House Enterprises are kindly looking at opportunities for licensed products with focus on literary Bond.   The first offerings come from Out of Print who are producing stylish t-shirts and sweatshirts featuring some of the iconic covers from the original Fleming hardbacks. 

To support all this activity, our website has had a complete make-over and was re-launched in September (www.ianfleming.com).   Jo and Jonny worked tirelessly with the web developers, and we hope everyone enjoys the new experience.   Jonny is also very active on our behalf on social media, especially Instagram, which features on the website's home page and is well-worth following.

As for the IFPL team, we were very sad when our former Chairman and, of course, Ian Fleming's literary agent, Peter Janson-Smith, died in April this year and at the passing of our other former colleague, Gillon Aitken, in October.    Both were our good friends and wise advisers.   On a far happier note, we welcomed Romena Ratkeviciute to the finance team in February this year, and she has taken over the Finance Manager role while Tilly Cookson is on maternity leave. 

We send our best wishes to you all for the festive season and wish you a very happy New Year.

Yours

Corinne B TurnerManaging Director

Attached with there Christmas Card was a drawing of James Bond hunting Santa made by Jason Masters who drew James Bond in the two stories Vargr and Eidolon.