Essential Bond (PB): The Authorized Guide to the World of 007 Book

For a crash course in Bondage from "No" to "Not Enough", there's no beating The Essential Bond. Almost 40 years of 'demoiselles and danger are brought together here in a 007 completists' dream that traces the films in chronological sequence from first to last through a critical introduction leading into descriptions of the assignment: The girls, the villains, the allies, the vehicles, the gadgets and weapons, the music, the marketing and merchandising and the box office. Pfeiffer and Worrall have clearly done their homework. Bond fans will revel in the nostalgia of the early films, get blown away by the budgets and effects of the more recent outings and along the way, discover a few truths and dispel a few rumours about the cast and crew. The wealth of material is great. This is what makes the Bondophile tick; finding out where the name Kananga comes from, where the Diamonds Are Forever story involving Blofeld's kidnapping of Willard Whyte and hijacking of his empire was dreamt up (literally as it happens) and the truth about the Diana Rigg/George Lazenby feud as reported by the British press during filming of On Her Majesty's Secret Service which had Rigg intentionally eating garlic before their love scenes to irritate the new leading man. The Essential Bond is beautifully presented and literally packed with rare stills and location shots--one of which settles the debate as to whether Ursula Andress was really naked in Dr No's shower. A final section presents Bond in a wider context with literary information, a discussion of the spy's effect on popular culture, an introduction to the Bond "family"--the Broccolis and other great names from the films--and a piece on the "other James Bonds" from cartoon and print. Readers will have to look elsewhere for material on Fleming's Bond--the complex and misunderstood agent of his original conception--but as a history of 007 on the silver screen, this leaves little to the imagination. In The Essential Bond, 007 is shaken, stirred and served up on a plate. --Iain CampbellRead More