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James Bond is a fictional spy and protagonist of a series of novels originally written by Ian Fleming and since adapted into a popular series of films. After Fleming's death in 1964, James Bond books have been written by other authors to continue the fictional superspy's legacy. James Bond is famously designated Agent 007 (articulated as "double-oh-seven") in the British Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6.
Ian Fleming wrote twelve novels and additional short story collections around his character James Bond, who was first featured in the first James Bond novel Casino Royale, published in 1953. After the death of Ian Fleming in 1964, further novels, novelizations (of different films), and short stories would be written by other authors. The post-Fleming novels were published in the late 1960s and 1970s, and with increasing regularity between 1981 and 2002 before the series was put on temporary hiatus until 2008 when the novel series returned.
The story behind Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel is as if it comes out of one of his books. The middle-aged British journalist was holidaying in the Caribbean when he, on a morning, went for a swim, had his usual breakfast of scrambled eggs and coffee, and sat down at his reportedly battered Royal typewriter, and he wrote the first lines of Casino Royale. The rest of the novel would be finished in barely a month. Thus began the popular series of books, which have sold more than 100 million copies globally and spawned one of the most popular film franchises. And, perhaps more successfully, the character of James Bond would become an intricately woven character in the English country's self-image, while being popular around the world.
Ian Fleming-written Bond books
Following the death of Ian Fleming in 1964, other writers were authorized to write James Bond-based novels. These writers have included various well-known British writers, including John Gardner, who wrote fourteen novels and two novelizations; Raymond Benson, who wrote six novels, three novelizations, and three short stories; and various authors who wrote a single book, which include Kingsley Amis (writing as Robert Markham), Sebastian Faulks, Jeffrey Deaver, William Boyd, and Anthony Horowitz. A series of novels based on Bond's youth were written by Charlie Higson and Steve Cole.
Other Bond books
There were also a series of related fictional works that were not directly novels or short stories of the James Bond of the above series. These include the adventures of a young James Bond and novels and stories around characters from the James Bond novels and films.
Related fictional works
The character is known as a Cold War-era operative, trained in intelligence services and as a special forces operative, and known as a constant drinker, enthusiastic gambler, and chauvinistic womanizer. He is technically a Royal Navy Commander, CMG, RNVR, and secret service agent residing in London while active internationally. The character is known for enjoying cars, food and drink, and cigarettes. Ian Fleming based the character on a number of people he knew during his service in the Naval Intelligence Division during World War II, his brother Peter, and others. The character is of Scottish heritage while being loyal to the English crown.
James Bond's physical description is similar to Fleming, with some details provided throughout the books to provide more insight into the character's physical features. One common comparison is that Bond looks like Hoagy Carmichael, an American musician and songwriter. He was supposed to be six feet tall with a slim build, around 76 kilograms (167 pounds), with a scar on his right cheek and black hair with a comma that falls on his forehead. The attitudes and prejudices of the Bond of the original novels are often considered a reflection of Ian Fleming's aristocratic viewpoints. In the books, the character is much darker and more aggressive than the cinematic version of the character. However, in the books, the character is given more humanity as he gets tired, burned out, and discouraged but always makes an effort to get the job done and protect his friends and country.
There are various claims about who inspired Ian Fleming in his creation of the character of James Bond. This has included suggestions that Fleming was inspired by various real-world spies and special forces agents, including Dusko Popov, a Yugoslavian agent working for the British services before being sent to infiltrate German military intelligence during World War II; a James Charles Bond who served as a spy under Fleming during World War II; Wing Commander Forest "Tommy" Yeo-Thomas, who was a British secret service agent during the Second World War; and Canadian Sir William Stephenson, who worked as a spy for the British during the Second World War.
However, closer to the truth is that James Bond was a character created as a thinly veiled version of Fleming himself, or more likely, the man Fleming wanted to be. Initially, the character was intended, according to Fleming, to be a dull and uninteresting man to whom things happened and a government tool with little personality before he became the world-trotting, womanizing super spy. In part to achieve this, Fleming borrowed the name, according to his writings, from American ornithologist James Bond, a Caribbean bird expert and author of the definitive field guide Birds of the West Indies. Fleming was a keen birdwatcher and was supposed to have had the book with him when he developed the character. He would go on to say the name struck him as brief, unromantic, Anglo-Saxon, masculine, and what he needed for his "blunt instrument" of the government, as Fleming referred to his character.
