James Bond - The Secret History

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Sean Egan. James Bond - The Secret History

CONTENTS

FOREWORD

INTRODUCTION

A CONVOLUTED CREATOR

BIRTH OF BOND

ENTER: THE SECRET AGENT

HEADWAY

BACKLASHES AND BOOSTS

THE CELLULOID AGENT

YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE

WORLD DOMINATION

CONTINUING THE LEGACY

AN UNCERTAIN ERA

DING-DONG!

A FRANCHISE IN PERIL

THE DINOSAUR LIVES AGAIN

THE BLONDE BOMBSHELL

JAMES BOND WILL RETURN

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY. BOOKS

WEBSITES

MAGAZINE ARTICLES

MISCELLANEOUS

Copyright

Отрывок из книги

To my Dad FRANK EGAN who allowed my mother to name me after Mr Connery and whose copy of Live and Let Die was life-changing

When one knows a lot about a subject, it’s easy to miss the forest for the trees, and, while this book offers an excellent overview of the history of the Bond phenomenon for casual fans, it also provides a lot of information and insights that cast the familiar in surprising new angles. Covering Ian Fleming’s books and short stories, the continuation authors, the comics, the video games and of course the film series, Sean Egan charts the passage of 007 from 1952, when Fleming first sat down to write a Bond story, to the present day, and does so in prose both fluid and studded with astute and often amusing opinions (even if I don’t agree with all of them). He has interviewed Fleming intimates, Bond scholars and movie cast and crew to give us an insider’s view of the development of the icon, debunking several myths along the way.

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Fleming’s first foray into novels was not without its difficulties. After his long-term friend William Plomer – an editor at Jonathan Cape – had prised it out of his reluctant, self-deprecating hands, it was submitted to Mr Cape himself. While Plomer and his colleague Daniel George thought a lot of the manuscript, it would seem that Cape agreed to publish it only as a favour to Peter Fleming, a Cape author. Ian Fleming also had to agree to extensive revisions, which delayed its publication.

Once publication was imminent, Fleming set up Glidrose Productions, a company in which he and his wife owned all shares and to which he assigned his Bond literary rights, the type of manoeuvre common in a period marked by rising top-rate income-tax levels. In a gesture whose extravagance was worthy of some of the villains he would create for his character, Fleming also ordered a gold-plated typewriter.

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