“Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute." - 1984, George Orwell

Censoring offensive things from the past is as bad as pretending they never happened. These edits are indefensible.

Brilliant summary, David. I was thinking about your book clubs in relation to this news and how many different panels of people discussed many of the difficult and challenging phrases and attitudes of the time represented in the books and how those discussions were always handled so well and with nuance. It's important to acknowledge and educated on these things rather than pretend it never happened, to my mind.

What I dislike about edits like this, is that it's very patronizing to the audience. it pretends the audience is incapable of understanding both the setting of the work, and the context of the time in which it was written. It treats the reader like a stupid child.

Very well said, David. Thank you for speaking your mind on this subject. History should be discussed and learned from, not erased.

You are 100% right. It is absolutely ridiculous what they are doing - and outrageous. As you mention - if they feel they need to put in a disclaimer - I have no problem at all with that. They were written at a very different time - and we all understand that. So if they wish to give new readers a little warning about that - fine. But they have absolutely NO business changing the words of The Man who created the greatest Hero of all time and this world that millions of us have loved for all these decades. The very idea is crazy - and the fact that it came from The Ian Fleming Foundation itself makes it even more crazy!! What wacky times we are living in!!

I've read and re-read every book at least 3 times. The flavor and nuances of Fleming's writings takes me to that time and place. I can put myself in that casino and choke on the smoke of cigarettes while I'm reading. It will be a travesty for ANY change in his books.

I appreciate you using your voice to speak out on this matter. I agree with you wholeheartedly. At best, this is akin to the colorization of classic B&W films like Casablanca, arguably one the greatest films in cinema. At worst, it’s reminiscent of the book burnings carried out by the Nazis. My question is who were the people selected to make these edits and what enlightened sensibility makes their judgment greater than the author who originally created the work. If they’re unhappy, they should invest their energies in creating new fiction to appeal to their audience, rather than editing the work of past authors. It’s not about sensibility anyway. It’s really about their desire for validity.

Truth through and through. Thanks David for being our voice of reason.

I've not read the Bond novels, but I've been meaning to for years. When this all blew up I went looking for boxsets and found the prices were varying, sometimes around £40-£50 sometimes over £100-£200 or even greater, and on on Ebay, bids are just getting higher again. However, I did manage to snag myself the same boxset near the bottom left of your video. And yeah, a lot of the bidding wars are on that very same set.

THANK YOU! Changing it is not only dumb, but also not even effective. Censorship of literature and art is always wrong. They do the same mistake with Roald Dahl. How to learn feom the past, by trying to make it "forget"? It's also important to understand the way of thinking of the people, what actually was in their mind. We need a free way to this kind of exploration. It's dangerous to rewrite history.

I started buying the old Penguin published versions, with the sexy girl on the cover, starting back in October (2022); I just need 4 more than I have them all: "The Spy Who Loved Me", "You Only Live Twice", "The Man With The Golden Gun" and "The Living Daylights & Octopussy". With the censorship, I won't be needing the new ones.

In 20 years time.....could we be seeing a similar revision of the 1960's EON movies? 'Live And Let Die'? I agree with your suggestion about adding short forewords to the novels clarifying why the books are being presented in their original form. Your ultimate points in this video are extremely well stated. Thank you.

Great video David! I completely agree that the original versions of the books should be preserved.

It needs to be said, and I am glad so many channels are saying it. But I sadly feel it will have little effect. And it worries me. If they change the original art, imagine what they will do with the movies from this point on.

Well said David. Changing any artists work is sacrilege. I fear this is only the beginning, how long until they come for our films? Physical media is more vital than ever.

Your passion is inspiring. I was smiling during the entirety of the video. Thank you for making this. It may have been a difficult decision up front for you, given the potential polarity of the topic, but it needed to be addressed. You are spot on. Always enjoy watching your videos. Said a prayer for you and your family. Keep being you brother, thank you.

