123 replies to this topic

[Guy Haines]

I'm listening to Live And Let Die the unabridged book, as read by the Award winning actor Rory Kinnear, well known to Bond fans as Bill Tanner. (And very good the reading is too.)

 

Listening to the book rather than reading it - or rather, not having read it for quite a while -  does make one think, and I'd say if ever a Bond book was to offend the "PC" disposition, this is probably it, and not just because of any racial elements involved.  US Cbn members, sorry to say it but our man Bond disparages some American food and drink, though by no means all, Fleming is clearly amused by US advertising, and we even have not only casual racism but casual "ageism" - 007's comments about the elderly denizens of St Petersburg, Florida are not all that kind.

 

Still, as said before, it is a book of its time, however much a reader may disapprove of certain aspects of it, although it's difficult to believe that LALD the novel, if commissioned for today, could possibly get away with some of the terms used.

 

A couple of other things struck me. First, Felix Leiter's accent changed from the recording of Casino Royale (read by Dan Stevens) and this one. In CR he's supposed to sound quite Texan, whereas here as read by Rory Kinnear he sounds a bit less so, at least to my tin ear!

 

Second, in both CR and LALD the phrase "we have all the time in the world" is used at some point. I'm sure I heard it in both readings. Not significant, except perhaps words the author commonly used?

[Major Tallon]

Maybe I'm less easily offended than some people today, but I was amused more than put off by Fleming's descriptions of the US.  Having recently made a Bond pilgrimage to the Tampa/ St. Petersburg area, I can say that the cities are nothing like they were in Fleming's day (and I was looking for all those "oldsters"), though my theory is that the advent of air conditioning has changed the American South greatly.  There are still lots of pelicans around the St. Petersburg waterfront, however.  As for Leiter, I preferred Kinnear's rendering to Stevens'. 

 

As for the line, "we have all the time in the world," it does creep up a few times in Fleming.  In fact, in the manuscript of OHMSS in the Lilly Library, Fleming had Bond use that phrase when thinking about his relationship with Ruby.  He later trimmed it out, almost certainly because he wished to reserve it for Bond's feelings for Tracy.

[Guy Haines]

Hi Major,

 

I'm not put off by the book - I'm enjoying listening to it and I enjoyed reading it a while back, but I can understand why some might be a bit shocked by some of the language and attitudes expressed. LALD is, as I said, a book very much of its time, and I think readers understand even if some of the words used are disagreeable now. (It's interesting that the language and attitudes expressed, not just in this book but in other Bond novels hasn't stopped them being published year after year, and being published as written - mostly.)

 

If you are amused by Ian Fleming's attitude to the US, I'm amused by the 1950s view of upper bracket Britain in, say, Moonraker. Sir Hugo Drax - background a bit cloudy, the mystery of how he went from badly damaged squaddie to multi millionaire in only five years, all those shaven headed Germans at his rocket base and so on, but what makes M think there's something not right about him? Dammit, he cheats at Bridge! (And, as we know, in "so called society" that's the only thing that can ruin a man's reputation!)

 

(Incidentally, much as I like the book Moonraker - one of my favourites, if not the favourite on my list - the scenes when Bond is at the rocket base with Drax and his German staff do now make me think of the episode from the Michael Palin TV series "Ripping Yarns" called "Whinfrey's Last Case", in which the hero comes across a quaint English village on the south coast, just before the start of WW I, where all the "English" inhabitants just happen to be German spies! Very funny!)

[FlemingBond]

speaking of the race issue, i can remember when i was in school we actually read Huckleberry Finn in class. I bet they don't do that anymore.

[Guy Haines]

Listening to the audio books makes one concentrate, at least I'm finding it does me - I have a tendency to "speed read" which means one can sometimes miss details. I've just finished listening to Bill Nighy's reading of Moonraker, and in re-visiting the book by audio what struck me most about this favourite of mine amongst the books was the number of times Bond ought to have realised something was amiss at Drax's base and yet dismissed his own suspicions completely or drew the wrong conclusions. I think he was assuming sabotage of the rocket was most likely and seemed to be testing the evidence against this assumption. Several times Bond missed the chance to call in the authorities because he didn't trust his own suspicions - only after a clear attempt to kill Bond and Gala Brand did the penny begin to drop, especially when, having survived the attempt, it's obvious that Drax and colleagues weren't expecting them to return.

