Celluloid Stumper: Bond Week. James Bond Week.
by Mary - November 13, 2006 - 5:16 PM

Picture 14.pngSeeing as how it’s T minus four days to Casino Royale, we’ll be bringing you excerpts all week from The Book of Bond, a snappy, hard-to-find instruction manual from 1965 that promises to make “every man his own 007.” And our weekly contest (which we’ll tell you more about tomorrow) will call for new Bond-movie ideas, so get brainstorming! But first:

1. The book’s author is purportedly “Lt.-Col. William (‘Bill’) Tanner.” Without Googling: which well-known literary genius actually wrote the book under that nom de plume?

2. Who was the “real” Lt.-Col. William (‘Bill’) Tanner?

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Comments (9)

  1. The answer to the seconds question, is that LTC Tanner was a soldier in South Africa.

    As for the first answer, I have no idea so I am going to guess Ian Flemming.

    posted by Tucker Steele on 11-13-2006 at 5:39 pm

  2. Is #1 John Le Carre?

    posted by Jason! on 11-13-2006 at 5:52 pm

  3. Nope, keep guessing… Here are a couple of hints:

    1. He’s famously ornery.
    2. He’s not the only literary type in his family.

    posted by Mary on 11-13-2006 at 5:58 pm

  4. #1 – Kingley Amis
    #2 – M’s Chief of Staff in the Bond novels

    posted by tvaddictgurl on 11-13-2006 at 6:17 pm

  5. Could it be Kingsley Amis? I know he was always a fan of Ian Flemming and wrote a book of Bond fiction himself. And his son (Martin) is an author, so that would fit the clue. I don’t know if he was ornery though.

    posted by Colin on 11-13-2006 at 6:23 pm

  6. 1. Kingsley Amis
    2. Tanner is ‘M’ in the James Bond World

    posted by Jef on 11-13-2006 at 6:24 pm

  7. 1. Ian Flemming was the author.
    2. and Tanner was Kingsley Amis a famous English novelist (he came up with the anti-hero for a main character). He dabbled in science fiction and communism and after Flemming died Amis was hired to finish some of his novels.

    posted by Abby on 11-13-2006 at 6:28 pm

  8. We’d like to rechristen “tvaddictgurl” as “bondgurl” — she’s right on both counts! Kingsley Amis wrote The Book of Bond under the name of Tanner — Fleming didn’t, although Amis drew on his novels as a source material (more on that tomorrow). And yep, Tanner is M’s chief of staff.

    By the way, the book was originally published with a decoy jacket. Anyone know what it was and where the title came from? (Remember, no Googling!)

    posted by Mary on 11-13-2006 at 6:42 pm

  9. 1. Ian Flemming
    2. Wild BIll Donovan

    posted by JB on 11-14-2006 at 6:10 am

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