You Only Live Twice

Best read after Thunderball and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, the reader finds Bond with a personal score to settle with Blofeld after being married and widowed on the same day. Bond finds himself in Japan and encounters a Ninja training camp, and Japanese pearl divers while on the trail of Blofeld.

Following Thunderball, the film was the first to deviate seriously from the books. Character names and location are similar, but the plot is nothing to do with Ian Fleming – it was in fact penned by Roald Dahl. Relying upon gadgets, such as an autogyro called “Little Nellie”, and vast sets it began the decline in the series that led to the disastrous Roger Moore films in the 1970s and 80s.