Picking up on something David says here, I'm now seeing all of this as a missed opportunity. Years ago, I read a collection of H. P. Lovecraft's fiction. The collection had an introduction by "Psycho" author Robert Bloch. In the introduction, Bloch discussed HPL's racism, placed it in cultural context, talked about Lovecraft's sheltered early life, and how he evolved both as an author and as a human being. Bloch ended the introduction by saying "Now that that's out of the way, let's enjoy these wonderful stories." THAT'S what they should have done. But, they could have done so much more! They could have put out REALLY NICE "legacy" editions, each one introduced by a distinguished writer or scholar or even a Bond actor or someone from the cinematic 007 universe. Each volume could also have had a "character index" at the back or a "Historical Reference" section where the various people, places, things and events, Fleming mentions in the text for modern audiences that might not be familiar with what the Suez Crisis was or what a Kina Lillet was. They could even had had a special essay as an epilogue to each novel, a "History of Chemin-de-Fer" for Casino Royale or "Background to the Arms Race" for Moonraker. Think of what they COULD have have done. Instead of giving us the DEFINITIVE "legacy edition" of Fleming's works, they're giving us the equivalent of those expurgated versions of classics geared for grade school libraries that Scholastic Magazine (in the US) used to produce. We could have had the "master class" edition of Fleming, instead we're getting "The Children's James Bond."

Well said. In my opinion any attempt to ban or rewrite books is an attempt to prevent discussion of certain topics or erasing the subject and replacing it with a cleansed version.

Omg SO WELL SAID, David - especially the bit about helping us to help them. Ian Fleming Publications are alienating their key market and hopefully it's not too late to reverse course.

Superb, David! I see a copy of the Matthew Parker book on your shelf. No one is more interesting and well informed on the topic of Fleming and race than Parker. It would be fascinating to hear a discussion between the two of you about all of this ...

Love your channel. It really does feel like a place for everybody. James Bond has been a positive part of my life, and I have found the fandom a good place to be. 💙🍸

Enjoy your channel & 007 passion David. I would never buy edited books. A disclaimer seems the most effective way to go like Warner Bros. does with their vintage cartoons. I say this is a way to divide 95% of fans away from buying. The financial metric in 4-6mos will show them how their decision was.

David, your point about embracing the ugly parts of ourselves and our mistakes was really profound. I agree that acknowledging and accepting flaws and errors is crucial to healing and improving. It's a very good reason not to turn away from the unpleasant aspects of life and art.

This revisionist history is such a blow to art preservation. It's such a sadness.

110% David. You don't change history in any way. It's history. It's all a learning curve. Lest we forget.

Couldn't agree more David. Extremely well put! This is what I said on Twitter last week. Erasing the past doesn't make these issues go away. The past is something we learn from....but can't change, and we have to learn and get better. I don't agree with retrospective amendments, which doesn't mean that I agree with what is written or done in the past.

David, they're coming for everything. Not even Dr. Seuss is safe. Stock up. First edition Fleming novels are *gold*

This issue has come up with various forms of entertainment, including classic cartoons, including Bugs Bunny and Tom & Jerry. The copyright holders to Dr. Seuss withdrew six books from circulation and there was a recent controversy about some Roald Dahl stories.

Spot on, David. We learn from the past, from history, so we can make better decisions and not repeat those mistakes in the present and future. We learn by reading the books written by Shakespeare, Lincoln, John Steinbeck etc , so we can better understand the times those authors were living in.

David, this video and the one about Barbara’s recent comments, have been amazing. Agree with you 100%. You are a very thoughtful, astute, intelligent, sensitive (in a good way), person. Excellent videos and keep sharing your thoughts and feelings on these topics. 🍸

As a historian, I actually quite like these "offensive things" in media: books, movies, etc. They offer a window into the past of how some people saw the world at the time. By editing these materials, be they Bond books, or even a horrifically racist film like Birth of a Nation, you lose that window into the past, and therefore, the history behind it.

