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007's Real Mission

  007’S REAL MISSION   By William E. Kelly                                                                                     The latest surge of interest in James Bond - Secret Agent 007 isn't because of a new Bond movie, or the speculation over who will play the next celluloid Bond, but rather the 70th anniversary of the publication of the first 007 novel Casino Royale, the reissue of the complete 007 series - sanitized to make them politically correct, and the release of yet another official biography, Nicholas Shakespeare's  Ian Fleming – The Complete Man  (Harvill Secker – Penguin Harper Collins, UK, March 2024). Because it is described as "complete" and “definitive,” I expected Shakespeare to set the record straight on three key issues the previous biographies get wrong - the characterization of the real James Bond, the reason Fleming began writing the 007 novels , and the actual identities behind the characters that populate Fleming’s fiction. The on
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James Bond Authenticus

  James Bond and Ian Fleming - The Men and the Myth  JAMES BOND & IAN FLEMING – THE MEN & THE MYTH James Bond Authenticus SPRING 1948 – ABOARD THE VIGILANT SOMEWHERE IN THE CARIBBEAN James Bond stepped carefully across the deck of the Vigilant, grabbed hold of some rigging and swung underneath as a wave slapped across the bow, spraying his face. He felt a bit queasy, the effects of his usual bout with sea sickness that made the early part of every voyage uncomfortable. This was not his first trip to the West Indies, nor would it be his last, but as always, James Bond was on a journey that had both scholarly and professional ramifications. Bond had an insatiable interest in the origin, distribution and lifestyle of birds, particularly the birds of the West Indies, a subject on which he is recognized, among the international league of ornithologists, as the foremost authority in the world. But this trip would be different from the others because it would end in death
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James Bond and Ian Fleming - The Men and the Myth - The Secret History of 007

 James Bond and Ian Fleming - The Men and the Myth - The Secret History of 007 In honor of the 70th anniversary of the publication of Ian Fleming's first spy thriller Casino Royale in 1953, Ian Fleming's estate is reissuing and re-editing a complete collection of Fleming's 007 novels, without some of his blunt, now politically incorrect descriptions.  I too would like to recognize the significance of Casino Royale by explaining its true purpose - to promote and support the totally beleaguered and embarrassed British Secret Intelligence Service by the exposure of Kim Philby and Cambridge spy ring, and protect the remaining assets, one of whom was the real James Bond, the American ornithologist.  There are a number of men who could be considered serious candidates for providing the fictionalized character that Fleming developed as 007, including his adventurous older brother Peter, Dustin Popov, and other self-styled spies.  There is however, only one real James Bond, the aut
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