Bond books: Lightweight Moore or layered Dalton?
By The Prodigal Fool, published on 5 August 2010
What is it about @Noodlefish? This is the second time in a week that the man has kicked-off a post for us. So, yesterday we were chewing the fat with him about Omega and their uncanny ability to repackage essentially the same product and keep selling it to the same people. He wrote:
Re Omegas, always impressed with their ability to sell the same watch more than once to same person.
That got us thinking. You see, so it is with James Bond.
Fans who have read the original books don’t hesitate to line up for the films. Once they’ve seen the films, they happily buy them again on DVD. What’s that? Blu-ray delivers HD and a couple of more extras? No problem, they’ll buy the whole 22 film canon all over again. How do we know? Because we’ve done it ourselves, dammit!
But it doesn’t end there. There’s a whole industry that’s sprouted up to part the foolish Bond fan and his money.
Put aside the ludicrous – and rather cynical – branding opportunities for one moment (we’re assuming even our two readers aren’t Prodigal enough to squander money on Bond aftershave or Bond cufflinks) the Bond-related items you might realistically be tempted by are the myriad books that have been released over the years about 007 and his creator.
We’ve got three we’d like to tell you about.
The first two are companion pieces: The Book of Bond and Bond Cars & Vehicles are both published by DK and both credited to Alastair Dougall.
We say ‘credited’ because it’s not clear to us what Dougall actual did in terms of work. Let’s put it this way, if this is a job then we want it. Both books contain some high-quality photos (most, it must be said, look like stills from the films rather than original photography) and have a lovely feel to them. They’re hardbacks that will look good on the coffee table of any flat “in a converted Regency house just off the King’s Road”. The problem with them is that they lack any real depth, any real content. An the end of the day, they’re little more than plesant trips down memory lane for the Bond fan.
The Book of Bond is a series of short descriptions of the plot of each film, accompanied by some nice photos and quotes from them. OK as far as it goes.
Bond Cars & Vehicles takes a similar approach, albeit with a little more focus: most vehicles that have appeared in the films are given a fleeting mention. Again, there are some nice photos and a short description of the role the vehicle played in the film. Often a relevant quote from the film is added for context. And, eh, that’s it.
To a Bond devotee, these two books are entertaining enough to flick through once but you wouldn’t want to come back to them. This is lightweight, frothy Roger Moore Bond. And we couldn’t help thinking that, just like the Omega trick, we were being sold something we’d already bought but in a slightly different package. Regrettably, we think these will shortly end up in Baby Fool’s room – he’s two and will soon love flicking through them. Adults – even foolish ones like us – wouldn’t be tempted into a repeat viewing.
If you’re on the look out for something with a bit more depth, something more akin to a Timothy Dalton Bond, you might want to check out Henry Chancellor’s better-researched and therefore far more interesting James Bond: The Man And His World. Published by John Murray and billing itself as “The offical companion to Ian Fleming’s creation”, we found this book to be a lot more engrossing. In fact, it’s fascinating.
Peppered throughout the work are two-page spread summaries of each book together with background information on the origins of each story and the critical reception it received when it was first released. But Chancellor’s more significant achievement is to present some other well-researched and genuinely enlightening information about Fleming’s own life, the political environment at the time he was writing and the world events that all shaped – directly or indirectly – the adventures of 007 as they eventually made it to the page.
Chancellor mixes some fun features (a map of Bond’s London showing vaious 007-related landmarks caught our eye) and graphical treatments with in-depth research to great effect. With its well-produced artwork and illustrations, the book never comes across as too academic. Nonetheless, you put it down feeling that you’ve learnt something – not just about Fleming but about the world he lived in. The book is also helpfully indexed – essential for any vaguely serious reference work like this.
So, if you’re a Roger Moore sort of Bond fan, happy to be fed the same lightweight rehash over and over, by all means pick up one or both of Dougall’s books. The truth is that any Bond fan will enjoy flicking through them at least once. But if you like a slightly more layered Bond, a Bond you can revisit more than once, if you want to get under the skin of the character and his creator, Chancellor’s book is the far better option.
Bond books: Lightweight Moore or layered Dalton?
What is it about @Noodlefish? This is the second time in a week that the man has kicked-off a post for us. So, yesterday we were chewing the fat with him about Omega and their uncanny ability to repackage essentially the same product and keep selling it to the same people. He wrote: Re Omegas, [...]
3 Responses to “Bond books: Lightweight Moore or layered Dalton?”
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Good stuff!
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We sell great fake rolex and he did good.
A celebration of 007: Bond Week « The Prodigal Guide
5 August 2010
[...] Thursday – Bond books: No, no, not the Fleming stories – those are well known. Instead we’ve got some more recent sources of Bond information and photos: a couple of coffee books that Bond aficionados won’t want to be without. [...]