The James Bond Bedside Companion (21 page)

Today, James Bond would be in his late fifties. John Gardner, in resurrecting the Bond series with the publication of LICENSE RENEWED, has more or less picked up the Bond character from the sixties and placed him intact in the 1980s relatively unchanged. This is a little disconcerting for Bond fans who have followed the character since the beginning. Avoiding any specific reference to age, the only clue that Gardner gives to Bond's advancing years is that a little grey is showing at his temples.

T
he first impression of James Bond's appearance is uttered by Vesper Lynd in CASINO ROYALE:

"He is very good-looking. He reminds me rather of Hoagy Carmichael, but there is something cold and ruthless in his…"

(CASINO ROYALE, Chapter 5)

This sentence is never finished due to an interruption (and a nasty one at that—an explosion outside smashes the window over the table at which Vesper is sitting). Later on, Bond examines himself in the mirror:

His grey-blue eyes looked calmly back with a hint of ironical inquiry and the short lock of black hair which would never stay in place subsided to form a thick comma above his right eyebrow. With the thin vertical scar down his right cheek the general effect was faintly piratical. Not much of Hoagy Carmichael there, thought Bond, as he filled a flat, light gunmetal box with fifty of the Morland cigarettes with a triple gold band. Mathis had told him of the girl's comment

(
CASINO ROYALE, Chapter 8
)

In the next novel, LIVE AND LET DIE, not much is added to this basic description. Again, Bond is looking into a mirror and notices that the "thick comma of black hair" has lost some of its tail. He notes that nothing could be done about the thin vertical scar down his right cheek—the FBI had experimented with Covermark—or about the "coldness and hint of anger in his grey-blue eyes." But there was the "mixed blood of America in the black hair and high cheekbones which might pass him off as an American except, Bond notes, with women.

And, in MOONRAKER:

Bond knew that there was something alien and un-English about himself. He knew that he was a difficult man to cover up.

(MOONRAKER, Chapter 4)

For the first time, Bond is described in MOONRAKER as being "rather satumine"—an adjective which could have applied to Fleming himself.

Finally, in FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE, a complete picture of Bond's face is found in SMERSH's file:

It was a dark, clean-cut face, with a three-inch scar showing whitely down the sunburned skin of the right cheek. The eyes were wide and level under straight, rather long black brows. The hair was black, parted on the left, and carelessly brushed so that a thick black comma fell down over the right eyebrow. The longish straight nose ran down to a short upper lip below which was a wide and finely drawn but cruel mouth. The line of the jaw was straight and firm. A section of dark suit, white shirt and black knitted tie completed the picture.

(
FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE, Chapter 6)

The dossier goes on and states other statistics: Bond's height is 183 centimetres (a little over six feet). His weight is seventy-six kilograms (a little over 167 pounds), and he has a slim build.

Since then, Bond has always been described as having "dark, rather cruel good looks." This is the quality which women find irresistible.

J
ames Bond usually wears a dark-blue serge suit with a white shirt made of silk. Bond's suits are almost always single-breasted and very lightweight. For casual wear, Bond sports a sleeveless dark blue Sea Island cotton shirt and navy blue tropical worsted trousers. Bond likes comfortable soft leather or moccasin shoes, usually in black (he abhors shoelaces). At times Bond wears a black, knitted silk tie.

Bond also likes pajamas
. In CASINO ROYALE, he wears
a pajama coat from Hong Kong. (Bond is teased a bit by his American colleagues during the LIVE AND LET DIE case—"We mostly sleep in the raw in America, Mr. Bond.")

Bond takes cold showers. Sometimes he takes a cold shower immediately following a very hot one. The stinging temperature of a cold shower stimulates the nerves in his body. He uses Pinaud Elixir, "that prince among shampoos," and prefers Guerlain's "Fleurs des Alpes" over Camay. Bond usually begins his day with twenty slow pushups,
"lingering over each one so that his muscles have no rest." Then, he rolls over and performs leg lifts until "his stomach muscles scream." Next, he touches his toes twenty times and moves on to arm and chest exercises combined with deep breathing "until he is dizzy."

