Skip to main content

Promo

After Benson (mentioned several times in previous posts) had finished his nine Bond books, there was a gap of six years before the next appeared, Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks, which was published at the end of May 2008.

To drum up enthusiasm for the new book, The Times ran a promotion earlier the same month and, over the course of a week, gave away some paperback copies of Fleming's works. They used the, rather lovely, Richard Fahey-designed paperbacks, which had been published about 18 months earlier, with some subtle amendments to the covers, including mentioning 'The Times' on the spine and inserting an advert for the new book on the back cover. Books one to five (Casino Royale up to From Russia with Love) were offered in the week beginning Monday 19 May 2008, but on the previous Saturday (17th) the promotion was introduced with the final book, Octopussy and, unlike all of the others, it was amended to make it a much shorter offering. The original, 2006, book had included Octopussy and the other short stories, The Living Daylights and Property of a Lady. The promotional copy, with appropriately amended cover, included Octopussy and 007 in New York Interestingly, I think this was the first time that 007 in New York had ever appeared in book form in the UK. The first UK edition of 'Quantum of Solace', which collected together all of the short stories in one volume was, according to Gilbert, published on 28 May 2008 (Flemings centenary), and so was 11 days after the promotional version. The Sunday Times had published it in a special magazine several years earlier, and it had been in book form in US for some time in US as it had been included in the 1960s US publication of Thrilling Cities. So, a surprising debut for the UK market. 

Whilst I have all of the 'original' Fahey paperbacks, the six promotional books are separately collectable in their own right. As of a couple of eBay deliveries last week, I have them all now.

The alternate covers of Octopussy - Times promotional on the left and original Fahey on the right.

The Times promo set (note with spare From Russia on left to show back cover with ad for new Faulks book).

Popular posts from this blog

Wisley

On my previous return from far away, N took me to the Hyde Hall RHS gardens in Essex and, because it was such a warm and sunny day and we enjoyed ourselves so much (and the jetlag cure seemed to be so successful), we signed up for membership on the spot. Determined to extend the benefit, we toddled off to Wisley today, narrowly avoiding a satnav disaster along the way, but making it into an adventure instead. And, once again, it was glorious. I can see why Mum loved it so much, and I only wish I'd had the chance to enjoy it with her. We had a great visit, mostly contemplating what we will be doing with the couple of Norfolk acres we don't have yet. They are going to be superb. They already are in our imaginations! Saturday in the sunshine was topped off with barbecue organised by J whilst we were out. So, no time for book shopping, so I can but reflect on the charity finds from the week just finished, in amongst which we have a first of V2 to help the Harris firsts collection a...
Read more

Hooked

Ian Fleming publications released the first chapter of the forthcoming Felix Leiter book on Tuesday this week. They could have waited for a day and released it on Fleming's (117th) birthday, but never mind. Their post includes both the first chapter and the author, Raymond Benson, reading it. I am reminded of this post from 2023 when I was pleased to report on a successful eBay purchase from Mr Benson. Last year, I was able to repeat the trick by purchasing, directly from the author, another set, this time of the US first edition signed paperbacks of his Bond works. As for The Hook and the Eye, I don't think I'm going to sign up for the digital serialisation, but will look forward to the hard copy later this year.
Read more

Heritage

After some fun and games with setting up an account (which J managed to figure out whilst I was otherwise occupied with a somewhat important prior engagement), we enjoyed participating in a Bond auction that was taking place in the US. We bid on about a dozen lots and were ultimately successful with four. We are now waiting to see how much is going to be added to our purchase prices for handling and international shipping costs ...! For the time being, here's a little clue as to what was purchased.
Read more