‘I’m not sure that Bond is a spy... I think it’s a great mistake if one’s talking about espionage literature to include Bond in this category at all. It seems to me he’s more some kind of international gangster with, as it is said, a licence to kill.’
I’m a great admirer of John le Carré, but I don’t agree with this assessment. James Bond is an agent of British intelligence, and the books and films featuring him do not just deserve to be included in the canon of espionage fiction – they have been enormously influential within it. Fleming wrote very different books from le Carré, but both are landmark writers in the spy genre, just as Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle are in detective fiction. Fleming’s works were, for the most part, great fun – but that doesn’t mean they’re not worth giving a closer look.
Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be doing just that, analyzing the influence of Ian Fleming and James Bond on the espionage genre from several angles. 007 has been covered in countless books, articles and documentaries, but I hope to delve a little deeper into certain aspects than has been before, exploring rare and in some cases unknown articles about and interviews with Ian Fleming and other key players in the Bond story, as well as putting the character’s critical reception, influence and success into greater context. So please, grab your wetsuit and Champion harpoon gun and join me as I dive in to the world of James Bond...
