Wesley Britton's Blog - Posts Tagged "james-bond"

I’ve lost count of how many novels I’ve read over the years that fictionalize author Ian Fleming’s involvement in Naval Intelligence in World War II. In each case, known history, speculative biography, and obvious literary invention meet. Most yarns by the likes of Damian Stevenson and Aaron Cooley seek to present foreshadowings of what Fleming would write in his James Bond books. The imaginations of such writers are usually quite fanciful with Fleming being more the action figure than he actually was.

I can’t recall any previous work quite as literate as Francine Mathews’ To Bad to die which weaves flashbacks from Fleming’s childhood into his investigation into a Nazi plot to assassinate Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin at their November 1943 conference in Tehran to plan out the Normandy invasion. Very convincingly, Mathews sketches many portraits of important historical figures from the “Big Three” to their entourages and family members, code-breaker Allan Turing, broadcaster Edward R. Morrow, Chinese leader Chiang Kai-Shek, and U.S. ambassador to Great Britain, Averell Harriman.

Although little of this story happened or could have happened in 1943, Mathews is especially believable creating the milieu in which all these figures walked, notably using vocabulary and terms of English schoolboys when Fleming was young. Hints of the Bond books to come include references to martinis shaken, not stirred, a voice inside Fleming’s head giving him the alter ego of 007, a false passport giving Commander Fleming the fake name of James Bond, and a torture scene is clearly meant to seem the inspiration for a very similar situation in 1953’s Casino Royale. The death of Fleming’s father during World War I is offered as the psychological motivation for Fleming’s spinning out fantastic yarns. In short, Mathews digs deeper than many other writers to give readers more than a hot and fast page-turner.

Obviously, Bond fans, World War II buffs, and lovers of espionage yarns in general are a perfect audience for Too Bad to Die. Aficionados of suspense and mystery stories should find much to appreciate from Francine Mathews’ descriptive tale, even if few readers will miss the obvious clues that reveal who the main villain is long before he levels a pistol at Fleming. Still, I can’t help but think the actual creator of James Bond would approve of this one.


Purchase Too Bad to Die at:
https://www.amazon.com/Too-Bad-Die-Fr...

This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on Oct. 29, 2016:
http://dpli.ir/E1oQiL

Forever and a Day: A James Bond Novel
Anthony Horowitz
Publisher: Jonathan Cape/Waterstone's, London, England; First Edition (2018)
ISBN-10: 1911214772
ISBN-13: 978-1911214779
https://www.amazon.com/Forever-Day-Ja...

Reviewed by: Dr. Wesley Britton

Beginning with John Pearson's 1973 James Bond: The Authorized Biography of 007, Ian Fleming Publications has licensed a number of pre-Casino Royale Bond stories as part of their ongoing series of James Bond continuation novels. In addition, a number of unsanctioned books, often fictionalized versions of Ian Fleming's World War II experiences, have been published as alleged foreshadowings of the literary material Fleming would use in his James Bond yarns.

The longest-lasting sanctioned pre-MI5 Bond stories began with Charlie Higson's 2005 "Young James Bond" books which author Steve Cole took over in 2014.

In terms of the adult Bond, after long runs of Bond continuation novels by John Gardner and Raymond Benson, in which the character of Bond was "frozen in time" and emulated the cinematic aspects of the films, Ian Fleming Publications opted for a course change in 2014 beginning with Sebastian Faulks's Devil May care in a new series featuring books by various authors sticking as closely as possible to the spirit and flavor of the Fleming books, using settings and events occurring in the 1960s.

Then came Anthony Horowitz's well-received 2015 Trigger Mortis which took Bond back to the '50s, and included unused material by Ian Fleming himself. Horwitz, Bond, and a bit more unused Fleming material returned in 2018 with Forever and a Day, the latest offering set before the events in Casino Royale.

007 literary aficionados have been divided in their responses to Forever and a Day, with many a reader praising the book for its keeping close to the style and flavor of Fleming, its comparatively subtle introduction of many Bond tropes of the original novels, its revealing how James Bond got the 007 number, and the characters introduced by Horwitz, notably the love interest between Bond and "Madame Sixteen."

