The Spy Who Loved Me

Following the original publication of the book, Fleming ordered that it not be released as a paperback. On first reading it is disappointing, as Fleming takes the radical approach of writing the book from the perspective of the heroine of the book. Bond does not appear until the end of the book and it is [...]

When James Bond drove a Lotus Esprit S1 directly into the water on the Sardinian coast to escape a helicopter in hot pursuit in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), he introduced what is one of 007′s best-known gadgets; flipping a switch the car turns into a submarine. The Lotus Esprit was a mid-engine coupé [...]

Tom Mankiewicz, who wrote the screenplays for Diamonds Are Forever, Live And Let Die and The Man With The Golden Gun, has died from pancreatic cancer at the age of 68. As well as credits for three Bond films, he also contributed to The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker, although he was uncredited. Read [...]

By the time the next instalment of the James Bond series was due to be released, much had changed. Despite the relative success of Live and Let Die and The Man With The Golden Gun, 007 was in danger of being overtaken by new, spectacular summer blockbuster films including cinema’s latest phenomenon: Star Wars. With [...]

James Bond arrives in Sardinia in The Spy Who Loved Me, where he and Anya Amasova – agent XXX of the KGB – check into Hotel Cala di Volpe on the Costa Smeralda. After visiting the base of Stromberg they are chased by his henchmen, culminating in Bond driving his Lotus Esprit into the water, [...]