John Gardner’s ‘Licence Renewed’ and the Original Return of James Bond
Article by Patrick Vagg The campaign of a James Bond novel is often an important way to kick-start sales while also announcing to the world that the arrival of a new adventure of the super spy is...
View Article‘The Saturday Book’ Cover by Richard Chopping
Of Richard Chopping’s many beautiful illustrations, paintings and book jackets, none stand out more as his work for the 1955 volume 15 edition of the yearly The Saturday Book. These books of miscellany...
View Article‘The Visitor’s Book’ – The Lives of Richard Chopping and Denis Wirth-Miller
When artists Richard Chopping and Denis Wirth-Miller died in their nineties, their friend Jon Lys Turner inherited an extensive personal archive. When he began to look through it, he discovered letters...
View ArticleExclusive Interview with Jon Lys Turner, author of ‘The Visitor’s Book’
Today marks a very special day, for on this day in 1957 Ian Fleming met a young illustrator that was to prove pivotal in the lives of both men and the future of the James Bond novels. That illustrator...
View ArticleThe Book Collector Release Ian Fleming Special Edition
The Spring number of The Book Collector will be a special issue on the theme “Ian Fleming & Book Collecting”. Fleming was the publisher of The Book Collector from its start and its principal...
View ArticleInterview with Mike Ripley, author of ‘Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang’
You know you are going up in the world when you score an interview with the talented Mr. (Mike) Ripley. His non-fiction reader’s history Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang, a survey of the boom in British thrillers...
View ArticleHow James Bond came to Paint my Portrait – by Mike Ripley
Article by Mike Ripley I first met Reg Gadney five years ago, at a rather hectic Christmas party for regular freelance contributors to The Guardian. I knew the name, of course, from numerous excellent...
View ArticleThe Artistic Legacy of Richard Chopping
They say never judge a book by its cover, but book covers do a much of the heavy lifting to help to sell a book. None more so than Richard ‘Dicky’ Chopping’s iconic artwork for Ian Fleming’s Bond...
View ArticleThe Most Iconic Dust Jacket Font in Book Design
Article by Graham M. Thomas According to Robert Harling, the main topic of conversation when he first met Ian Fleming at a party in 1939 was typography; Fleming mentioned that he subscribed to...
View ArticleThe Best A Bond Can Get – Interview with cover artist Michael Gillette
This month we are delighted to talk to the San Francisco based artist Michael Gillette, who created a beautiful set of officially licensed James Bond book covers for the Ian Fleming Centenary in 2008,...
View ArticleFor Your Eyes Only – Under the Hammer
An extraordinary collection of Ian Fleming manuscripts, first editions and ephemera go under the hammer at Sotheby’s on October 28th, 2020. The collection is entitled ‘James Bond: A Collection of Books...
View ArticleRichard Chopping and The Butterfly Effect
By Jim Wright Octopussy and The Living Daylights (1966), the last of Ian Fleming’s 14 novels and short story collections, is often considered the least of the lot. After all, the first edition weighs...
View ArticleOnline Talk – Richard Chopping: The Original Bond Artist
Richard Chopping was a British writer and painter, best known as the original illustrator of Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels, including From Russia with Love and Goldfinger – a commission that had been...
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