James Bond, Agent X653

There’s a couple of duplicates here, and the books are not in order. There’s a couple of books by another author. None of this matters.

A couple of weeks ago I was working in a house in Milbrook in Bedfordshire and spotted this nice row of books, nearly all 1960s James Bond Pan paperbacks. I asked nicely and was allowed to photograph them and have a close look at one or two.

I saw that the copy of From Russia With Love had the same cover art as my own 1962 copy, but I also had a look at their copy of The Spy Who Loved Me. My example of this book is a hardback, so I was interested to see this paperback's front cover.

The map on the front cover artwork shows the area where much of the action takes place, which is where you might find the Dreamy Pines Motor Court, in the Adirondack Mountains in the North of New York State. This particular Pan book was printed (if I remember) in 1969. I wrote about my hardback copy and some of its history here.

A Hawkey Series cover Bond novel. (See below)

Policing my Christmas List

It’s December and I received my first Christmas card of the year over a week ago. As usual, it’s from my aunt Doris, who unlike me is always ready for everything in good time.

It’s time to talk about my Christmas list. My family distributes lists of the presents they’d like for Christmas, to each other. For some, it seems to be easy. I scratched my head, thought a lot, and laboured mightily. Eventually I had a list worthy of the name that I could send out.

Now this list idea has at least three advantages:

1) We get what we want.

2) We don’t end up staring at a present we don’t like or want thinking, “what the flippin’ heck am I supposed to do with this and how on Earth can I get rid of it?”

3) Going down the shops to find the gifts, a task I’m always glad to get finished, is just so much easier.

Before I start the Ordeal By Shopping, I work out my best route based on distance walked and weight of purchase, then I just go and do it. Quickly. Efficiently. Morosely. With luck, I finish the shopping in one day.

Naturally, there’s a few books on my list, and here’s a couple of them. Since I haven’t seen these books yet, I’m going to give you excerpts from previous books in the two series, to give you a flavour of the books. You can't beat a new book to read on Christmas morning.