But the most interesting inspiration for the character of Bond came after the first film adaptation of the books, which featured Sean Connery playing the character of Bond. By all accounts, Fleming was initially unhappy with the casting of Connery as the character, until watching the actor's effort, at which point he wrote the character of James Bond closer to Sean Connery, who Fleming felt perfectly inhabited the character, and details of the actor's life would make it into Bond's story.
The history of the character, as laid out in the books and stories, is that Bond is born of a Scottish father, Andrew Bond of Glencoe, and a Swiss mother, Monique Delacroix, from the Canton de Vaud. His father's work for the Vickers armament firm gives a young Bond a good command of French and German. He grows up abroad until age 11, at which point he is orphaned and ends up under the guardianship of an aunt, Miss Charmain Bond, whom he lives with at the hamlet of Pett Bottom near Canterbury in Kent.
There, he completes his education at an English public school before entering Eton around age twelve. According to the books, his career at Eton is brief and undistinguished and he leave early at age seventeen. By 1941, when Bond was supposed to have been age nineteen, he enters a military branch that would become the Ministry of Defence, where he is accorded the rank of lieutenant in the Special Branch of the R.N.V.R. to serve the confidential nature of his duties. The novels take up Bond's story after the resolution of the Second World War, with him continuing to work at the Ministry of Defence during the Cold War era and as a senior agent.
Bond is often associated with his fashion, particularly with the movies. The Bond of the books wears a very dark blue tropical worsted suit, white shirt, black knit tie, and black casual shoes. It is considered to be a faux pas to wear a black tie with a dark blue suit, but it is a part of the literary Bond's individualistic and minimalistic character. Further, Fleming was known to find a look he liked and stick with it, which his Bond character inherited. The suit was supposed to be a two-button single-breasted dark blue tropical worsted suit with no handkerchief in the breast pocket, with a black leather belt and a white short-sleeved Sea Island cotton shirt and black, square-toed casual shoes. His watch is a Rolex Oyster Perpetual in the books, although in the movies the watch changes.
Bond, in the books, also wears an aging casual suit described as black and white dogtooth (or houndstooth), paired with a dark blue Sea Island cotton shit, a black silk knitted tie, and casual shoes. Meanwhile, for his formalwear, despite Bond from the films being associated with the tux, the character does not wear the tux often. In the books, the character's formalwear or dinner attire is a single-breasted dinner jacket worn over a heavy silk evening shirt with a thin, double-ended black satin tie. The assumption is the dinner jacket is either black or dark blue, but there is no description in the books of the color of the formalwear.
During his time in warmer climates, Bond tends to wear dark blue tropical worsted trousers with a Sea Island cotton shirt and black casual slip-on shoes with dark blue socks. While relaxing in London, he wears a heavy silk shirt. The warmer the climate, the more often Bond wears sandals with shorts or slacks rather than suit trousers. These do not cover some of the outfits Bond wears as part of the disguises he wears in different books, but those disguises are generally not considered to be part of the character's personal style.
There are further disagreements between the movies and Ian Fleming's books over the watch worn by Bond. In the films, the Rolex Submariner is cemented early as Bond's watch of choice. However, Fleming's original timepiece for his fictional hero is a Rolex with a luminous dial, which is often considered a Rolex Explorer 1016. The watch was inspired by Fleming's journey up Mount Everest with Sherpa Tenzing and Edmund Hillary, during which Fleming noticed Tenzing was wearing a Rolex Explorer. What is known is the books mention the watch is a Rolex with an Oyster Perpetual movement.
While the films used an Aston Martin, in the books Bond's favored car is a Bentley. He owns various models through the books. The first is a battleship grey 1930 Bentley 4 1/2 liter convertible coupe with an Amherst Villiers supercharger, also known as a "Blower Bentley," with the supercharger pushing the top speed of the cars to 120 mph in the books (although in 1932 the same Bentley reached a top speed of 138 mph at Brooklands). The Bentley had a 4398 cc four-cylinder engine capable of producing up to 175 horsepower at 3500 RPM with a 4-speed manual transmission.
