Faberge Egg Exhibition

If there is one piece of art that has become synonymous with James Bond it's the Faberge Egg.  Prior to the 1983 James Bond - Roger Moore film "Octopussy" I'd never heard of a Faberge Egg.  Now for me, and I suspect many other Bond and cinema fans, the two will forever be associated.

So when a friend of mine recently visited an art exhibition in Europe and sent back the following photos of Faberge Eggs I knew I had to include them on this blog.

He also sent back this piece of art; a banana gaffer taped to the wall.  I'm not sure we'll be seeing this in a Bond film any time soon... unless it's provided by Q-branch.

Thanks for the photos J.

"Silverfin" ESL Edition

Tonight I visited Dymocks book store in Camberwell to pick up a new addition to my book collection.  A week ago I'd ordered an ESL (English Second Language) copy of Charlie Higson's young James Bond adventure "Silverfin" and earlier today I was alerted my special order had arrived.

The book is only 64 pages so it's pretty thin.  Published in 2021 by Penguin in the UK, it's basically a savagely abridged black-and-white graphic interpretation of Charlie Higson 2005 novel.

I've checked the web and this appears to be the only book in this series so far, but hopefully more will follow.

Finally, I could have easily ordered the book from an on-line book site however it was great to have supported a family owned business instead.

U.S. Versions Of "Carte Blanche"

It used to be rare to meet fellow James Bond book collectors.  Fortunately with the advent of the internet, online forums and Facebook groups it's now much easier to chat with like-minded bibliophiles.

On the weekend I caught up with a fellow collector here in Melbourne, Victoria.  It's the first time I've met another Bond collector in my own country.  He was selling some unwanted books from his collection to create more shelf space for other more desirable titles.  As well as the opportunity to see his collection (and what a great book collection it was) I was also able to purchase a paperback from him that I had a feeling could have slight cover differences to a similar copy on my own shelves.

The paperback in question was a copy of Jeffery Deaver's "Carte Blanche" published by Pocket Books in the U.S. in 2012.  At first when he handed me the book I immediately thought there was a very minor cover difference.  But on bringing the book home I realised the difference was much more noticeable.

Here's the copy I purchased.  The text appears to be a grey/white colour:

And here's my original copy.  The text appears to be more silver on the cover:

But those differences are minor when you place the books side by side.  Here they're also accompanied by the trade size paperback:

The size difference was an unexpected surprise.  Here's the back covers too:

The copy I purchased was "For International Sale" while my copy was a first U.S. printing.

It's always nice to still find these surprises.  However now I'm wondering if there are other variations of U.S. paperback printings of this title out there ?  I suppose only time will tell.