Add me to the list of critics who really, really liked Forever and a Day. I don't see much to complain about, especially as so many continuation novels were entertaining, readable, and completely forgettable. For me, Madame Sixteen is now one of my all-time favorite Bond girls, although calling her a "girl" isn't close to accurate. She's well-developed--in the literary sense--mature, resourceful, as good as an action companion as 007 could ever ask for.

True, that scene where supposed acid turns out to be merely water and some of the incursion scenes are a tad contrived, and nothing could be more contrived than Irwin Wolfe's rationalization for his motivations. But when was Ian Fleming ever flawless?

I'd wager most Bond literary fans have already read, evaluated, and passed judgement on Forever and a Day. It's the rest of you this review is for. If you're not a habitual reader of either Fleming or the continuation novels, is Forever and a Day a good read for you? Is it a good starting point, now being the first authorized 007 adventure in the chronological sequence of the canonical Bond?

Naturally, every reader should start with Fleming himself, and I recommend Dr. No, From Russia With Love, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, or Casino Royale. (Not coincidently, these became the best films.) In terms of continuation novels, yes, Forever and a Day is now an ideal starting point. It's the most memorable yarn in many a moon. More Horowitz, please.


This review first appeared at BookPleasures.com on June 15, 2019 at:
https://waa.ai/X1Dr

Ian Fleming's Seven Deadlier Sins: A Collection of Essays
Literary 007, Britton, Wesley, Amanatullah, Ihsan, Welton, Benjamin, May, Michael, Biddulph, Edward et al
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Independently published (December 28, 2019)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 48 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1652240144
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1652240143
https://www.amazon.com/Ian-Flemings-S...

Full Disclosure: Before May of this year, I didn’t feel I could write a credible review of this collection as I’m the author of the first article which takes up about 11 pages of the 48 page print edition. My essay on “avarice” was the first entry in the seven part series when Artistic License Renewed first posted it on their website on July 7, 2015. The subsequent six essays appeared periodically thereafter at the website until the editor asked us if we’d permit him to collect the series and publish it as both an e-book and print title in 2019.
This month, I was motivated to write a response to a review of the print edition posted at Amazon on May 2, 2021 that I found extremely off target.
I won’t repeat the entire review here, but I’ll start my response to the review’s very first sentences: “This is not by Ian Fleming. It's not edited by Ian Fleming. It is not a comparison about the original Seven Deadly Sins and Fleming's Seven Deadlier Sins.”
That’s all true. Nowhere is it claimed the book is by Fleming; it’s writers commenting on Fleming’s 007 novels through the prisms of the terms Fleming never wrote about himself but listed In his foreword to his 1962 book he edited, The Seven Deadly Sins. In that foreword, Fleming declared that the traditional seven deadly sins — PRIDE, ENVY, ANGER, SLOTH [accidie], COVETOUSNESS, GLUTTONY and LUST — were no longer sufficient. Instead, he proposed seven deadlier sins more worthy of a one way ticket to Hell, namely AVARICE, CRUELTY, HYPOCRISY, MALICE, MORAL COWARDICE, SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS & SNOBBERY.
The grumpy reviewer breezed past that point, saying “This is a collection of essays by authors I'm unfamiliar with on the Deadlier Sins in James Bond movies and books, plus cultural references, like a Saturday Night Live sketch. Not worth your time.”
I have to concede we essayists aren’t all widely-known Bond scholars, which hurts a bit. I’ve written four books on movie, TV, and literary espionage including Spy Television (2003), Beyond Bond: Spies in Fiction and Film (2005), Onscreen and Undercover: The Ultimate Book of movie Espionage (2006) and countless essays, articles, and reviews in print anthologies and reference works as well as numerous print and online periodicals and websites. I’ve been interviewed on James Bond and espionage by TV, Podcast, and radio broadcasters for decades in Boston, Washington D.C., Malaysia, Denmark, Germany, Turkey, and, most recently, I was the only English-speaking spy expert for a one-hour Al Jazeera documentary. I’ve appeared several times at the International Spy Museum and the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention. None of this, admittedly, makes me a household name. But I do got some cred, yes?
I can’t speak to the track record of the other contributors, but I can say I just reread the book and was again impressed with the depth of the research, the seriousness of the critiques, and the insights on a par with academic scholars discussing authors like Leo Tolstoy, Walt Whitman, or Mark Twain. The book was not “whipped out in 2020” as the reviewer claimed.
In particular, I’d like to compliment Edward Biddulph who wrote on “hypocrisy” and Michael May’s essay on “Self-righteousness.” To be fair, all the essays, even those only three or five pages long, gave me fresh perspectives and new insights any serious Ian Fleming aficionado would benefit from reading.
I should add readers don’t need to purchase a copy of the collection as all seven essays are still available in their original forms at:

https://literary007.com/category/the-...

