The new cover, so, despite having 2 copies of this already(!) I had to buy it! I will read soon and pass on this copy...

(06/04) Finished on the way home from a short skiing holiday, which included some very unBondlike falling over!

Another excellent ridiculous Bond romp; distinguished as the only one of the series set entirely in the England...MI6 (overseas responsibilities only) are asked to help Scotland Yard with security of the Moonraker rocket site and test launch. I read this during a ski trip, and as I was crocked I had a lot of time to indulge myself :)

The book is in 2 sections; first Bond is asked to 'sting' an acquaintance of M's at his London club Blades. Despite not knowing anything about bridge, the tense game was exciting and of course 007 beat Sir Hugo Drax and exposes him as a coarse 'hairy heeled' ultra-competitive cheat.

Drax and his rocket are the subject of the second part, Bond and the demure sexy (yeah right!) Gala Brand are caught in the strange goings-on on the south coast. Typically Bond makes quite an arse of it for the first 250 pages, being out-thought, crashing his Bentley, and not preventing Gala and himself being tortured. But he wins out in the end :)

As ever, the joy of these books is the familiarity and total reliability of Fleming's writing, with the added bonus of the dated 1950's backdrop; cold-war tensions, shadows of WWII, the huge-engined racing cars, the inspectorscope/x-ray machine (again), stiff-collared shirts etc. etc.

Last but not least, one of Drax's henchmen is Krebs (a man)...now where does she feature in the films, I must do a bit of research!?

(Footnote: Rosa Klebb, From Russia with Love, although apparently a real 'Krebs' was Hitler's aide)

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

I'm hoping to pass this on to a friend and fellow Bond fan at today's Ipswich meet-up, whether he wants it or not!

Received once again, courtesy of BookGroupMan. Thank you!

I had a great time with this particular Bond book. It's effectively made up of two parts - the first involves Bond, at M's request, in a typically impressive London gentlemens club to investigate whether the high-profile multi-millionaire and society pioneer Sir Hugo Drax is actively cheating at cards. After Bond turns the tables, and soundly thrashes the man, saving him from a public relations nightmare had been officially caught, Drax appears on Bond's professional radar after a mysterious murder occurs amongst the personnel of the Moonraker team, headed by Drax. The Moonraker in question is an extremely implausible attempt by the UK to build a long-range rocket, that could reach most of Europe.

The second half of the book revolves around Bond inspecting security of the base and effectively trying to uncover, with the help of Gala Brand - the covert police operative, Drax's underlying plot.

This is the first time I realised that Bond's primary remit lay outside of the UK ... and also that there is a woman in the world who can resist Bond's charms - he gets quite soundly rebuffed when the dust completely settles, which makes a surprising change!

I'd heartily recommend this book, especially the remarkable description of the bridge game in the first half. Classic Bond.

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

I'm going to drop this off at the Ipswich Caffe Nero OBCZ this lunchtime.

I picked this up at the Ipswich Bookcrossing meet this morning.

I really can't add to BookGroupMan's summary of the plot. A very enjoyable read.

WILD RELEASE NOTES:

Left on the charity book shelf in the staffroom.

bought it at a secondhand books fair, i am a bond fan so i bought it and wanted to add to my collection of bond books, when i saw this bookcrossing site on it i was anxious to know where the book has been before coming here in pakistan. really interesting and great to know it has travelled right from woodbridge to karachi.