'Story Of James Bond – A Tribute To Ian Fleming'

Earlier this month, CommanderBond.net first reported the news that an upcoming Ian Fleming charity gala had been scheduled for October. We now have the full details on this extravagant event that will be celebrating the centenary of James Bond’s creator…

Ian Fleming

STORY OF JAMES BOND – A TRIBUTE TO IAN FLEMING

Sunday 5th October 2008

7.30pm

London Palladium Theatre

In aid of the British Heart Foundation

Hosted by Joanna Lumley and Stephen Fry, this unique, glamorous evening will celebrate the world’s greatest spy, James Bond, and the life of his creator Ian Fleming.

Stars from the worlds of film and theatre will read from and enact Fleming’s work, including some material never heard before, and a 60-piece orchestra will accompany some of the biggest names in music as they perform the best-loved Bond themes.

The evening will star Samantha Bond, Christopher Cazenove, Shirley Eaton, Sebastian Faulks, Eunice Gayson, David Gilmour, Charlie Higson, Jeremy Irons, Laura Michelle Kelly, Beverley Knight, Lemar, Tania Mallett, Lee Mead, Roger Moore, Mica Paris, Rosamund Pike, Issy van Randwyck, Joely Richardson, Toby Stephens, Patrick Stewart, David Suchet, Ruby Turner, Harriet Walter, Simon Williams, Rory Kinnear (M’s assistant in Quantum of Solace), Tony Hadley, Maryam D’Abo and more to be announced.*

Dame Judi Dench will not be attending, but will make an AV appearance.

Through music, words and film, the event will revel in everything Bond: the villains, the cars, the guns, the gadgets, and the girls.

With the support of Eon Productions, John Barry, David Arnold and Don Black.

A sneak preview scene from the new film, Quantum of Solace, along with other surprises will cap off an unmissable night: the grand finale to Ian Fleming’s centenary year, and a show with a license to thrill.

Ticket prices start at £25 and can be purchased from See Tickets. Tel. 0844 4124657

http://www.seetickets.com/see/event.asp?e|artist=the+story+of+james+bond+-+a+tribute+to+ian+fleming&filler1=see

VIP Hospitality packages can be obtained from Mark Butler Associates. Tel: 020 7603 6033

www.markbutler.co.uk

* All artists subject to availability

Stay tuned to the CBn main page for all the latest news on 007-related events happening worldwide.

Release Dates Reshuffled For Raymond Benson's 'James Bond: The Union Trilogy'

Raymond Benson’s James Bond: The Union Trilogy: Three 007 Novels

The release dates for the upcoming 007 collection by Raymond Benson, James Bond: The Union Trilogy: Three 007 Novels, have changed in the UK and US.

The updated listing peg the book for a 7 October release in the UK, while a one month delay has pushed the collection back to 6 November in the US. Pre-order links are available at the end of this article.

James Bond: The Union Trilogy: Three 007 Novels will bring together Benson’s three Bond adventures High Time To Kill, Doubleshot and Never Dream of Dying into one omnibus edition.

As the cover artwork details, this new Union Trilogy collection will also feature a brand new introduction by Benson. What makes this forthcoming Bond omnibus especially notable is that it will additionally include the complete, unedited version of Benson’s first 007 short story, Blast From The Past.

Raymond Benson

Blast From The Past was first (and up to this point, only) published in an edited version in the January 1997 edition of Playboy magazine. The full-length short story was originally only made available in French and Italian.

The collection will be published as an 832-page paperback by Pegasus Books. The publisher is currently planning for an additional Benson Bond collection to follow sometime in 2009.

Benson’s other Bond-related works include novels Zero Minus Ten, The Facts of Death and The Man with the Red Tattoo, the Midsummer Night’s Doom and Live at Five short stories and the film novelizations for Tomorrow Never Dies, The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day.

Keep your eyes on the CommanderBond.net main page for all the latest literary James Bond news.

Ian Fleming's 'Quantum of Solace' On Audio CD

A new listing has appeared on Amazon.co.uk for an audio CD edition of Ian Fleming’s Quantum of Solace.