Speaking of cred, scan that website and you can enjoy a rich well of Ian Fleming focused resources. Be your own judge and don’t be dissuaded by an unknown online critic with no cred I’m aware of.

Links to many of my interviews and online materials can be found at:

https://drwesleybritton.com/

this essay was first posted in the BookPleasures special section devoted to essays contributed by various authors.

https://waa.ai/xtVt

If you were reading books back in 1965 like I was, you might remember a little red paperback called Double O Seven, James Bond, A Report by O.F. Snelling. It was the only such title personally authorized by Ian Fleming. Part of the book’s initial success was that its publication roughly coincided with the death of Fleming in August 1964 and included footnotes discussing the recently issued Bond novel, You Only Live Twice. Focused on the literary 007 with passing mentions of the first Sean Connery films, Snelling examined the predecessors to Bond, his adversaries, and especially the women in the novels. Knowing novelist Kingsley Amis was also working on a similar study (published as The James Bond Dossier in 1965), Snelling rushed out his book to compete with Amis, and the two titles have been frequently compared ever since as the earliest serious studies of the James Bond phenomena. Snelling’s title sold over a million copies, appeared in French, Dutch, Portuguese, Japanese, and Israeli editions and translations, and it came out in the United States in 1965 under the imprint of the New American Library, Ian Fleming's own publishers.
Readers of the original paperback experienced Oswald Frederick Snelling’s literary critique of the Bond novels in five sections.
First, Snelling examined “His Predecessors”, “those upper-crust fictional heroes who performed feats of sexless derring-do long before the advent of the permissive society: leftover puppets from the age of chivalry.”
“His Image” was a section which analyzed “James Bond personally in the minutest detail, from the black comma of hair which falls across his brow to the casual shoes he wears on his feet.”
“His Women,” as the reviewers noticed, “is the longest part. Then comes ‘His Adversaries.’: Finally, ‘His Future.’” In Snelling’s view, this was bright indeed for 007.
The final page was a reproduction of a now famous watermark he saw on his typing paper – “Bond-Extra Strong.”
In notes written long before Snelling died on January 31, 2001 in London, the writer concluded by describing his now classic critical study: “‘Double 0 Seven’ set out to examine and to analyze James Bond by treating him as a real person. It was not a long book, and it made no attempt to be highbrow, abstruse, or involved. It was deliberately written in a racy and easy-to-read style. Certainly it is jokey and humorous, but it is both lighthearted and serious at the same time.”

Despite the book’s original success, Snelling and his literary executor, Ron Payne, were never successful finding a publisher interested in issuing a new edition. Instead, The first authorized full-text publication of Snelling’s 1964 book in over 40 years, now with the title he preferred – James Bond Under the Microscope debuted at my spywise.net website and is back again exclusively at spywisesecretdossier.com.
Snelling’s 1981 preface has been added as an update to this PDF publication. We added excerpts and passages from letters exchanged between Ron Payne and Snelling beginning in 1979. These letters, edited especially for SpyWise.net, are introduced with notes by Ron Payne. The passages show Snelling’s changing views on 007 over the years, share some of his views on spy films, television, and writers, and perhaps include enough of Snelling’s life to give perspective into the literary life of an extraordinary writer and thinker.
And, while not directly related to Mr. Bond, we also offer the first online publication of an essay Snelling wrote for the Antiquarian Book Monthly Review in 1981. This discussion of “Clubland” writer Dornford Yates was seen only by subscribers to that magazine, and never available in America. (Yates, as mentioned in James Bond Under the Microscope, was very much a literary forbearer to Ian Fleming.)
You can find all these offerings at:
https://www.spywisesecretdossier.com/...