James Bond's cultural interests are not very extensive. His reading habits only serve either functional or recreational purposes. His bookshelf at home includes
Tommy Armour on How to Play Your Best Golf All the Time
and Ben Hogan's
Modem Fundamentals
of Golf
.
Scarne on Cards
is a particular favorite and reference guide for cheating and gambling, and Patrick Leigh-Fermor's
The Traveller's Tree
provides handy information on Haitian voodoo cults. He is especially fond of Eric Ambler thrillers, and is reading
The Mask of Dimitrios
en route to Istanbul in FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE. Bond claims that he only reads
The Times,
but has been caught on occasions with
The Daily Express, Country Life,
and the
Evening Standard. The Daily
Gleaner amuses him when he's in Jamaica. And from what the reader can gather, Bond has little or no taste in art, music, or theater.

Bond is an outstanding athlete. An expert swimmer both below the surface and above, Bond excels in every sort of water sport. He is able to swim a couple of miles without tiring. He is an avid skier, and has won something called a "Golden K." He actually learned the sport at the Hannes Schneider School at St. Anton in the Arlberg. Bond seems to have a thorough knowledge of every kind of game imaginable; but his favorite, other than card games, is golf. His favorite course is the Royal St Mark's at Sandwich. Bond also enjoys mountain climbing, a fondness he acquired as a youth in Kitzbuhel.

James Bond has no real hobbies, but he does love fast cars. The early novels feature Bond driving one of the last of the 4 1/2-litre Bentleys with a supercharger by Amherst Villiers. Bond kept it serviced every year, allowing a former Bentley mechanic in London to tend it with "jealous care." It was a battleship-grey convertible coupe and was capable of reaching ninety miles per hour with thirty in reserve. But the Bentley met its maker when Hugo Drax's henchman, Krebs, caused it to collide with a heavy roll of newsprint.

The remainder of Fleming's novels featured Bond in a Mark II Continental Bentley which he acquired after its previous owner crashed into a telephone pole. Bond bought the car and had the bend in the chassis straightened and fitted with new power: a Mark IV engine with 9.5 compression. Fleming spends an entire page of Chapter 7 in THUNDERBALL describing the outstanding features of the car and adding that "she went like a bird and a bomb and Bond loved her more than all the women at present in his life, rolled, if that were feasible, together." Bond demands that his car start immediately (in all types of weather), and, after that, by all means stay on the road.

During the Goldfinger affair, Bond is issued a company car in the form of an Aston Martin D.B. III fitted with some unusual specifications. Although not the armory appearing in the film version, the D.B. III includes switches to alter the type and color of Bond's front and rear lights if he was tailing or being followed at night; reinforced steel bumpers; a trick compartment in which to keep a long-barrelled Colt .45; and a radio pick-up tuned to receive an apparatus called the Homer. One must assume Bond was forced to return the Aston Martin to the company car pool after the case, since he never uses it again in subsequent adventures. He resumes life with his beloved Bentley, and is surprised when it reaches a speed of 125 m.p.h. for the first time (while chasing his future wife on the road to Royaleles-Eaux). He worries about the crankshaft bearings for a moment, but later Bond hears "no expensive noises."

The famous Aston Martin D.B.V used in the films
Goldfinger, Thunderball,
and
On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
Note machine guns behind the front parking lights and the bulletproof shield behind the back windshield. (Photos courtesy of Aston Martin Lagonda Inc.)

The later Bond films feature a Lotus Esprit which is able to dive like a submarine. (Photo courtesy of Rolls-Royce Motors
Inc.)

John Gardner's Bond drives a Saab 900 Turbo with interesting accessories. Note "secret" compartments, fire-extinguishing system, and blinding headlight behind license plate. (Photos courtesy of Saab-Scania of America, Inc.)

John Gardner's Bond now drives a Saab 900 Turbo. It, too, is equipped with accessories, such as the capacity to blind tailing drivers with extremely bright rear lights. It has its own fire extinguishing system, and contains a secret compartment in which to hide large prints of art or other items.