James Bond

As the 100th anniversary of Ian Fleming’s birth approaches, there’s no dearth of hoopla happening over both the author and his famous spy. Over on the Guardian blog, Sam Jordison talks about why the James Bond novels, though low-brow, should be considered classics. I have to agree with him, though perhaps Fleming’s wife wouldn’t; she felt he was “hammering out pornography.”

All novelists find inspiration in reality, but Ian Fleming, more than most, firmly anchored the imagined world of James Bond to the people, things and places he knew. The characters, plots, places, machines and situations in the James Bond stories are so firmly embedded in fact that it is often hard to spot where the real world of Ian Fleming ends and the fictional world of James Bond begins.

Letters written by James Bond creator Ian Fleming, to be sold at auction next month, reveal a close relationship with the author's typist, Jean Frampton. He frequently called on her for pointers on plot and style.

This is news to old Fleming fanatics like me.

James Bond actor Roger Moore is hoping to sell his life story for at least 1 million pounds, his agent said at the Frankfurt Book Fair on Friday.

The autobiography, whose working title is "My Word is my Bond", will tell the real life story of the British actor best known as secret agent 007.

Aston Martin may not make it as Britain’s coolest vehicle next time the poll is taken. In the new James Bond novel, our hero will be driving a Bentley rather than his usual Aston Martin. Sebastian Faulks wants to take James back to his roots, and in Flemings’ books he had a passion for the Bentley. It’s a sure bet that Bentley will benefit by the popular spy’s change of wheels.

Hurrah! Sebastian Faulks has been commissioned to write another James Bond novel for the upcoming Fleming centenary. I could get excited over Devil May Care, even if Bond is an old codger now.