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
CONTENTS
1 TITLE PAGE
3 FOREWORD BY JEREMY DUNS
4 INTRODUCTION
5 1: A CONVOLUTED CREATOR
6 2: BIRTH OF BOND
7 3: ENTER: THE SECRET AGENT
8 4: HEADWAY
9 5: BACKLASHES AND BOOSTS
10 6: THE CELLULOID AGENT
11 7: YOU ONLY LIVE ONCE
12 8: WORLD DOMINATION
13 9: CONTINUING THE LEGACY
14 10: AN UNCERTAIN ERA
15 11: DING-DONG!
16 12: A FRANCHISE IN PERIL
17 13: THE DINOSAUR LIVES AGAIN
18 14: THE BLONDE BOMBSHELL
19 15: JAMES BOND WILL RETURN
20 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
21 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
22 PLATES
23 COPYRIGHT
Books about James Bond appear with the tedious inevitability of an unloved season, but I can’t think of any that have either the range or tenor of James Bond: The Secret History.
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.
‘You forgot the first rule of mass media,’ Bond screams into the ears of media mogul Elliot Carver in the closing act of Tomorrow Never Dies. ‘Give the people what they want!’ Egan demonstrates in this very fast and highly enjoyable read that, through all the ups and downs, Bond producers Eon haven’t ever forgotten that rule – and show no sign of doing so any time soon.
Jeremy Duns
Author,
The Dark Chronicles Diamonds In The Rough: Investigations into the Worlds of Ian Fleming and James Bond Duns on Bond Rogue Royale: The Lost Bond Film by the ‘Shakespeare of Hollywood’ Mariehamn, October 2015
James Bond first made an appearance in 1953 with the novel Casino Royale.
The writing of his creator Ian Fleming provided a new paradigm for action heroes. By blending existing thriller ingredients with his own innovations, he ramped up the power, sophistication and reach of the genre.
His protagonist stood square against Soviet evil even as it was acknowledged that his moral landscape had been complicated by the real-life treachery of the Cambridge spy ring; he was unapologetically depicted as having a full and non-marital sex life, where such behaviour was usually the preserve of villains; instead of engaging in clean, consequence-free fisticuffs, he received and dealt violence that was often untidy, grisly and a matter for regret; despite the manifold fantasy elements of his adventures, he made his way through a world recognisable as real from the brand names that Fleming took the uncommon step of sprinkling into his text. On top of all this was a newspaperman’s evocative and sophisticated writing style that left Fleming’s rough-hewn populist influences in the dust.
Despite his capturing the public imagination, the British secret-intelligence agent codenamed ‘007’ should logically long have been consigned to the dustbin of history.
In 1953, the Cold War was still raging and Britain’s Empire was sufficiently intact as to make plausible the idea that the UK could be an important player on the world espionage stage. More than half a century later, the Iron Curtain has long been torn down and Bond’s home country has been reduced to a geopolitically insignificant island. Meanwhile, sexual intercourse – casual or committed – has been turned, by the advent of reliable contraception, from a taboo into an unremarkable part of everyday life. Depictions of violence – whether celebratory or regretful – are no longer noteworthy. Even the fact that Fleming saw Bond as a ‘blunt instrument’ of state is a dated concept in a world that has long switched its affections from notions of duty to ones of personal liberty.
Yet instead of disappearing into the vault reserved for the once audacious, now merely embarrassing – see Harold Robbins – the man with a ‘Licence to Kill’ is more popular than ever. Simplify the character as they may have, the Bond films adapted from Fleming’s prose constitute the most successful franchise in cinema history. Meanwhile, the original, grittier books still hold such sway with more intellectual palates that renowned literary novelists such as Sebastian Faulks and William Boyd have been persuaded by the Fleming estate to write Bond continuation novels. Underlining Bond’s media and generation-straddling allure, N64’s GoldenEye 007 from 1997 was the most successful video game of all time. Bond film catchphrases such as ‘Bond, James Bond’ and ‘Shaken, not stirred’ have embedded themselves in society’s lexicon. Bond’s modus operandi, weaponry and jargon have become the template for all secret-agent stories. Even the glossy, gargantuan Bond-movie theme songs have created an instantly recognisable archetype.
The Bond industry has not been without hiccups. Fleming quickly began to resent writing the Bond books he tapped out at his Jamaican holiday home. He repeatedly made weary noises to his editor about his current manuscript being the last 007 novel. His shrivelling inspiration eventually led to his co-opting for a book the plot of a dormant collaborative Bond screenplay, which resulted in an unholy legal tangle and severe stress that may have hastened his own death.
The Bond films have periodically been struck by existential crises. While the public lapped up any Bond featuring the original cinema 007, the recasting process necessitated by Sean Connery’s 1967 departure raised doubts about whether the series had a future without him. His successor, George Lazenby, made only one film; Roger Moore took time to settle in and was always hated by sections of the Bond fanbase; Timothy Dalton was a Bond actor to whom the public never really took; Daniel Craig’s casting initially provoked a tsunami of contempt. The traumatic mid-seventies rupture of the production partnership of Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman – who originated the series – threw a huge spanner in the works. This, though, was as nothing compared with legal battles in the 1990s that almost destroyed the franchise.
Yet Bond has ultimately proven impervious to any obstacle thrown in his path, whether