I agree with what you say. A statement at the start of the offending books would be my choice. I think it's fine to be offended by certain things in these books. We should be able to see certain words in the books and understand that they could be offensive. But that's the real world. These words aren't going away in the real world, and removing them from these books won't make that happen either. These books can help us acknowledge that there was hate in the world in the 1950s (and still today), and that maybe the old days weren't better for everyone. These books should stay intact to remind us of an imperfect past, both for the world and for James Bond.

David has wonderfully summed this up, astutely and on point as usual, but I would like to add more from my own personal point of view for anyone that's interested. The James Bond films, graphic design and poster art, book covers, comics, and computer games, even music, have always edited the brand of Bond, to suit the sensibilities of the specific times they were released in. And they've done it very well. And that is very much part of the magic of the brand. Magic that should be learned from, not altered or erased - even right down to the money and production troubles of the British film industry through various decades, and the fact that it was a UK 80s Christmas TV broadcast staple for a decade: what Bond film are they showing this year darling? [with your 4 channels and Christmas hat on watching your rented TV] It helps provide an education of the society of the times that a variety of artistic mediums were created in. And that REALLY is important. More so than any other brand that I can think of? Please correct me if I'm wrong here - I always like to know more. The Bond brand, and all it entails, is a trail of historically important pan-media breadcrumbs from the 50s to present day. Which is why we just had the travesty of "No Time To Die" (my personal opinion: aside form the loss due to the unfortunate pandemic delay, the numbers make it the most successful Bond/British film to date, and it was met with almost unanimous critical acclaim. And even though he died, never-the-less ... BOND WILL RETURN). The source material books did the same of the times they were released in. Mixed reviews at the time, but they prevailed in popularity none-the-less. And they proved not just to be historically relevant to the James Bond franchise, but also incredibly inspirational to other pan-media productions ever since. George Lucas has openly stated his idea behind Star Wars was a mix of Flash Gordon meets James Bond from when he was a kid - and you see it even now with Jon Favreau's Mandalorian/the Bounty Hunters going back to Lucas's original inspirations. And it's SO much better than all else modern Star Wars. JK Rowling has openly stated Fleming's books a major inspiration as young girl(and she would have to, because if you've read both sets of books, the inspiration is irrefutable). Where do you think Marvel's S.H.E.I.L.D and Nick Fury came from when MARVEL had it's post-war re-birth in the 60s? Breaking Bad: did you not notice that Gus Fring is basically Goldfinger? Or that Mike Ehrmantraut is a humanized and character fleshed out version of Odd Job? Everyone notices the Darth Vader connection, but did you not realize that Walter White was basically in the exact same predicament as James Bond was, under Fring's/Goldfinger's seemingly ubiquitous impenetrable control and power? Did you not wonder why all that was so compelling? Why the writers already knew it would work so well? And also, where did other Bond media inspiration come from? In the comics, did you not notice Bond's deliberate resemblance to Superman? It's all there. Also, you could argue, was Batman the original James Bond? Or, (much more likely) is the Batman we know today, a direct result of James Bond, and as with James Bond, the changing times? If you haven't read the original books, then no doubt you haven't made any of these connections. But they are so real. James Bond 007=' is one of the most important and inspirational pan-media franchises in human history. That is just an irrefutable fact. Flemming, without the aid of the internet, wrote those incredibly descriptive books, from his own, very, very unique real-life experiences, and combined with a fertile imagination, along with his ridiculously acute attention to detail, wrote a significantly important and influential set of books. And it's also why certain character profiles of his still stand up so well in the modern age - because they are real! Hugo Drax could be Elon Musk. Milton Crest could be Donald Trump. And The Marvel MCU almost certainly modelled Peggy Carter after Gala Brand from Flemming's Moonraker. And with regards language - it always must be taken in context: it was Marc-Ange-Draco (yes Potterfiles, that last name is one of MANY undeniable direct links - head of the Greek the Mafia, the biggest gangster on the entire planet in Fleming's 50s imagination), that stated "all women love semi-rape". It was mentioned again in "The Spy Who Loved Me", but certainly not perpetuated by Bond, who treated the damsell in distress well. To her, he became the perfect man. Indeed the chapter at the end, with what I assume to be the inspiration for the very far removed Sherriff Pepper in later films, had a fatherly figure police officer warning her that despite his looks and charms, the likes of government sanctioned James Bond, were no better than the cold hearted killers they put away every day. The irony being, that you as the reader KNOW different, from what you read went down. The post-irony being that, aside form James Bond, this Police Officer is fully correct. Hence, acknowledging to the intelligent reader, that James Bond is a work of pure fiction, and not a man that a real woman should aspire to meeting. An entire chapter was dedicated to that idea, in fact. I think people are too easily offended by trigger words and statements, without even having bothered to read or understand the context in which those trigger words lie. And that's very sad for them. As such, in my opinion, no aspect of those books should ever be edited. That's why you have publication dates and inserts in books for additional warnings. To edit them is to deny history itself. But deny as you might want to, you can't change the truth of history by editing it. All you lose by doing so, is truth and knowledge of a time. You are attempting to alter, worse, erase, history. Erase truth. How anybody can not see a problem with that is beyond me? It is always better to know the truth, so that you can learn from it and do better moving forward, than to deny it and hide from it and pretend it never happened. That makes no sense at all. David mentions the "ugliness of 2023" - have no idea the level of irony he was aiming at, but what I do know, is that history will not judge 2023 well.

