James Bond Book review

Book Review

James Bond: The Secret World of 007

By Christopher Johnson

In the run up to the release of 'Casino Royale', publishers Dorling Kindersley have updated 'James Bond: The Secret World of 007' to include 'Die Another Day' and 'Casino Royale' - and it is a gem of a book that will appeal to Bond fans young and old!

The first thing that you'll notice about the latest edition is that the cover has been updated to show the inclusion of 'Die Another Day' and 'Casino Royale'. And surprisingly it does not feature Pierce Brosnan on the cover! However the book is still lavishly illustrated with film stills, photographs of original props and excellent cut-away diagrams of 007's gadgets and the villain's hideouts.

Following chapters entitled 'Licenced To Kill, The Bond 'Look'', 'Bond In Love', 'The Service', 'The Wizard of MI6', 'A World Of Spies and Supervillains', we then go onto 'Missions' where each film up to and including 'Die Another Day' is thoroughly analysed.

I can not stress to readers just how excellent these cutaway drawings are! The detail on them is second to none. In the 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' section there is an excellent cut-away diagram of Piz Gloria and you can clearly see Blofeld holding his white cat in his office - even though his figure is less than a centimeter in height!

A lot of the action sequences from the movie are also shown in these original drawings, and numbered notes take you through the adventure - for example - the pre-credits scene of 'GoldenEye' is explained through two pages of drawings and 13 numbered captions.

The photographs are also quite revealing - for instance did you know that the suitcases that transported Little Nellie to Japan had a luggage tag on them that said: "Major Boothroyd Universal Exports Tokyo Hilton Japan".

'Die Another Day' is treated to 12 pages including a look at the Hovercraft chase in Korea, diagrams of how gadgets on the Aston Martin Vanquish work, production sketches and blueprints for the Ice Palace and a look at the 'Battle of the Supercars'.

The only thing that is slightly disappointing about this book is that we're only treated to a double-page spread of photographs from 'Casino Royale' - but I'm sure that this is something that Dorling Kindersley will put right with a future edition of the book.

This book is a collaborative work by Author Alastair Dougall, Illustrator Roger Stewart and Consultant Editor Dave Worrall. The original edition of 'James Bond: The Secret World of 007' has sold more than 270,000 copies in the UK and US alone, and I'm sure that this new revised edition will continue that success.

To read our exclusive interview with author Alastair Dougall, please click HERE

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