The James Bond Bedside Companion (22 page)

Unlike the accusations Q makes about 007's treatment of his equipment in the films, the Bond of the novels is a perfectionist in his care for and use of weaponry. From the very beginning, the point is made clear:

His last action was to slip his right hand under the pillow until it rested under the butt of the .38 Colt Police Positive with the sawn barrel. Then he slept...

(CASINO ROYALE, Chapter 1)

This fanatical practice has saved Bond's life more than once, even though it causes his bed partners some dismay. During THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, Vivienne Michel wonders why Bond sleeps with his body away from hers, with his right hand under the pillow. She discovers the reason a little while later, after Bond has had to use the gun on a gangster attempting to break into their cabin:

Now I realized why he had lain like that, with his right hand doubled under the pillow. I guessed that he always slept like that I thought his must be rather like a fireman's life, always waiting for a call. I thought how extraordinary it must be to have danger as your business.

(THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, Chapter 14)

Bond takes care to clean his weapons regularly, always making sure each part is in working order. In the first five novels, Bond's standard equipment consisted of a very flat .25 Beretta automatic with a skeleton grip inside a light chamois leather holster slipped over his left shoulder so that it hung about three inches below his armpit But Major Boothroyd and M put a stop to Bond's use of the Beretta after it snagged in Bond's jacket during an attempted draw in FROM RUSSIA, WITH LOVE. In DOCTOR NO, Boothroyd calls the Beretta a "ladies' gun," much to Bond's dismay. M's orders are final, and Bond is forced to continue the series with a Walther PPK 7.65mm. It's about a .32 caliber as compared with the Beretta's .25. The Walther is carried in a Bems-Martin triple-draw holster made of stiff saddle
leather. For
a longer
range,
Bond is issued a Smith & Wesson Centennial Aiiweight This .38 caliber revolver is hammerless, so it won't catch in clothing.

Beretta .25. Bond used this
gun in Ian Fleming's
first five novels. It had a
blue
finish, a 2"
barrel and is 4.75" over-all. To
the
best of
our
knowledge, the "Jetfire" model was
used.
A
silencer
was also
used
twice with the
gun. (Photo
courtesy of
Beretta
U.S.A. Corp.)

Walther PPK, 7.65mm, with a blue finish. Bond used this model in a .32
calibre, rather than a
.22
calibre, as shown
here. Fleming
stated that Bond's
model had a
spur
at the bottom of
the clip (this helped
in gripping
the
weapon). The
model used
in
the films does
not have a spur.
The Walther PPK
has a
3.27"
barrel, and
is 6.1"
over-all. The gun was
used
in
the
remaining Fleming
books. (Photo
courtesy of Interarrns Inc.)

Smith & Wesson Centennial Airweight Revolver, Model 42, which holds five .38 Special rounds. Bond is issued this gun along with the Walther PPK in
DOCTOR NO.
Although Fleming appropriated the revolver for long-range shooting, it is actually a short-range gun and disappeared from the books probably because the author was embarrassed by this technical error. (Photo courtesy of Smith & Wesson Inc.)

The modern version of the Berns-Martin "triple-draw" holster, now called the Bianchi Model 9R. Bianchi Gunleather acquired the Berns-Martin design. (Photo courtesy of Bianchi Gunleather.)

John Gardner's Bond is issued a Browning 9mm in LICENSE RENEWED. The gun has a blue finish and carries a seven-shot clip (but also has an eighth round in the breech). (Photo courtesy of Browning Inc.)

John Gardner's Bond illegally keeps a Ruger Super Black-hawk .44 Magnum Revolver in a secret compartment of his Saab. The gun has a blue finish and is a six-shot model with a 7.5" barrel. (Photo courtesy of Sturm, Ruger & Company, Inc.)

FOR SPECIAL SERVICES
finds Bond using a Heckler & Koch VP70 automatic, a rapid-firing weapon. This model was replaced by the P7 in ICEBREAKER. (Photo courtesy of Heckler & Koch, Inc.) (Thanks to Lloyd Jones for technical information.)

John Gardner's Bond is issued a Browning 9mm in the 1980s, which has been replaced by the Heckler & Koch VP70, and, in ICEBREAKER, by the H&K P7. He also keeps an unauthorized Ruger Super Blackhawk .44 Magnum in a secret compartment in his Saab. Throughout the years, Bond has occasionally used the previously mentioned .38 Colt Police Positive; a .45 Colt; a Savage 99F with a Weatherby 6 x 62 telescope; and a Winchester .308 caliber International Experimental Target rifle.

Bond likes to spend the money he makes. In MOONRAKER, he muses that it is his ambition to have "as little as possible in his banking account when he was killed, as, when he was depressed he knew he would be, before the statutory age of forty-five." Bond tells his future father-in-law, Marc-Ange Draco, that "too much money is the worst curse you can lay on anyone's head. . . that is the only kind of money to have—not quite enough." But Bond does enjoy spending money won from gambling—something he calls "found money."

Bond had always been a gambler. He loved the dry riffle of the cards and the constant unemphatic drama of the quiet figures round the green tables. He liked the solid, studied comfort of cardrooms and casinos, the well-padded arms of the chair, the glass of champagne or whisky at the elbow, the quiet unhurried attention of good servants. He was amused by the impartiality of the roulette ball and of the playing cards—and their eternal bias. He liked being an actor and a spectator and from his chair to take part in other men's dramas and decisions, until it came to his own turn to say that vital "yes" or "no," generally on a fifty-fifty chance.