Totally agree with your comment David that it would be sufficient enough to include an introduction that the language was of its time in the reissued Bond novels. I note that not all of them have been changed.

Amen, David. We couldn’t ask for a better representative.

You put it all perfectly! Something that crossed my mind the other day, do you think they would do new, censored editions of Fleming's "The Diamond Smugglers" and "Thrilling Cities?" Both have moments that would be considered insensitive or offensive by today's standards, but as both are nonfiction, informational texts, it would truly be rewriting history and not justifiable at all in my eyes.

Phenomenally well said David! Much love and hugs from Texas. Look forward to eventually meet you and your crew one day. Cheers Brother

At first I only clicked on ur vids cuz of the Cool jackets.. But now, Im slowly finding myself becoming a James Bond fan because of your channel, sir... So yeah, I hope "they" stop messing with the books .

Beautifully stated, David. And I'll admit, because I know you have many contacts with Team Bond, I was surprised that you did decide to speak up. I met you once and got the impression that you're a positive and thoughtful person -- qualities that also come across in your videos -- so I shouldn't have been surprised that you would show integrity by going against the grain, as it were, in this case. Kudos. Respect. I never underestimate 007; I'm never going to underestimate you. You've made many great points, and I'll add this to your discussion of history as it relates "Live and Let Die." In the 1950s and '60s many white Americans considered the civil rights movement to be a communist plot, the Soviet Union agitating minorities to weaken the U.S. The FBI was openly hostile to civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., going so far as to try to blackmail him into committing suicide. To strip "Live and Let Die" not only of its use of a particular racially insensitive word, but also of several passages that present dialogue between characters in a Harlem nightclub, is to strip part of the Cold War mindset that permeated American, and British culture (the Harlem scenes feature both Bond and Felix Leiter). As Bond fans know, President John F. Kennedy was a fan of the books. JFK was not only stridently anti-communist (regardless of how the John Birch Society tried to frame him), but also an emergent supporter of civil rights. So, ironically, to selectively "passage burn," parts of "Live and Let Die" (at least they're not burning the entire book) is, ever-so-slightly, Stalinist. (I confess to being melodramatic with that, but we know Stalin retouched photos to purge undesirable subjects, so there may be a bit of merit to the metaphor.) We Bond fans are mature adults. We can handle the truth, and, as you so aptly point out, become enriched by trying to understand the flaws of those who came before us... and to reflect on how we too may be flawed.

I agree 100% David. If we erase history then in a generation or two, all the progress we made culturally in the 20th century will be unknown, and no one will understand how far we've come. Changing art, literature, and history via having people decide what we should be reading and seeing is just as extreme a political idea as the book burning in Germany during World War 2, and I honestly believe in my heart that any view or idea that is extreme can be good for people in the long run.