Bond is later given a new Bentley—a 1952 Bentley Mark VI convertible with an "open touring body" and in Bond's trademark battleship gray with dark blue leather upholstery and a twin exhaust. There is less mention of this Bentley, which also had a 4 1/2 liter engine, although this one measures as a 4.6 liter rather than the early 4.4 liter engine.
In later books, notably Thunderball, Bond is described as driving yet another Bentley—a refurbished Bentley R-Type Continental Mark II. The R-Type chassis was only produced between 1952 and 1955 and was a two-seat convertible in battleship grey with black morocco leather upholstery. The 9:5 compression engine was upgraded in the book from the standard Mark II 4.6 liter straight-six cylinder to a Mark IV 4.9 liter engine with a 4-speed manual transmission, a 13:40 back axle ratio, and an Arnett supercharger.
It is not until Goldfinger that Bond is seen driving an Aston Martin. At this time, he is issued a 1957 Aston Martin DB Mark III (referred to as a "DBIII"). The car has a few modifications to help Bond in the book, though none near as remarkable as the film of the same name's DB5's ejector seat. In the book, the Aston Mark DB Mark III is a battleship grey with a 2.9 liter Lagonda straight-six engine.
Despite the James Bond films featuring the super spy with the infamous Walther PPK, the books feature Bond with a Beretta .25 ACP automatic pistol with the plastic grip removed for a "skeleton grip" covered in tape and with the foresight sawn down to stop the gun from snagging on his clothes. The Beretta 418 is a small pistol with an eight-round magazine and low stopping power, particularly when paired with the infamous suppressor.
It would be later that Bond would be convinced, after a near-death experience during an operation, to switch his pistol out. This came as the Beretta 418 was also considered to not be deadly enough, and Bond instead changes to the now-iconic 7.65mm - or .32 ACP - Walther PPk, which has an eight-round magazine with an extended spur to fit Bond's hands. The gun is bulkier than his Beretta, not allowing him to carry the Walther PPK in his under-arm holster as he had the Beretta, and Bond then opts for a triple-draw holster worn inside the left side of the trouser waistband.
Bond uses various other guns throughout the books. These include a Smith & Wesson Centennial Airweight revolver, a Colt Detective Special, a Colt Army Special .45, a Colt M1911A1, a .38 Special, a Savage 99F rifle, and a .308 Experimental Target rifle built by Winchester.
The character of Bond from the books is a complex but loyal agent of the British Crown with a demeanor ranging between cynical and laconic with a simple, elegant taste. He engages in a morning calisthenics routine to stay in shape. He enjoys sports, with an emphasis on golf, and spends his leisure time gambling, enjoying affairs with married women, and driving his Bentley.
One of the habits not carried into the films is the character's habitual smoking. In Fleming's books, Bond carries a wide, flat gunmetal cigarette case, often in a hip pocket, and it is stocked with fifty cigarettes of a custom Balkan-Turkish tobacco blend. The cigarettes are made by Morlands of Grosvenor Street in London and are referred to as "Morland Specials." Each cigarette has three gold bands near the tip to signify Bond's rank. The character carries a black oxidized Ronson lighter, which is sometimes replaced by a silver Zippo lighter, depending on where Bond is. His smoking habit is described as a sixty-a-day habit, which he reduces only to ten per day when training to face specifically dangerous enemies. The Morland cigarettes are characterized as having a high nicotine content, compared to other cigarettes, and Bond is described as disliking Virginia tobacco.
Depending on his location, Bond trades in his usual cigarettes for different packs to blend in. These include a pack of Chesterfield King Size cigarettes in several books (especially when visiting America); a brief switch to Diplomates; Shinsei cigarettes from Japan; Royal Blend cigarettes in Jamaica; and Laurens Jaune in Paris (which may be a bastardization of the Parisienne Jaunes brand). He is characterized as desperate for a smoke and borrows various cigarettes, including Player's Navy Cut, Parliament, and Senior Service. He is shown at various points through books and short stories to show a certain loyalty to the Senior Service brand.
Throughout the books, and no more notable than the opening of the first book, Bond is shown as gambling. The first book, as the name suggests (Casino Royale), focuses on Bond's card-playing prowess, but he uses these same skills throughout the books both in his missions and also to supplement his income. Bond is described in the books as being a serial gambler without being degenerate, and he is considered the best card player in MI6. He plays baccarat to topple an adversary in Casino Royale, plays bridge to do the same in Moonraker, and displays a progression system for roulette, intended to show his interest in gambling.
Bond is portrayed throughout the books as a spirited eater, with specific tastes, taking joy in his food. He has a clear preference for meals like scrambled eggs and bacon, broiled lobsters with butter, steak in Bearnaise sauce, and Beluga caviar. For breakfast, Bond shows a preference for scrambled eggs with bacon and buttered toast, accompanied by orange juice and a strong cup or two of black coffee, sometimes spiked with whiskey.
Lunch is taken with less ceremony by Bond in the books. At various times, he eats grilled sole, mixed salads with mustard dressing, and brie cheese and toast, while drinking carafes of Bordeaux wine and black coffee. Seafood tends to be a prominent choice of Bond's lunches, with smoked salmon showing up for several of his lunches and other seafood including crabs, shrimp, snapper, sole, and oyster stew.
Dinner seems to be the biggest meal for Bond, in which he tends to exercise his appetite the most. These dinners are typically as meat-centric, with steak or lamb cutlets in Bearnaise sauce, often paired with asparagus, champagne, and caviar. Bond often orders black coffee at the end of his meals. And one of his favorite meals tends to be broiled lobster with melted butter, sometimes ordered with a side of steak or pâté de foie gras.
Bond is portrayed as having an Achilles' heel for food, when he craves Spaghetti Bolognese and Chianti, or, what is described as his favorite pasta dish, Tagliatelli Verdi, which he eats variously, such as when passing through Italy on the Orient Express or while meeting an accomplice in Rome.
In both the books and films, Bond may be famous for his drinking. In the films, his popular preference is for the "shaken, not stirred" vodka martini. But in the books, there was almost nothing Bond would not drink, with a preference for straight whiskey. One study, published in November 2013 by Graham Johnson, Indra Neil Guha, and Patrick Davies, looked at Bond's drinking preferences and showed that Bond consumed an average of ninety-two units a week, which would make him severely functionally impaired and suggests the pure fantasy of this part of his character.
Despite a preference for spirits, Bond drank beer during his missions, including Miller High Life while in America, a Löwenbräu draft beer, a Black Velvet (a mix of stout beer and champagne), and a combination of beer and schnapps referred in the book as a Molle mit korn. And he drinks Red Stripe in Jamaica. Bond is less specific with champagne, drinking Bollinger, Dom Perignon with benzendrine, and only repeatedly drinking Taittinger Blanc de Blanc of all the champagnes he drinks. Bond tends to drink champagne mostly with his meals, while he often drinks a glass of brandy or cognac as a post-prandial drink.
His favorite liquor, and his most common drink, is whiskey. He drinks Scotch often, usually Haig & Haig Dimple Pinch, but often drinks American whiskey at a higher rate in the books, including various drinks of Jack Daniel's Tennessee Whiskey, Old Granddad bourbon, I.W. Harper, and Walker's de Luxe Bourbon. For wine, Bond is shown as drinking local wines usually in what are considered to be good vintages. He drinks white wine less commonly (with the exception of champagne).
His most commonly imbibed drinks tend to be cocktails and mixed drinks, which could be considered a part of Bond's lifestyle, offering Fleming a chance to show off some of Bond's inherited snobbery, such as when he indicates Russian versus Polish vodka or notes the particular ratios that should be used in a cocktail. Arguably the most famous cocktail from the books was the Vesper martini, only seen in the first book as he names it after double agend Vesper Lynd, who betrays Bond and he wants nothing more to do with her.
While the vodka martini is the most common cocktail in the books, Bond never specifies what particular vodka or vermouth he prefers. He does mention a preferred six-to-one ratio of vodka to vermouth, with a preference for a lemon peel as a garnish. However, he also drinks traditional gin martini's often and drinks the simpler vodka tonic in warmer climates, often with a lemon peel and a dash of Angostura bitters. He also enjoys whiskey-based cocktails, including highballs and whiskey sodas, and mixes whiskey with his coffee; he also enjoys Irish Coffee when the drink was supposed to be quite new.