James Bond Lecture

James Bond Lecture
This lecture concentrated on the phenomenon that is James Bond, with particular attention paid to the novel ‘Casino Royale’. The Bond books were one of the first cheap, affordable paperbacks available to the consumers of Britain, the first being Casino Royale (written in 1952). This was the premier of the James Bond character, he was presented as a gambling, drinking, smoking(70+ a day), luxury consuming jet setting spy, with the confidence of a ‘colony controlling’ Britain behind him. James Bond was a symbol of consumerism; he was a promoter of Great-er Britain, and anti Americanism, perhaps considered a xenophobe.

The reason perhaps for the success of these James Bond novels was a combination. The novels were readily available for the masses to buy, through paperback production, but also the spy-genre of the books interested a lot of people at the time, with the cold war still present in people’s minds spies were a reality, the media were always publishing stories about the capture of spies. The books also could be considered to present this capitalism vs communism war.

The author of the Bond novels, Ian Fleming was educated at Eton and Sandhurst Military school, he like Bond worked in the secret service and was arguably through his presentations of Bond was a Pro-English supporter, the middle class man also as Bond did, played cards, and consumed luxuries. He was once described by Dominic Sandbrook as having “mystery” and “arrogant charm” (similar to Bond). When Fleming was told the next James Bond would be Sean Connery he was unhappy, James Bond was English and always had been, however he came round to the idea after watching Connery play the role and even then wrote Scottish ancestry into the character.

The James Bond novels were incredibly successful during the 20th century; by 1964 they had sold 22million copies. The novels were successful due to their accessibility; they were an insight for the working class, to experience luxury lifestyles and exotic locations. They appealed to a range of people, and when they eventually hit the cinema their success continued.



Kieran Hipkins

093585