 

I'm now on to Diamonds Are Forever, read by Damian Lewis, and I'm rather enjoying listening to a book I thought of as a "ho hum" entry in the series when reading it years ago. I think another reason I'm enjoying the audios is that I'm no longer judging the books against the films - I first started reading the books as an "almost teenager", and as a juvenile if I read a book after I'd seen the film I'd be consciously looking for the bits in the book that I'd seen in the film, and would be a bit disappointed to find, as with DAF, that the relationship between novel and movie was slight.

[Turn]

I had a very similar situation when trying to read the books as a teen, expecting Fleming to be pretty much what was adapted into the films and being disappointed by added characters I didn't know and language that seemed so adult at the time. Now I appreciate them in a different sense.

 

I haven't had the chance to hear many of the audio books but always welcome the opportunity when I can get them.

[Major Tallon]

I have a similar problem, Turn, only in reverse.  I came to the Bond franchise primarily through Ian Fleming's novels, and as I have watched some of the sillier movies, I've felt considerable disquiet as I wondered what the filmmakers had done to my James Bond, turning that dangerous fellow with the license to kill into a wisecracking, gadget-dependent, pretty boy.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy almost all of the movies on one level or another, but I can't help regretting the lost opportunities that many present.

[Walecs]

I have a similar problem, Turn, only in reverse.  I came to the Bond franchise primarily through Ian Fleming's novels, and as I have watched some of the sillier movies, I've felt considerable disquiet as I wondered what the filmmakers had done to my James Bond, turning that dangerous fellow with the license to kill into a wisecracking, gadget-dependent, pretty boy.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy almost all of the movies on one level or another, but I can't help regretting the lost opportunities that many present.

 

I started watching Bond movies, although I did know they were based on Fleming books; however, like you I dislike this side of the movies, the fact that they differ so much from the novels. I do enjoy them, but whenever I watch them I always think that I am watching an action-adventure movie, not a movie based on Fleming book (minus some few exceptions like "FRWL" and "OHMSS").

[Guy Haines]

I sympathise with all three of you. I came to the book Bond between the end of the Connery era - not counting NSNA - and the start of the Moore series. Which meant there were some books I'd already seen translated to the big screen which were relatively faithful, and others such as DAF or YOLT which were not. And that left books such as Moonraker which I'd hoped would translate to the cinema screen more or less as written, but which differed significantly, in content and tone.

 

All very perplexing for a teenager, but as I say, I now separate the book Bond and the movie Bond and enjoy both, appreciating it when they coincide but enjoying on a different level when they don't.

[Guy Haines]

A comment about the audio book "Diamonds Are Forever". I think Damian Lewis had a lot of fun reading it. It's more like a pulp fiction detective novel than a typical Bond adventure, imho. The characters and the descriptions of 1950's America are colourful and at times amusing. Like Live And Let Die there is some casual racism, though less than in Bond's second novel.

 

"Robert Markham" - Kingsley Amis - was right about the book lacking a decent main villain, in fact I was struck as to how infrequently the Spang brothers appear in the book. On the other hand, I was also struck by how big a part Felix Leiter plays in this novel - on hand much of the time, frequently explaining to Bond (and the reader!) about criminal gangs, horse racing and betting and so on. Bond is out of his "spy-v-spy" comfort zone in this novel, so it's a good job Leiter is there to help.

 

And speaking of Leiter - I mentioned his accent changed from Casino Royale to Live And Let Die - different actors reading so there are bound to be changes. And so it proved again. Damian Lewis has quite a light voice, and the combination of that and a southern accent made his Felix Leiter sound, to my tin ear, a little like ex-US President Bill Clinton. (We also have the taxi driver Ernie Cureo, who helps Bond out in Las Vegas - here the accent is teetering on the brink of being Chico Marx!) Damian Lewis certainly reminds the listener that he has a knack for accents - he also has an auctioneer at a horse sale speak in broad Irish and gives another auctioneer - running an unofficial sweepstakes about the speed of the Queen Elizabeth ocean liner - an accent which is definitely "North of England" English.

 

Listening to these CDs is making me re-visit my assumptions about the Fleming novels, and about my way of taking things in. In my youth I was an avid reader but less of a listener. I now find I'm both.

[Major Tallon]

I had never listened to an audio book until my wife bought me this set.  They do provide some fresh insights into the novels.  I'm enjoying them quite a bit.

