This year, I’ve been reading Ian Fleming’s James Bond books. It’s been interesting. At times, I wanted to give up on them because some of the attitudes make for uncomfortable reading. However, something about them kept drawing me back. Here are ten things I learned about the secret service world Ian Fleming created.
1. Badass Women
Fleming, could write about strong, badass women with the best of them. Honeychile Ryder (Dr. No) and Judy Havelock (For Your Eyes Only) are perfect examples. Honeychile killed her would-be rapist as a child and Judy goes after her parents’ killers with a bow and arrow.
As well, Gala Brand (Moonraker) was a Special Branch undercover officer assigned to spy on Hugo Drax. In Thunderball, Domino Vitali kills the villain, Largo, with a speargun.
2. “Of It’s Time”
The homophobia, mysogony and racism that Fleming displays are all often excused as being of a certain time. But to modern sensibilities, it’s unpleasant, and a conscious effort has to be made to pigeonhole it. The racism makes for particularly unpleasant reading. Also of note is the way Bond ‘turns’ Pussy Galore from being ‘a confirmed lesbian’ in Goldfinger.
3. Jamaica was the centre of Fleming’s universe
Fleming loved Jamaica. It’s amazing how many villainous plots took him to the Caribbean, a relatively small area in world geopolitics. Overall, the tiny island nation appears in five stories:
- Live and Let Die
- Dr No
- The Man with the Golden Gun
- For Your Eyes Only (short story)
- Octopussy (short story)
In addition, two more stories took place in the Bahamas: Thunderball and Quantum of Solace.
In twelve novels and nine short stories, a third of them took place in the Carribean.
4. A Lousy spy
At times, Bond was a terrible spy. He was capable of making very basic mistakes as in The Man With the Golden Gun, when he refuses to. Sometimes, it was because he was reluctant to use deadly force, others because he misread a situation.
And sometimes, he was just too damn vain – such as when he fell for SMERSH’s honeytrap in From Russia With Love. Also when he refused to downplay his skills in front of Scaramanga. Bond knew that having his oppnent underestimate him would have been strategically sensible, but he couldn’t help himself.
5. The short stories reveal Interesting Character facets
Octopussy, Quantum of Solace and The Living Daylights are short stories that are among the best of all of Fleming’s Bond stories. The Living Daylights shows a Bond weary of killing who is not above romantic fantasies that lead him to make a surprisingly compassionate decision.
Octopussy and Quantum of Solace are not really about Bond at all, but still reveal interesting facets about his character.
6. Scrambled egg pedantry
Bond was very particular about his scrambled egg recipe (007 in New York – short story)!
7. A Ruthless agent
Bond could behave with extreme ruthlessness when he wanted. The action when he breaks out of the gangsters’ lair in Diamonds Are Forever is shocking for its matter of fact ruthlessness. His fight on the train with Red Grant is another good example, with Bond killing the traitor with his bare hands.
8. Where are Monneypenny and Q?
Moneypenny is a tiny part of the Bond book-universe, and Q is barely present.
Bond has two secretaries who take the Moneypenny role: first, Loelia Ponsonby, and then after she gets married, Mary Goodnight, who goes onto a more central role in The Man With the Golden Gun.
Q does exist in the books, but we never really meet him, and he is often referred to as the Head of Q Branch. Bill Tanner, M’s Chief-of-Staff is the closest thing to Q, but he’s no armourer, just Bond’s friend.
9. A Loyal friend
Despite the terrible injuries he suffered in Live and Let Die, Felix Leiter remains a true and steadfast friend to Bond. Often, he risks his life to help get Bond out of one scrape or another, including Bond’s final outing in The Man With The Golden Gun. We even learn that when Bond visits New York, he and Felix often meet up.
10. From romantic to heartbreaker
In the earlier novels, Bond is more of a romantic than an intentional heartbreaker. In fact, he gets let down or downright heartbroken himself several times. During the third book, Moonraker, Gala Brand reveals she is engaged, and does not end up with Bond.
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service provides the best example, when Tracey di Vicenzio dies. It is her death that seems to harden Bond’s heart; by the end of The Man With The Golden Gun, he concludes thathe wants an ever-changing view, not the same vista for the rest of his life.
My Next Step
I’ve already read the first two of Kim Sherwood’s Double 00 books – Bond makes an appearance at the end of the second – and think I’m going to read some of the more recent Bond books by Anthony Horowitz etc. But after reading all Ian Fleming’s James Bond books in one year, I’ll give Bond a break for a while. At least until I’ve mastered his scrambled egg recipe…
Until then, there’s a lot to think about: lessons from Fleming’s series that I can put into Angel of the South, my own thriller series, and also some pitfalls to avoid. But one things for sure – Angel of the South will be better than it might have been if I hadn’t read the Bond books.
James Bond Book Reviews
- Octopussy and the Living Daylights
- For Your Eyes Only
- Octopussy and the Living Daylights
- The Man With The Golden Gun
- You Only Live Twice
- On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
- The Spy Who Loved Me
- Thunderball
- Goldfinger
- Dr No
- From Russia With Love
- Diamonds Are Forever
- Moonraker
- Live and Let Die
- Casino Royale
No Way to Live
My own thriller series, Angel of the South, kicks off with No Way To Live:
She’s the deadliest person he knows. And now he’s betrayed her.
A ruthless London gang targets an innocent shopkeeper and his daughter, prompting Tom Adams to walk away from the criminal life he never wanted. After all, it’s the season of goodwill. When he warns the shopkeeper of the danger he’s in, Tom betrays Billie, the gang’s boss, and the complicated history they both share.
For Billie, Tom’s desertion comes at the worst possible time. Surrounded by enemies, she’s fighting a war on two fronts and can’t afford to look weak. If Tom had known the full story, he might have stuck around. Fatally, he isn’t even the gang’s only traitor. And the ‘innocent’ shopkeeper’s past might be darker than anyone’s.
Caught in a clash of love, loyalty and revenge, Tom must choose between Billie, the woman he once trusted, and the possibility of a life worth living.
No Way To Live is available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited.
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