Hopefully they hear us and provide 2 different editions for the books, let the audience decide what they want to read.

Perfectly said David. The disclaimer page makes so much sense. Everything else in media has a disclaimer, why not these books.

I was originally excited for a new release of these books so I could have all the books in a uniform style. But after the news broke, I ran to EBay and bought the ones I didn’t have; I went with mixed and matched editions 😂

David, calm, measured and eloquent as always. Spot on sir, you cannot reflect and debate the ugliness of things if they have been altered erased, expunged from history. If Fleming was of our time now, of course his books would be written in a more contemporary way to modern attitudes, but he was of his time, his books are contemporary to his attitudes and experiences within his lifetime. His books are a time capsule to attitudes and observations of which many still run true but many more are outdated, prehaps to many offensive. Without the original text however, it would deprive us access to the ugliness of the past, to discuss and to learn from it.

I’m glad I picked up copies of all the Folio Society editions of the books 😅 (I know they’re probably not going anywhere… but still) erasing/censoring history solves nothing.

Big on the Bond Experience for speaking up. Much needed.

Well said, David. Maybe the Ian Fleming Foundation and even other publications should insert a warning page after the table of contents.. Something akin to a movie rating/warning.

I agree with David. Don’t white wash and change stories from the 50s and 60s to meet 2023 social norms. The fact that we have had Anthony Horowitz’s amazing trilogy of Bond books over the last couple of years allows us to see the growth of our society and culture. We can compare texts between Fleming and Horowitz and see how a modern writer writes a 50s/60s bond with today’s values. Any new books or films should reflect the societal values of their time, just because some of the values of Cold War western society are offensive to modern readers, that is something we have to live with and learn from. Our greatest growth is done outside our comfort zone. If what you are reading makes you feel uncomfortable or guilty, then you are doing something right.

I totally agree with you David. I believe the integrity of the books should be preserved and not rewritten. If the bad parts are taken out, we can't reflect back on where we have come from and where we are now.

hey david...great video..as a bond fan who owned the paperbacks back in the 60s, and an author of 29 books myself, i couldn't agree with you more...if they must release these books, it should say...'based on the novel by ian fleming...'...ian fleming will not have written the words in those books...next they'll redo the early films by removing all the dial phones and replacing them with cell phones...(i'm getting too old for this...)...stay well...peace..rocky

If you get audible James Bond books will they change them? If so does anyone have a recommendation where to get originals via audiobook?

Huge Bond film fan and I’ve read a few of the original novels but I’m not really a book collector. As soon as I heard this news I ran out to my local used book store and bought 11 of the paperback novels, each wrapped in plastic and sold for $5 each, a couple were even lower. I don’t think my bookstore realized what they had. I went to eBay to get the remainders. This is sad news indeed.

Great post David, very well put.

Thank you, David. Well put.

Absolutely agree. Well said David! Leave the James Bond character as described by Flemming (the artist). These sorts of things are a little bit scary for the new upcoming era of james bond with a new casts and new movie scripts.

Well Said David. There’s no other way of putting it. Word for word you said the right thing.

I agree with you 100% David. I would have no problem with a disclaimer at the beginning of the books with the original uncensored texts.

Yes David. You grew up with the modern world. You are therefore able to see how it is and how it was. A man of age usually has a bit of wisdom as well. And of course you do because you’re a Bond fan. Most Bond fans are both intelligent and accepting

I gained a TON of respect for David when EON rolled out the red carpet for him during the release for NTTD, and he had the integrity to admit to us that he didn't like it. My respect for him is catapulted even higher after watching this video. Honestly, and I never thought I would say this, I wish Barbara would just retire the character. Because with the trajectory that she's currently on, she'll just continue to screw it up beyond all recognition. And, yes, I realize Ian Fleming Publications and EON are different, but they both seem to have lost their way.