[Guy Haines]

Hi Major Tallon,

 

I'm enjoying them quite a lot! Each actor has brought his or her own interpretation of the book concerned. I'm now two discs into Toby Stephens' reading of From Russia With Love. Quite a few Russians and one "moon mad" psychopath already. No sign of 007 yet, but give him time!

 

Listening to Toby Stephens - the voice of Bond in the four BBC Radio 4 adaptations of Fleming's novels so far - I wonder if he could have played Bond on screen? I think he could, probably if the novels had been filmed again as period pieces - his interpretation of Bond (From the radio) is more suited to "the Bond of the book".

 

Alternatively, he might have made an interesting Ian Fleming in a screen biography.

[Major Tallon]

I don't know if this is typical for audio books, but I've been impressed by the fact that the actors obviously have charted out the numerous characters that appear in the books and adopted a different voice for each.  And I agree about Stephens.  Under other circumstances, he'd have been an interesting choice for Bond.

[Guy Haines]

An update on my listening "marathon".

 

Dr. No - I've commented somewhere else about this, but Hugh Quarshie does a fine job reading it, bringing to life characters in expected ways - Bond is, well, Bond, M just as crusty as ever - and ways a casual reader or listener familiar with the film wouldn't expect - Honey Ryder has a very pronounced Jamaican accent, and the doctor himself sounds nothing like the villain we remember from the film, more Chinese-American with a hint of Caribbean to my ear, but no less sinister. As before, there's no getting away from when this book was written - this is pre-independence Jamaica and the comments of the British colonial staff make it clear what they think of the prospect of independence. But it remains one of Fleming's most thrilling and frightening Bond adventures, particularly in the second part as Bond faces up to the doctor's diabolical obstacle course.

 

Goldfinger - the most humourous Bond novel so far. Bond spends quite a bit of time winding Goldfinger up("Take Fort Knox? Bit of a tall order for two men and a girl, isn't it?"). Two bizarre villains in Goldfinger and Oddjob. Some glaring plotholes - having captured Bond at his factory and interrogated him, why didn't Goldfinger, with his Russian connections, check with his paymasters about this man Bond? Only at the end, when "Operation Grand Slam" has gone pear shaped does he get around to contacting SMERSH, having previously hired Bond to work for him! Then there's Grand Slam itself. Taking all of the gold out of Fort Knox at one go? Blasting your way in with an atomic bomb? (And then lifting the gold bars out with a chain of underlings wearing anti radiation suits?) There's the probability of Bond's SOS message getting through, and the whole of the population of Fort Knox pretending to be dead to allow the villains to fall into a trap. And the likelihood that Pussy Galore's sexual preferences would suddenly be changed by one British agent? Having listened to Hugh Bonneville's fine reading of the book, I wonder if Goldfinger wasn't some kind of spoof on Fleming's part of what had gone before. I may be wrong on that, but revisiting the book aurally, that's the impression I now have, although it does not in any way spoil my enjoyment of it. Bonneville's interpretation of Goldfinger is also different from the film - perfect English but with the hint, in the inflexion, that English is not his first language.

 

For Your Eyes Only - I'm three stories in on this. I'm impressed by the descriptions Fleming uses of the scenery, particularly the countryside - From a View To A Kill and For Your Eyes Only being largely "outdoor" open air tales. Different in tone from the previous book, more serious, although Bond rather grumpily reveals he is no fan of the city of Paris. Bond and M are faced with a moral dilemma in the second story. We have the "out of character"(?) scene of an RCMP officer bending the rules somewhat to allow Bond to carry out his mission. Both Mary Ann Russell and Judy Havelock come across as appealing leading ladies, imho. And then we have "Quantum Of Solace", not really a Bond novel but a tragic tale, although I could see the ending coming a mile off. And I think I've spotted a very, very tenuous link with the film - the stories are set before 1959, as one can tell because of the references to the Cuban regime headed by Batista and the "Castro rebels" fighting them - and in QoS we learn that Bond's personal sympathies are with the rebels, in spite of his orders to work against them. Now, wasn't there a bar room scene in the film involving Bond and Leiter where Bond is clearly unsympathetic to the CIA's attempts to overthrow left wing governments in South America? Clutching at straws I may be, but the Castro reference in the short story made me think of that scene in the film QoS. The audio book is read by Samuel West, and again he's done a good job in bringing the stories and characters to life.

