Old Young Bond Arrives

A copy of Charlie Higson's "Silverfin" arrived in the mail today from the US. This edition was published by Disney - Hyperion Books in 2009.  

As a result of receiving this book I am now just a "Double Or Die" short of completing this series that features numbers on the cover (not text) to indicate the sequence in which they were written.

Yarragon Book Fair Starts Tomorrow

For any Melbourne book collectors reading this blog the Yarragon Book Fair starts tomorrow, July 11 at 9am. My wife and I have visited this fair every year for the last four and have always enjoyed our morning and lunch there.  All money made from the fair goes toward the local fire brigade.

If you are planning on visiting don't forget to stop at the Red Door Bookshop in Warragul during your travels to or from Yarragon.  Unfortunately this bookshop is closing in August but there's plenty of bargains on offer as all stock is currently 50% off.

Book Store And Fair Visits

Over the past two days I visited a second-hand book store in Hampton and a book fair in Oakleigh.

"Bound Words" in Hampton has been a regular haunt for me over the years.  I remember my best purchase from this store being a set of three 1960's Jonathan Cape hardbacks of Ian Fleming's "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang", all with great dust jackets.

As soon as I entered the store today, Ailsa who was sitting behind her counter, recognised me and informed me she had no new James Bond novels.  Regardless I said I'd still take a look and also asked permission to take these photos of her store.

Despite having no new Bonds today I always enjoy visiting this store.  I'm not sure how but Ailsa often manages to source Jonathan Cape / Ian Fleming hardbacks so I'm always curious what she's selling in her glass cabinet.

 

I next visited the annual Anglican Church Book Fair in Oakleigh.  There's always a wide selection of books available at this fair and they're also very cheap.

 

  

 

 

This year I found these two Bond paperbacks which I already had, but I did purchase this copy of "The New Official James Bond 007 Movie Book".  My other edition of this movie book didn't include "Licence To Kill".

Finally I also purchased these two Jonathan Cape first editions of Len Deighton novels (sans dust jackets).  I think I saw them and wished the spine read "Ian Fleming" !  Being so cheap I really couldn't go past them as they're in such good condition.  I hope to be able to on-sell them some time in the future and in so doing fund other Bond purchases.

I did drive past "Broadstreet's Books" in Hawthorn but it was closed.

And finally... I saw this car at the traffic lights.  While I think it's an Aston Martin DB6 and not a DB5 I personally would still spray paint it silver-birch !

Bond Book Arrives In The Post

Yesterday I received a parcel I'd purchased from the UK containing two different copies of "Icebreaker" by John Gardner.  The first was published by Berkley Books in 1986, while the second was published by Coronet in 1993.

The Coronet edition is fairly rare (at least here in Oz) so I purchased it despite the fact I already have a copy in my collection.  I personally rarely see this book for sale.

The Berkley edition however is a variation on a similar cover by the same publisher.  Both books are almost identical however one has white text reading "James Bond" on the cover while the other has the same text in gold.  A comparison of the two covers can be seen on the Slight Cover Variations page.

European Tour - Lucerne / Zurich (Switzerland)

After leaving Piz Gloria and Murren we then travelled, using the highly efficient Swiss train system, to Lucerne...

... followed by Zurich.

As far as I'm aware there are no "OHMSS" film locations in either of these cities and my hunt for further James Bond books to add to my collection proved fruitless.

 

However I was fortunate as our hotel in Zurich was just a stone's throw from the brilliant MovieArt shop.

After only a few seconds of entering the store, the owner Marcel greeted us.  I explained I collected Bond memorabilia and in particular "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". I asked him what Bond movie memorabilia he had and he began to lead me around his store showing me original film posters, repro posters, press release items and framed signed photographs covering the entire Bond series.  

He then sifted through a box near the front entrance before pulling out these two original Swiss lobby cards of "OHMSS" from 1969.  I was stoked and immediately grabbed them.  I couldn't believe my luck, especially as he had mentioned before-hand he couldn't remember if they'd already been sold.

Myself, my wife and Mona departed the store after about half an hour, but I quickly returned.   During our earlier conversation Marcel had mentioned he may have some items from the newspaper.  Curious, on my return I asked him about these and he swiftly produced a large thick folder from which I also purchased these two great items; one in French and the other in German.  He had me hook, line and sinker !

Below are photos of the the newspaper items.  Both are really nice pieces and as you can see the first ad has space in the top right hand corner where the names of the Swiss cinemas screening the film could be inserted.

And when I finally left the store there were still several other designs available for this film in his  thick folder so if you're interested I'd definitely get in contact with the MovieArt store.  Again here's a link to the website. (And no I'm not receiving any commission for this blatant promotion, just helping out other fellow Bond collectors !).

Since my return to Australia I have done some investigation on the web and surprisingly it appears these are the only two lobby cards released for the film in Switzerland (but please let me know if I'm wrong).

After purchasing these two items, and an unrelated press ad for "Never Say Never Again" I left the store again.  I was rapt with my purchases.

On a strange note, since leaving Murren (and Schilthorn) it started to feel like I was seeing Piz Gloria everywhere.  Here's a photo of a smoke detector in our hotel in Lucerne, and the mountain logo on the Toblerone chocolate boxes that were everywhere suddenly started to look very familiar.

After leaving beautiful Switzerland we spent two nights in Singapore before returning home to Oz.  I found no Bond novels there though, but I've since learnt I should have visited "Kinokuniya Bookstore". O'h well... there's always next time !