I’m so glad you took a stand on this. Sometimes I feel like you give EON a pass and MS broccoli a lot of slack on her decisions and statements. Great perspective David. Well done

Absolutely David. I would even go further : it is not even sure that Fleming "believed" in what is in its own books. Like you say, he was an "author" , an artist with an intention. He doesn't mean he agreed with what his characters ! That is the msot stupid idea to confuse the man and the autor. Characters are fictionnal for God sake. It has a (very) limited impact on reality. In this society we live in more and more disgusting. Those people should take care of things that matter, not trying to change something as good but as trivial as a spy novel. Stupid times we live in.

I’m just re reading for the 100th time and of course there’s things that can’t be written today but that was a different time and way of thinking. Thank you

Thanks David great video Very much agree!

Kudos to you for sharing your opinion. Completely agree that the books should just be reissued with a disclaimer or a forward with the estate expressing its beliefs.

Well said! I love how you went full Tom Cruise at the end there. Help me, help you!

Do you know what happens when people get offended? NOTHING.

I agree with your perspective, David: leave the books as they are. As you say, they were a product of their time. And leaving them as they are people can look back on the way society was at that time and use that to see how far we've come since the 1950s. And if we start changing the books, does that mean we're going to need to change the films to edit out the misogyny? That scenes like this, or specific word choices in a book make people uncomfortable is a good thing: it shows us we're human and that's not the way we want to act anymore.

Seriously we are seeing this thing every week now all over the world. Roald Dahl was the last one i read about. Old books and magazines are getting edited to being more up to date. Don´t read it if you dislike it. That is common sense. I actually think we are living in a sick dangerous world.

Thank you for saying this David!

Thank you for taking a stand David and opposing this nonsense. The censorship free-for-all that has become a staple of the larger agenda is madness, and we must all continue to stand for artistic integrity. Bravo

I stand with you mate, I hope our voices, comments can reach out to Eon publications.

To re-write a book that has been out for 70 years is a waste of time. Why now? Why not 10 years ago? Dont create a problem from something that was NEVER a problem in the first place.

What about changing the watch selection?

Here in Europe , on cable tv when they Play certain sitcoms from decades ago with a disclaimer at the beginning. “ this programme contains outdated idea’s or depictions of characters …etc” that seems a perfectly fair approach to this.

It's a cash grab...either for the new books or copies the old, uncensored ones...that will be released as a counterbalance to the new ones. I suspect Fleming Inc know they've driven the franchise into the ground since Casino Royale. Killing Bond off was the cheapest, most pathetic stunt that a once great organisation could do, this is just more of the same.

Do you happen to know if the 2008 US Centenary box set was edited? I understand this is a newer issue, but I can’t find a solid answer. Thanks!

Thank you well said!

I agree. As a millennial, progressive, Korean-American, "wokester," and as a lifelong Bond fan, I say that James Bond was never meant to be a sanitized/sensitive character. He was, as Judi Dench's M called him in Goldeneye, "a Relic of the Cold War, a dinosaur." He was a government assassin and a womanizer. As you pointed out, he was written from a 1950's/1960's Cold War era mindset. I was introduced to Bond at a young age, 10 years old. I've read all the Fleming books, the Gardner books (which I liked very much), played the video games, collected the memorabilia, etc. Clearly, ingraining myself into this fandom didn't change my outlook or values (per my previous description of myself). I've always loved, and will always love, James Bond for what he was, even if he doesn't fit well in today's society. I agree with a previous commenter, that James Bond should end. No more talks of revamping him or recasting him. He gave us decades of entertainment, a world that we have all loved and sought entertainment from. Time for his character, which doesn't make sense in this world anymore, to be at rest. We can still watch the movies, read the books, enjoy the current material out there, pass it along to future generations (with a clear historical perspective given about what he represented and what time he was written in). But the management/company running his legacy need to honor who/what he was, not try to change or revamp him. That isn't James Bond. It wasn't meant to be James Bond.