While details are limited at the moment, this BBC Audiobooks release, which is scheduled for 6 November 2008, will likely be similar to the upcoming For Your Eyes Only audio CD in the United States as a way to tie in with the 22nd James Bond film.

The Quantum of Solace audio CD will retail for £8.99 and can be pre-ordered online:

• Order the UK Audio CD edition of Quantum of Solace from Amazon.co.uk

Keep watching the CommanderBond.net main page for the most complete literary James Bond coverage on the web.

To keep track of all the upcoming 007 releases, events, television shows, and more–just keep your eyes on the CBn Calendar, located on the right panel of our main page.

'Quantum of Solace: The Complete James Bond Short Stories' Released In US

The new Quantum of Solace: The Complete James Bond Short Stories collection is released today in the United States.

Following up the release of its UK counterpart this past April, this Ian Fleming collection acts as a tie-in of sorts to the upcoming 007 film with Daniel Craig and brings together all nine short stories originally featured in the For Your Eyes Only and Octopussy & The Living Daylights collections.

The US cover artwork should be familiar to literary Bond fans as it is designed in the same style of the Richie Fahey/Roseanne Serra covers that adorned the 2002-2004 Penguin trade paperbacks in the US and the 2006 paperbacks in the UK.

Quantum of Solace: The Complete James Bond Short Stories

The full line-up of Fleming short stories include:

• From a View to a Kill
• For Your Eyes Only
• Quantum of Solace
• Risico
• The Hildebrand Rarity
• Octopussy
• The Living Daylights
• The Property of a Lady
• 007 in New York

Order online:

• Order Quantum of Solace: The Complete James Bond Short Stories from Amazon.co.uk
• Order Quantum of Solace: The Complete James Bond Short Stories from Amazon.com

Keep watching the CommanderBond.net main page for the most complete literary James Bond coverage on the web. To keep track of all the upcoming 007 releases, events, television shows, and more–just keep your eyes on the CBn Calendar, located on the right panel of our main page.

The Young Bond Shadow War Begins

Today marks the beginning of the brand new Young Bond alternate reality game, The Shadow War.

As reported on the Young Bond Dossier, author Charlie Higson announced the beginning of game during his appearance at the Edinburgh Book Festival today.

The Shadow War, which is available to play at youngbond.com, comprises of seven different missions taking player through the world of Young Bond. The adventure will finally come to an end on 8 October with a live event, hosted on the game site and featuring Charlie Higson, in which players will be able to ask questions and influence the end of the game.

The first mission begins this upcoming Wednesday, 27 August.

In related news, lucky fans in attendance at the Edinburgh festival’s ‘Big Issue Event’ today were given an extra special treat: the chance to purchase copies of Higson’s fifth Young Bond novel, By Royal Command almost a full two weeks ahead of its publication on 3 September.

300 copies of the book were made available at the event. Furthermore, since the jacket artwork remains embargoed until the September publication, these fans were also got the first look at the cover.

Click here for the full report on the special event at the Young Bond Dossier.

Keep watching the CommanderBond.net main page for all the latest Young Bond news.

• Order the UK hardback edition of By Royal Command from Amazon.co.uk
• Order the UK audiobook edition of By Royal Command from Amazon.co.uk

Sir Sean Connery's 'Being A Scot' Published

Sir Sean Connery’s book, Being A Scot, has been published in the UK.

The book is being launched at the Edinburgh Book Festival, taking place currently, to tie in with the James Bond actor’s 78th birthday on 25 August.

Being A Scot mixes a ‘frank account of Connery’s life with an esoteric take on Scotland’s history and culture’. The 312-page long book features more than 400 photograghs from his personal collection and is published in hardback by Weidenfeld & Nicolson. Scottish filmmaker Murray Grigor co-writes.

