Leicester film expert determines that James Bond would be celebrating his 100th birthday this year
2018 marks the 100th birthday of secret agent James Bond, according to Professor James Chapman from our School of Arts.
In the book Moonraker, which was published in 1955, there’s a reference that Bond was eight years away from the retirement age for an agent - which is 45 - making him 37 years old at the time. With this in mind, if Bond was real, this would make him 100 this year.
James Bond was created in 1953 by the British journalist and former naval intelligence officer Ian Fleming, who wrote 12 books and two volumes of short stories about the spy.
Set between 1953 and 1966, they chart the secret agent’s adventures around the world.
Professor Chapman, who is author of Licence To Thrill: A Cultural History Of The James Bond Films, puts Bond’s universal appeal down to the glamorous world in which he lives.
He said: “Bond is a British hero in an age where the British Empire is over. He’s a fantasy of materialism and consumerism. There’s the clothes, the cars and the expensive lifestyle. Even at 100 — he would still have some killer charm.”