James Bond's Evolution

Book excerpt: Just what inspired Ian Fleming's original James Bond novels? What exactly did they do to lay the foundations for the classic Bond films of the '60s-and how did the films break with the books? How did EON Productions manage to keep audiences coming back for decades? What really changed in the reboot-and what stayed the same? How do the later Bond novels of writers like John Gardner and William Boyd fit into the bigger picture? JAMES BOND'S EVOLUTION: FROM CASINO ROYALE TO SPECTRE looks at all these questions and more in a study not just of the novels or the films but both which traces the broader Bond phenomenon from its origins in post-World War II Britain to the present. In doing so it looks not just at where it all came from, but how the Bond films and books were transformed time and again to stay popular through six tumultuous decades of political and cultural change.