Which editions of the Bond books are uncut and uncensored?

Thank you Sir. This is downright insulting. Whatever happened to good responsbility and parenting? When I grew up, my parents were responsible to entrust us kids in the content we consumed and also understand the context of materials, seperating fact from fiction (or even science fact, lol).

Totally agree. Don't change the books... don't change the movies, don't change history. The past likes more or likes less is what it was and so it must remain for future generations.

01:45 If you've never heard of "sensitivity readers" then lord how I envy you! It's definitely a thing. And it's been a thing for a while now. Look it up... that is, if you can stomach it... (and I would never blame you if you can't...).

This is nothing new. I learned, as an adult, that the Conan Doyle stories I read as a kid in the '70s had been edited to remove references to Sherlock Holmes' drug use. Expurgated, bowlderized, and sanitized versions of literary works are as old as the printing press itself. Folks on both sides of the issue need to relax. The originals will still be here, it's not the end of the world, and the sun will still rise tomorrow.

I’m just reading/watching this now. Did they already make a decision on it, or is it set that they’re changing them? Unreal.

Great, great video brother!🍸

I completely agree, well said!

Great video! I agree, leave the work alone. Let readers decide how to handle their own morality and reconcile that with works from the past.

Your best video ever!!. I completely agree!!

The only reason I would even get the edited books, is because getting the pre-edited books are already a battleground. I only have 3 books/2 (one is the short stories book). I did order some books from my local used bookstore, but from here...I get what I can, even if it's edited.

I couldn't agree 'Moore' David. I think it is important to realise the history of Bond and the books, when they were written, and how the character of James Bond has developed through the books as well as the films themselves.

I would be ok with a modern update if they would release an original version. Don't change the books just make a new version. Up to the individual which version wants to read. I wouldn't throw away the original text. Make 2 Additions of the book.

"Your fanbase isn't what you think it is." Someone send this message to Barbara Broccoli, please.

Totally agree David!

Your an inspiration sir

Completely agree with you David, I mean here in the UK not so long ago a group of students were campaigning to take the Holocaust out of education,on this morning show there was a woman who said that all offensive jokes should be banned ,I mean humour is subjective,as Ricky Gervais said,how arrogant must you be to want to go through life never hearing or reading anything you don't agree with.

100% agree, David.

Dear David, I agree-please don’t censor the books. This is what I posted in my Revisiting Bond James Bond page on Facebook in response to The Guardian article I read on this topic: “I am uncomfortable with and have problems with Ian Fleming’s references to race in parts of his Bond novels, especially in Live And Let Die, but why go in there to edit them? I say let an original, classic work stand on its own to be discussed and reviewed by audiences today and in the future. Interesting, meaningful conversations can and should be had in modern evaluation of books, poems, plays, films, you name it. No need to censor. Is every book from the past going to be scrutinized and scrubbed clean from now on? James Bond is a deeply flawed character on many levels which makes him interesting. EON realized that in transferring Bond to the big screen from the pages of the novels, they needed to make him more palatable to general cinema audiences while maintaining/staying true to his world, to many of his personality flaws and the overall essence of his character to create a “gentleman” super spy hero/anti-hero who is a resourceful human being. Clearly the Bond of the films is different from the Bond of the original novels. This is one of the reasons the character has lasted in the mind of the moviegoing public of all races, backgrounds and perspectives for decades.” Man, I would love to have a deeper conversation on this topic with you. The Bond Series is my favorite of all time. Thanks for all you are doing in the Bond Community.

If the language in the books offends you, don’t read them. It’s literally that simple. I guess I don’t mind the publishers releasing edited versions but it’s still absurd. How long until they try to make the original versions unavailable on the grounds of modern cultural sensitivity? We can’t alter literary texts to appease 2023 sensibilities. Sorry that people in the 1950s and 60s didn't think exactly as we do now. Ian Fleming was a British World War II veteran who was born in 1908. Are we surprised his views don’t quite line up those of some people in 2023?

Strange and worrying times we’re in.