[Iceskater101]

I have so much to read right now! Eventually, I am going to sit down and read most of the Bond books and ignore the racism and sexism and understand that it was a different time.

[Guy Haines]

Hello Iceskater101,

 

I think you would appreciate the "Reloaded" audio CDs. I read the books as an early teenager, then they got me through a stressful time when I re-read them in between taking exams, aged 18 (I passed with flying colours, by the way), but listening to someone else reading them has made me re-think a lot of things about them. Or maybe I'm just (a lot!) older than when I downed them all in one gulp as a teen, and think differently about them now anyway. I've spotted things I missed before, been shocked by some aspects of Ian Fleming's novels, and his Bond, but delighted by others, not least his powers of description. The audio CDs have really helped me rediscover the Bond of the books.

[AMC Hornet]

I have Samantha Bond reading The Spy Who Love me, but I haven't listened to it yet.

 

I wonder - does having a woman read it make it any more palatable?

 

(Be warned, Iceskater!)

[Guy Haines]

Haven't got around to it yet, but The Spy Who Loved Me "Bond reloaded" Audio CDs are read by Rosamund Pike, who played that ice maiden Miranda Frost in DAD.(And also appeared in one of the BBC radio adaptations starring Toby Stephens as Bond. It was Goldfinger, and she played Pussy Galore.) I do have the version mentioned above, on cassette, read by Samantha Bond, who also did the audio books for the novelizations of GoldenEye, The World Is Not Enough and Die Another Day. I thought she was rather good. And somewhere in the house I have a real curiosity - Casino Royale, read by another former Bond girl, Joanna Lumley.

 

As long as the actor is convincing and gets into the characters concerned, I don't think the gender of the reader matters. Also it might have been interesting to have had a non-British/Commonwealth actor reading one of the books. And no disrespect to any of the actors involved, but the new M, Ralph Fiennes, might have done a pretty good job narrating one of the novels.

[Guy Haines]

Another audio update.

 

"Risico" - revisiting it by audio CD I was surprised just how much was recycled in the film FYEO. Not just Columbo and Kristatos and the opium plot, not just scenes, but even actual lines of dialogue. The whole story is very atmospheric, and it's a pity Enrico Columbo never made a return appearance later on in the series of books.

 

"The Hildebrand Rarity" - Samuel West remarks about the descriptive powers of Ian Fleming and as with the outdoor scenes in the first two short stories so it is with the fish in this one. And as for Milton Krest - a character with no redeeming features whatsoever, as far as I could hear. An arrogant, sexist sadistic monster - from the moment he appears the reader or listener is left in no doubt what to think of him, and Bond shows enormous powers of restraint in dealing with him, imho. "Had it coming to him" - absolutely! Different in many ways from Anthony Zerbe's take on him in LTK - Zerbe's Krest was a drunk but a craven coward, whereas this Milton Krest is just awful - when I read the story again in my late teens I imagined him played by Rod Steiger or George C. Scott. Krest is the kind of bar room brat you would love to see at the end of a "Glasgow kiss", or worse!

 

(As for Anthony Zerbe - he always struck me as being capable of playing a more typical Bond villain than the craven, alcoholic Krest.)

[Iceskater101]

I have Samantha Bond reading The Spy Who Love me, but I haven't listened to it yet.

 

I wonder - does having a woman read it make it any more palatable?

 

(Be warned, Iceskater!)

 

That's an interesting question actually. I mean I am clearly reacting to the novels differently then men are and that could because I am in fact a woman. I mean the novels are very sexist and there is still sexism in this world and so maybe that really is the reason why I am having trouble reading the books.

[Dustin]

Regarding the sexism: yes, that is definitely there, just as it used to be in Western society of the 50s/60s. Women and men were expected to live different social roles and Fleming hardly was the writer to challenge that general attitude.

That said I still think a closer look at Fleming's particular variety of sexism might be useful. There is the popular 'women are for pleasure' attitude Bond often seems to champion, definitely a radically sexist view. But is it really? What I mean is: if women are for pleasure - chiefly? solely? occasionally? - then certainly the reverse must hold true for the women Bond spends his time with: men - and particularly Bond! - are for pleasure too, isn't it? Of course we may question Bond's preferences regarding his sexual lifestyle. But fact is: for him to live this series of few-night-stands he needs women who don't nurse any illusions about his intentions and are every bit as willing to enjoy his company as he enjoys theirs. I can't help but thinking this in general seems to be
a relatively mature and realistic attitude and probably less distorted than many 'romantic' dreams and conventions people are confronted with these days. One thing that would be truly
despicable would be Bond expressly nurturing ideas of marriage and happily-ever-after in a girl. But he refrains from that, even in FRWL, where it would have been his duty to paint his future with Tanja in the warmest colours.

