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The James Bond Zone
James Bond was 'born' in Jamaica, during the early half of 1952 when his 'father', Foreign Manager of the Kemsley Newspaper group, Ian Fleming, decided that the time had come to write a novel incorporating some of his experiences in wartime epionage. Fleming had negotiated himself two months paid leave each year when he'd accepted the job at Kemsley (which, at the time, counted the Sunday Times among its titles) and he was in the habit of spending that time holidaying at his three bedroom house, Goldeneye, in Oracebessa, Jamaica. When Fleming arrived at Goldeneye in January 1952, he was preparing for his forthcoming marriage to Anne Rothemere and it has been suggested (not least by Fleming himself) that the sudden realisation that he was about to settle down acted as a catalyst for his sudden desire to write a novel. Whatever the reason, Fleming spent his two months vacation writing Casino Royale, little knowing that the novel would lay the foundations on a popular culture phenomenon - Fleming would live long enough to see the character he created make the leap to both the small and big screen, but was probably unable to foresee the huge cultural icon that Bond would become. Named after the American ornithologist whose name Fleming spotted on the book Birds of the West Indies, the fictional Bond was cast as a British Naval Commander (reflecting Fleming's own experiences as the wartime Assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence) who now worked undercover for British Secret Service. Codenamed 007, he was given a license to kill and answered to the enigmatic M, who would assign him to various hazardous missions around the world. On publication in late 1952, Casino Royale became an instant hit and James Bond, the suave but lethal British secret agent, became a firm favourite the world over. By the time of his death in 1964, Fleming would have featured Bond in 12 novels and 8 short stories, all of them assembled in two collections. But Bond was to outlive his creator - the series of novels was continued by various other writers, chief among them John Gardner. And, of course, there were the films. Bond crossed to the big screen in 1962, after a one-off TV appearance in the US anthology show Climax Mystery Theater wherein Barry Nelson played an Americanised Bond in an adaptation of Casino Royale. After many aborted attempts, Bond reached the big screen in Dr No (1962), the first of a series of films that continues to this day. To date, five actors have played Bond on the big screen as part of the 'official' Eon Productions series (Sean Connery, George Lazenby, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan) though a host of actors (among them David Niven and Woody Allen) played him in the ill-advised parody Casino Royale (1967). Bond remains popular well into his sixth decade and has trailed a host
of imitators in his wake. The smooth-talking, hard-hitting secret agent
has struck an almost universal chord and has mutated, evolved and adapted
to each new generation with impressive ease. From this vantage point,
it seems unlikely that his popularity will be waning any time soon. BIBLIOGRAPHY 1964 1965 1966 1972 1973 1981 1983 1984 1987 1988 1989 1990 FILMOGRAPHY * = television 1954 1962 1963 1964 1965 1967 1969 1971 1973 1974 1975 1977 1979 1981 1983 1985 1987 1988 1989 1992 1995 1997 1999 2000 2002 NO DATE LINKS SEE ALSO REFERENCES The Complete James Bond Movie Encyclopedia - Steven Jay Rubin (USA: Contemporary Books (1990)) The James Bond Bedside Companion - Raymond Benson (UK: Boxtree (1988)) The James Bond Films - Steven Jay Rubin (USA: Crown Publishers (1983)) James Bond in the Cinema (revised 2nd edition) - John Brosnan (UK: The Tantivy Press (1981)) The New Official James Bond 007 Movie Book - Sally Hibbin (UK: Hamlyn (1989))
Last Updated: 1 January, 2009
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