“My first big break came when I was five years old. It’s taken me more than seventy years to realise that. You see, at five I first learnt to read. It’s that simple and it’s that profound. I left school at thirteen. I didn’t have a formal education… It has been a long return journey from my two-room Fountainbridge home in the smoky industrial end of Edinburgh opposite the McCowans’ toffee factory. There was no bathroom with a communal toilet outside. For years we had only gas lighting. Sometimes the light in the shared stairway would be out after some desperado had broken the mantle to bubble gas through milk for kicks.” Although he is an indubitably international superstar, Sir Sean Connery still knows the city of Edinburgh practically street by street from delivering the morning milk as a schoolboy. His round included Fettes College, where Ian Fleming had sent his fictional James Bond after he was expelled from Eton. Being A Scot is a vivid and highly personal portrait of Scotland and its achievements, which is self-revelatory whilst full of Sir Sean’s desire to shine light upon Scottish success and heroic failure.His personal quest with his friend and co-writer Murray Grigor has been to seek answers to some perplexing questions.

How did Scots come to devise so many new sports and games, or raise others to new heights? What gave fire to the Gothic tendency in Scottish literature? Why have so many creatively inventive and influential architects been Scots? Where did Scotland’s unreal blend of psychotic humour originate? And what about the national tradition of self-deprecation sometimes called the Scottish cringe? Sean Connery offers a correction to misconceptions that many believe are part of the historical record whilst revealing as never before his own vibrant personal history.

Order Being A Scot online:

• Order the UK hardback edition of Being A Scot from Amazon.co.uk
• Order the UK paperback edition of Being A Scot from Amazon.co.uk

Stay tuned to the CommanderBond.net main page for all the latest literary James Bond news.

Another Bond Girl Role For Rosamund Pike?

She’s best known by 007 fans for her role as the icy Miranda Frost in Pierce Brosnan’s final James Bond film, Die Another Day, but Rosamund Pike may have yet another Bond girl role lined up.

The Daily Mail reports that Pike has been asked to star as Honeychile Rider at the upcoming Ian Fleming tribute in October.

If she accepts, Pike will read the part from Fleming’s Dr. No at the gala, scheduled to take place on 5 October at the London Palladium.

‘We very much hope Rosamund will read the part,’ said Lucy Fleming, the author’s niece. ‘The event will take place in October at the London Palladium. We expect to have a few Bonds there–Roger Moore has already confirmed–and the audience will be packed with celebrities.’

CommanderBond.net will keep you updated as more information on the Ian Fleming tribute gala is released.

'From Bletchley, With Love' Ian Fleming Centenary Exhibition

A ‘James Bond fun day’ is scheduled for Monday, 25 August at the Ian Fleming centenary exhibition, ‘From Bletchley, With Love’.

The exhibition, which officially opened on 24 July when HRH Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall made a visit to the location, highlights Fleming’s top secret wartime work as special liaison officer between Naval Intelligence and Bletchley Park.

Ian Fleming

The family friendly Bond day will feature several several 007-related events, reports the Bucks Free Press. These include an Aston Martin display (with Die Another Day‘s Vanquish on show) and several spy workshops for the younger visitors.

A special flypast by a wartime Dakota, thanks to the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, in tribute to Fleming’s centenary, will also be a highlight of the day.

Finally, the event rounds off with a talk from author Michael Smith, explaining the wartime links between Fleming, Bletchley Park and MI6.

‘From Bletchley, With Love’ takes place at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire. For further details, visit www.bletchleypark.org.uk.

‘From Bletchley, With Love’

Fleming acted as liaison officer between Naval Intelligence and Bletchley Park throughout the war. Sadly he died in 1964, ten years before the ban on talking about Bletchley Park was lifted. This exhibition tells for the first time the story Fleming could not tell his biographer.

On 24 July 2008, a visit to Bletchley Park by Their Royal Highnesses The Prince of Wales and The Duchess of Cornwall, marked the official opening, in Hut 12, of a very special new exhibition about Ian Fleming and Real Spies, Double Agents and Bletchley Park. The Royal couple, along with some specially invited guests, such as members of the Fleming family and some Bletchley Park veterans, admired the new exhibition and listened to a presentation in Hut 12 by Mavis Batey, Bletchley Park Codebreaker, on Ian Fleming’s War.