So yes, Bond effs around, but he's not sailing under a false flag insofar.

Or course, there is Bond's general unwillingness whenever women interfere in his professional capacity, see for example his reaction to Vesper or Judy Havelock appearing just as he prepares to kill Hammerstein. But is this really a genuinely sexist reaction? Or rather what a professional would feel whenever amateurs appear on stage and complicate matters? Because we also get the opposite example, women who hold themselves quite fine without Bond's help (Tiffany Case, Honey Rider, Kissy Suzuki) or even work in a related profession (Gala Brand,'Trigger') successfully. In Judy Havelock's case Bond's reaction to the 'amateur' out for revenge may even be a bit less justified as she probably zeroed in her bow herself and didn't delegate this task to somebody else as Bond did.

So in general I'd argue Bond's sexism - and thus Fleming's - is probably not that much worse than what you'd expect from the average guy of the era. There certainly is no 'women are second-class beings' belief reflected in Bond. Oh, Fleming aired just such a mindset with Kerim Bey's story, but Bey is not the character we are invited to identify with. Bey's story of holding a woman chained to a table is meant to shock and depict the character - living off raw meat - as an animalistic presence and a savage, albeit a friendly savage.

So on balance I'd say the sexism in the Fleming canon is more an element Bond uses to flatter his own vanity than an actual dogma acted upon.

Edited by Dustin, 09 August 2014 - 02:41 PM.

[SecretAgentFan]

Perfect post, agreed absolutely!

[Double Naught spy]

That has got to be one of the all-time best posts I've read on this site, Dustin.  Kudos!

[Iceskater101]

I read all of your post Dustin and I found it absolutely fascinating! And I do agree with parts, he isn't really saying that women aren't human beings. He is just describing the attitude at the time which I can understand.

 

I started reading the Man with the Golden Gun yesterday. I actually am really enjoying it! I read a couple of chapters and I believe I am at chapter 6? Bond has just met Tilly and then Scaramanga came in and hired him to be his bodyguard and he shot the birds and Tilly was upset. That chapter. I watched the Man with the Golden Gun yesterday and I have to say it's an interesting experience to watch the movie after reading parts of the book. The Man with the Golden Gun references the book a lot and pretty accurately too which is actually really awesome.

[Major Tallon]

Bond hated the abuse of power and, in several books, had a particular loathing of cruelty to animals.

[Guy Haines]

Bond isn't into mass killing of fish either - as "The Hildebrand Rarity" proves. He refers to them as "people". I think he does the same in Thunderball, speaking of which....

 

I'm now listening to the audio CDs of Thunderball, two discs to go. Jason Isaacs is doing very well with Bond, M and especially Leiter. Largo along the lines of what you'd expect if you've seen the original film, of course. The health club scenes - you wonder what on Earth M was thinking of sending Bond there, and Isaacs' narration of it all suggests that Fleming didn't take it seriously. If Bond discovered a sense of humour in Goldfinger, it well and truly carries on here. I loved Issacs' narration of Bond's Scottish treasure, May, and her horror at Bond's sudden change of lifestyle!

 

Domino comes across as the wilful lady expected, but a child at heart, or so Bond thinks, and the story holds together better than when I read it ages ago. Largo - you might think of him as a Mafia style thug but he's a much cleverer villain than that, as Bond's continual self doubt about his operations shows. It's Leiter who clinches the deal for Bond regarding Largo.

 

And then we have Blofeld. Not what you might expect. Forget the deep voice in the early films or the actors whose faces you've seen on screen. More like that of a German or Middle European scientist lecturing a rather dense bunch of students.

[Guy Haines]

Thunderball and The Spy Who Loved me now finished.

 

Jason Isaacs, in his post reading interview, makes the same point I mentioned about Bond's periods of self doubt, and also comments about how "makeshift" the weapons used against Largo's frogmen seem. Along the lines of getting the crew of the USS Manta to divvy up a few flick-knives to arm the good guys against the bad guys with spear guns and jet packs!

