I read all of the originals thanks to my dad knowing someone who was getting rid of some old books to make room for new ones. He handed over the complete original collection and I read everyone one after the other. I was in my late teens.
There was a piece in last week's Economist about Britain and spy-fiction...they said that the spy thriller was the quintessentially British story, just as the western was the quintessential American story. A few of the connections they made were Britain's multitude of secretive societies -- places like Oxford with their own language for everything -- and the country's historic need for security that placed a high premimum on intelligence services. The author also pointed out that so many of Britain's spies write novels that the intelligence organizations seem to serve as creative-writing schools.
@ Lainy: Thanks. I do so love cover art - as you may have noticed!
Thanks for visiting & welcome. Although I'm a bibliophile this Blog is much more than about books so you'll no doubt find things of interest. Not a huge fan of horror (or zombies I'm afraid) but if you like Crime novels I have quite a few coming up which you might like.
@ Stephen: I've heard that before regarding spy novels. It is something that we seem particularly good at. I suppose that IRL we've been spying & spied upon for centuries so it's in our blood. The Cold War just sharpened the talents we had developed against the French & Germans.... [grin] Quite a few ex-spies ended up writing novels - Fleming being one of them. I'm intrigued by the series of spy novels by Stella Rimington the former head of MI5. Talk about the inside track on things!
9 comments:
Is this the first one?
Yes. Published in 1953. The first proper Bond movie was Dr No which was the 6th Bond book published in 1958.
i was glued to it and couldn't wait for IF to write more... a callow youth i was, yes...
I read all of the originals thanks to my dad knowing someone who was getting rid of some old books to make room for new ones. He handed over the complete original collection and I read everyone one after the other. I was in my late teens.
Oooh I like this cover xxx
Lainy http://www.alwaysreading.net
There was a piece in last week's Economist about Britain and spy-fiction...they said that the spy thriller was the quintessentially British story, just as the western was the quintessential American story. A few of the connections they made were Britain's multitude of secretive societies -- places like Oxford with their own language for everything -- and the country's historic need for security that placed a high premimum on intelligence services. The author also pointed out that so many of Britain's spies write novels that the intelligence organizations seem to serve as creative-writing schools.
@ Lainy: Thanks. I do so love cover art - as you may have noticed!
Thanks for visiting & welcome. Although I'm a bibliophile this Blog is much more than about books so you'll no doubt find things of interest. Not a huge fan of horror (or zombies I'm afraid) but if you like Crime novels I have quite a few coming up which you might like.
@ Stephen: I've heard that before regarding spy novels. It is something that we seem particularly good at. I suppose that IRL we've been spying & spied upon for centuries so it's in our blood. The Cold War just sharpened the talents we had developed against the French & Germans.... [grin] Quite a few ex-spies ended up writing novels - Fleming being one of them. I'm intrigued by the series of spy novels by Stella Rimington the former head of MI5. Talk about the inside track on things!
Wasn't John LeCarre' also in the intelligence branch?
Yes, Le Carre was an Intelligence Office from 1950-64 according to Wikipedia.
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