Did James Bond have a licence to … globalise?

Daniel Craig is the most recent James Bond. (Image: Eon)

Sun, 15 Oct 2023

By Max Hastings“The name is Bond. James Bond.” It is one of the most famous catchphrases in the world, familiar in 50 languages. What a droll twist of fate it is that while Britain’s importance in the world has shrunk immeasurably over the past 70 years, the soft-power influence of its most potent fictional export, the “licensed to kill” 007, has attained stupendous proportions.This is one inescapable conclusion from Ian Fleming: The Complete Man, a huge new biography of Bond’s creator written by ve...

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