 

The Spy Who Loved Me. Well, I loved Rosamund Pike's breathy narration as Vivienne Michel although she sounded more Anglophone-Canadian than Francophone. The bits before Bond? Her "Oxbridge" lover Derek -exactly the kind of selfish type our private school system here "occasionally" produces. And her German lover Kurt - the "sex by numbers" stuff he was into was hilarious, imho. Again, I wondered if Ian Fleming wasn't taking his material entirely seriously.

 

(And whether he wasn't making a dig at still prudish early 1960s Britain. The scene involving Viv and Derek in the cinema. This at a time when we had a court case here about the D H Lawrence classic "Lady Chatterley's Lover".)

 

The villains. Mobsters but probably more frightening than the ones in previous Fleming novels. Plus one of them showed a glint of "steel teeth". And they said the film makers could only use the book's title! (A point Rosamund Pike picked up on in her interview.). Can't help thinking if "Jaws" might have sounded better as "Horror".

 

And Bond? More of a clipped accent than before, no nonsense, no problem falling for Vivienne or helping her out of her hellish predicament. The story he relates about why he got to her might have made a pretty good episode in a Bond film - defector, SPECTRE, assassination attempt. Pity it can't be used. Plus something unexpected - Bond the "peacenik"?  When Vivienne puts peaceful means ahead of war, Bond agrees, but says he'd be out of a job if it actually happened. And Bond's sense of humour develops - "I've got to go after these two. They're killers who'll kill other people, and besides, they burnt my shirt!"

[Iceskater101]

I just finished The Man with the Golden Gun and I really enjoyed it. I liked the scene on the train and I liked how James thought out everything. He is actually really smart. I also like how when James got down to trying to kill Scaramanga that he had trouble. James has killed other people before but he still has trouble killing some men. I thought that was awesome.

 

I posted my review to it on goodreads.com which is the best website for readers like me! You can check it out if you want!

 

https://www.goodread...rom_search=true

[Major Tallon]

Hi again, Iceskater101. 

 

TMWTGG is generally regarded as one of Fleming's weaker books, though I find quite a lot to like in it.  Fleming offers us three different views of women:  1)  Mary Goodnight (a character I like quite a bit), who's smart and brave, but tends a bit toward the ditzy side when she runs the danger "of overplaying her role" (chapter 11); (2) Tiffy (another appealing character), whom Bond treats protectively and even a bit affectionately (and note how cruelty to animals arouses Bond's antipathy); 3) the Jamaican dancers (who never are developed as characters and are present in the book just to give the gangsters, and perhaps the readers, with a bit of a thrill). 

 

This rather reinforces my assessment of Fleming's treatment of women:  he treats quite well those women with whom he interacts personally but stereotypes women more when they are present as abstractions.  You may think this contrasts with some public figures today, who talk a good line about women's issues but whose actual treatment of the women in their lives is vile.

[Guy Haines]

I am now part way through the audio of OHMSS, read by Scottish actor and former Dr Who, David Tennant. As with Damian Lewis, he sounds as if he's enjoying himself!

 

It's thanks to his reading and my careful listening that the "anomaly" discussed on another thread between The Spy Who Loved Me and OHMSS suddenly dawned on me.

 

His Bond sounds like Bond should, Tracy sounds more vulnerable than the rather more self confident, almost arrogant young woman in the movie, Draco more growly, as does M. The joy for me in listening is how some of the more minor characters are handled. Tennant's reading of "Griffon Orr", Bond's first contact at the College of Heralds sounds, to me, like a character Peter Sellars played in the BBC radio comedy "The Goon Show" named Henry Crun - a totally befuddled old chap!

 

His Blofeld sounds very aristocratic, almost as if he's been taking lessons from minor royalty in how to speak. Fraulein Bunt - close to the version in the movie. And "Sir Hilary Bray"? Like the real David Tennant! (Well, Bray's supposed to be a Scottish baronet, although in real life he might have had that accent supressed by a private school education.)

 

Bond is still dismissive of foreigners where he doesn't like the "cut of their jib" - mostly Blofeld's collection of multi national heavies at the Piz Gloria institute, but so far he seems less sexist than before, the only offensive part so far being Draco's account of what he did to the woman who subsequently became his wife and Tracy's mother. Was Fleming mellowing in his fifties? Maybe.