18 replies to this topic

[Bwanito]

Who thinks that the

[Santa]

I love that book, definitely one of my favourites. Unfortunately I lost my copy between house moves a few years ago. I was so gutted and haven't been able to replace it yet. It would indeed be wonderful if Mr Benson could update it.

[Loomis]

Unfortunately I lost my copy between house moves a few years ago. I was so gutted and haven't been able to replace it yet.

Same here, oddly enough. I think it's the best book about "the Bond universe", and sorely in need of updating.

I'm very curious as to Benson's opinions on the films since THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS. Understandably enough (well, when it comes to TOMORROW NEVER DIES, THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH and DIE ANOTHER DAY), I don't think he's ever aired them publicly.

[Santa]

Well if you come across any copies and manage to get hold of one for me too, I'll be eternally grateful. It was my obsessive reading of this book when I first got it that made my parents realise this James Bond thing wasn't going to pass as quickly as "Can I have a hamster?". I've moved house so many times and always lose things. Moving again in a couple of weeks and then I swear that's it, never again. This time I'm staying put and I'll get my new copy of 'Bedside Companion' and keep it safely by the bed.

[DamnCoffee]

Havent read it but you guys make me want to so much

[Double-O Eleven]

As a young Bond fan in the 1980s, when there wasn't much writing available on the character aside from "official" books, the Bedside Companion was indispensible. I still have my copy, very yellowed and beaten with age from flipping through it endlessly as a teenager.

[TheSaint]

I remember getting it the year it came out-not immediately for the cover price was out of my range. I was able to get the later hardcover version featuring a photo cover of Bond literary props photographed by Graham Rye at Spy-Fi con in 1993.

[MovieMaestro]

Agreed...The Bond Companion is where it should be, by me bedside. Amazing amount of detail from both the literary and film angles.

Just out of amusement...If Benson did a new version, what would he say about his own novels, and the films that he novelized??

[Santa]

Just out of amusement...If Benson did a new version, what would he say about his own novels, and the films that he novelized??

I think the less said about that, the better

[DavidSomerset]

The James Bond - The Legacy
http://www.amazon.co...k/dp/0752264982

Truly fantastic and great visuals.

[OmarB]

I would love to see it updated but I think Benson's pretty much moved on from Bond.

[TheSaint]

I love that book, definitely one of my favourites. Unfortunately I lost my copy between house moves a few years ago. I was so gutted and haven't been able to replace it yet. It would indeed be wonderful if Mr Benson could update it.

There are currently 5 copies on eBay...
http://search.ebay.c.....de Companion"

[Santa]

Well that's very sweet of you, thanks. I know they're out there, I just have never got around tracking one down, and I'm not a fan of ebay. Most of the ones you've listed are no good for various reasons but I'm bidding on the one that is. Just hope Loomis doesn't decide to go for it too.

[David Schofield]

Both edition's of Benson's book are 80s period pieces, though, aren't they?

Sure, its a fine idea, very well executed, and in the "literature-on-Bond" free time it was published was a very well come, and thought provoking, effort. And indeed Benson's genuine opinions on the post TLD films would be most worthwhile: if one could ensure total impartiality considering his own involvement with TDN, TWINE and DAD (via novelisations) and his use of the Brosnan-Bond character in his own novels.

Which leads us on to the real problem with a Third Edition of the book.

A perhaps less than diplomatic - or sensitive - or realistic - Benson basically leaves the reader with the fact he has a low opinion of Gardner's writing. Sort of "he's not Fleming" (honest, never realised) and that Gardner should have known Bond better/tried harder. Again, while these may be salient points, they tend to loose their impact when one considers the novels that followed Gardener, those written by Benson himself. A hindsight re-reading of Benson's Companion, in the light of what he himself followed it with, does not make the most comfortable or convincing of reading. And nor would I want to see a new edition re-written around the subject of Gardner, with Benson adding his thoughts based on the passing years: I am happy that what Benson wrote in the 1980s was what he genuinely believed about Gardner's writing and I am satisfied with the honesty of that.

That said, I would like to read Benson on LTK-CR, without any EON influence on him. And I'd pretty much kill to read Benson on his own novels and how they were sunk by IFP influence, compromised in what they set out to achieve, together with apalling editing, lousy marketing etc, if indeed that was the case.

[killkenny kid]

The best book? We have to wait for zencat to write it.

[Turn]

Benson actually answered a lot of these questions about how he'll never update the companion book, as well as his thought on Gardner after the fact in a CBn interview from a couple years back. The link is on the Benson page.

I got The Bedside Companion for Christmas that year and spent the next couple months reading it. What I liked at the time was it really gave a nice overview of the novels as I hadn't read most of them at that point. By breaking things down by important quotes, passages and overviews of characters, it piqued my interest in the novels more than before.

I wasn't a huge fan of the film section as it seemed more abbreviated than the Rubin and Brosnan books as far as covering the individual films. Besides, he seemed to be pretty predicable as far as his choices for what was good (the first three) and bad (MR, TMWTGG), which was very reflective of the mind-set of a lot of fans at the time and I didn't need to be told yet again some of the films I liked weren't good.

[ACE]

I think Raymond Benson's James Bond Bedside Companion is certainly up there with the Bond bibles. Very comprehensive, a labour of love and the most thought-provoking guide to the series as a whole. Raymond Benson was the Galileo of Bond.

I also think James Bond The Legacy by John Cork and Bruce Scivally is excellent. Cork and Scivally are terrific writers and the book really benefits from being official.

I also love Alan Barnes and Marcus Hearn's Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Again, very well written and researched and benefitting from being unofficial. The plot summary of TLD and decription of the GE PTS are worth the price of purchase alone. This only goes up to TWINE and could benefit from a new edition.

Martin Sterling and Gary Morecambe's Martinis Girls And Guns is also very good, well-written and researched. There are some nice points, observations and new information in this tome.

[Double-0-7]

The Bedside Companion is my favorite book of that type. I bought it about 12 years ago and kept going back and re-reading different parts of it.

I've managed to not lose mine yet - through 4 moves over the last 5 years (there was only supposed to be 1 move, but...)!

[Bwanito]

OK we agree: