Sixty-one years ago to the day, 5 April 1955, the third James Bond novel by Ian Fleming, Moonraker, was published. I only know this because 'twas featured on the front page of the Wikipedia as "today's featured articles" (front page-link & permanent-link). Moonraker is one of my favorite of the Bond novels & is almost totally unrelated to the dreadful Roger Moore film of the same name; the film to borrow most heavily from Moonraker is actually Pierce Brosnan's final outing as 007, Die Another Day. Moonraker's heroine, the gallant Gala Brand, is the most prominent literary Bong Girl never to be adapted to the silver screen. The contract bridge/cheating sequence in Moonraker is vastly superior to the similar Canasta/cheating sequence in Goldfinger (the seventh novel; adapted into the golf sequence in the film Goldfinger). I read Moonraker witht he above cover; I've never seen the cover below with my own eyes, but I like it as a piece of minimalist graphic design. Moonraker, the third 007 novel, was published on 5 April 1955, sixty-one years ago today.
Bonus! Song of the Day: SKApril!
The Skatalites, "The James Bond Theme" via iTunes (The Last Angry Man)
No comments:
Post a Comment