Ian Fleming’s favourite Churchill quote was, ‘In the high ranges of Secret Service work the actual facts in many cases were in every respect equal to the most fantastic inventions of romance and melodrama. Tangle within tangle, plot and counter-plot, ruse and treachery, cross and double cross, true agent, false agent, gold and steel, the bomb, the dagger and the firing party were interwoven in many a texture so intricate as to be incredible and yet true’.

Knowing the enemy’s secrets and keeping your own is a real war winner. In World War 2 codebreaking and the Special Intelligence derived from it played a major role in the allied victory in Europe. Ian Fleming, NID 17F, acted as liaison officer between Bletchley Park and the Director of Naval Intelligence throughout the war. The brand new ‘From Bletchley, With Love’ exhibition shows for the first time his involvement with the secrets of ENIGMA and ULTRA, which he was never able to reveal, but which formed the inspiration for the fantasy world of James Bond. Amongst other fascinating Fleming insights, the exhibition makes the startling revelation of who was Ian Fleming’s real-life ‘M’.

Truth really is stranger than fiction. This exhibition also tells the story of the subversive wartime world of double-cross agents. Espionage and counter-espionage. Deception and intrigue. Sabotage and extortion. And how it was all achieved with the help of intelligence gleaned from Bletchley Park.

Admission to the ‘From Bletchley, With Love’ exhibition is included in the normal admission price.

Stay tuned to the CommanderBond.net main page for all the latest literary 007 news and complete coverage of all the Ian Fleming centenary events.

Broccoli And Faulks Talk 'Devil' Film Rights Snub

Earlier this week, CommmanderBond.net reported that Eon Productions had passed on the movie rights to Sebastian Faulks’ one-off James Bond novel, Devil May Care.

Eon reportedly decided against picking up the option to film the novel due to its period setting. The production company has not adapted over 20 continuation novels, opting instead to work solely with Ian Fleming material (and their own).

“We love the book, but because it is set in the 1960s, we haven’t considered making it in the near future,” 007 producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson told Variety.

The Independent today carries a few more quotes from the parties concerned.

“Devil May Care is a period book which is set in the 1960s, and it really wouldn’t fit as one of the films that Eon has been making recently,” Broccoli told the British newspaper.

An Eon spokesperson added that a movie adaptation of Faulks’ book was “not in discussion”.

Faulks, meanwhile, raised a valid point: “I would have thought that if you could move Casino Royale from the 1950s you could move Devil May Care from the Sixties.”

“But Eon know what they are doing,” the novelist added.

Faulks also told the paper that if Eon changed their mind, he would support the idea of a film version of his bestselling novel.

An Eon spokesperson told BBC News that the company had not ruled out an adaptation of Devil May Care in the future.

Keep your web browsers locked on CommanderBond.net for all the latest James Bond news.

James Bond Audiobooks And Kindle Books Available On Amazon

Ian Fleming’s Live and Let Die

Last month, CommanderBond.net reported the news that new, repackaged editions of some of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels would be released by Blackstone Audiobooks in January 2009.

A second wave of additional releases have now been announced for 1 February of next year as well. All the titles are now available for pre-order with the exception of Casino Royale and For Your Eyes Only. This likely results from the former being released as a film tie-in edition in 2006 and the latter being slated for release this October to tie in with the theatrical release of Quantum of Solace.

Each of these Bond audiobooks will be read by Simon Vance. Running on three to seven CDs each, they will retail for $19.95 a piece.

Order the James Bond Audiobooks

In related literary 007 news, all fourteen of Fleming’s original adventures as well as the centenary novel, Devil May Care, have made their way to Amazon’s revolutionary wireless reading device, the Amazon Kindle.

This new e-book reading device has quickly become one of the hottest items for sale on the online retailer. For further information or to purchase the Amazon Kindle, click here.

Each Bond ‘Kindle Book’ retails for $9.99 each. Ordering links follow:

Order the James Bond Kindle Books

As always, stay tuned to the CBn main page for the most complete coverage of all the latest literary James Bond news.