"Keeps its finger on the pulse of the rare book world" - William Reese

"For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond" opens tonight at the Imperial War Museum. The first comprehensive exhibition to cover the life and works of 007's creator, it is a central part of the Ian Fleming centenary celebrations and features an 'unparalleled' blend of the literary and movie franchises ranging from Fleming's personal effects to a collection of Bond memorabilia.

Some of the many items on display will include Fleming's original research notes for his most popular novel "From Russia, with Love", Rosa Klebb's flick-knife shoes from the 1963 movie adaptation, Auric Goldfinger's golf shoes, Daniel Craig's blood-spattered shirt from Casino Royale and the orange bikini worn by Halle Berry in Die Another Day.

James Taylor, the curator of the exhibition, explained that although Bond was Fleming's fantasy version of himself, "they were two different people. Bond is, in some ways, who Fleming would have liked to have been. During the war he worked in Naval Intelligence but it was a desk job. He wasn’t able to partake in any frontline operations. Bond also acts as a mouthpiece for Fleming’s own world view, particularly as regards Britain’s role in the world."

Ian Fleming would have celebrated his 100th birthday on May 28th 2008. As well as the exhibition, fans can look forward to a new James Bond continuation novel by acclaimed writer Sebastian Faulks on Fleming's birthday, the fifth and final Young Bond novel by Charlie Higson, and the 22nd James Bond film starring Daniel Craig on 7th November 2008.

 Adults £8.00, Concessions and Groups £7.00, Children £4.00, Family £19.00 (Groups pre-booking essential on 020 7416 5439 or groups@iwm.org.uk)

 See http://www.iwm.org.uk for more information.
 

 

The sole surviving copy of the 15th century sacred book Sarum Missal, first published by the English printer William Caxton, is to be put on display.

The book, which was bought by the National Trust for £465,000, will be displayed next year in the library of Lyme Park - the stately home in Cheshire, where it was discovered.

The near-complete copy has 243 of the original 266 leaves and two hand-coloured woodcuts. The 19th-century binding features fragments of the 15th-century original.  

Many similar books, celebrating Mass, were destroyed during the Reformation, and sections of the Sarum Missal have been noticeably censored - the name of St Thomas a Becket and prayers for the Pope were crossed out.

The only other surviving fragments of this book are three leaves from another copy kept at Durham University.

The National Trust took £316,000 from the Heritage Lottery Find, and £100,000 from The Art Fund to pay for the book. The final contribution came from foundations and individuals.

A fascinating exhibition showcasing a rare archive of over 1600 books, periodicals and related material on the history and evolution of skiing will open at Robert Frew on the 19th February.

The collection, accumulated by Robert Frew over the last 15 years, charts skiing from its origins in Scandinavia through to its development as a sport in the Alps at the end of the 19th century and in to the 20th Century. It contains original editions of books over 20 countries published between 1558 and the present day.

The oldest book included in the archive is Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus by Olaus Magnus, which contains the earliest printed account of skiers, depicted with woodcut illustrations.

Other early works include Scheffer’s History of Lapland, 1674, A Winter in Sweden and Lapland by Arthur de Capell Brooke, 1826, which offers nineteenth century representations of hunting on skis, and through to travel and exploration on skis, seen in Nansen’s classic, The First Crossing of Greenland, 1890.

It was only toward the end of the nineteenth century when the idea of skiing as a sport first emerged, which Arthur Conan Doyle pre-empts in an observation made in the Strand Magazine, 1894.

“…I am convinced that the time will come when hundreds of Englishmen will come to Switzerland for the skiing seasons in March and April. I believe that I may claim to be the first save only tow Switzers to do any mountain work (though on a modest scale) on snow-shoes, but I am certain that I will not by many a thousand be the last.”

The collection will be sold as a whole, with some duplicates of certain titles available individually.

http://www.robertfrew.com/

A special exhibition to celebrate the 400th Anniversary of John Milton’s Birthday, will take place from December 8th through to April 26th 2008 at Bodleian Library.

This winter, Bodleian Library will pay tribute to John Milton, one of the first advocates of civil liberties, with a fascinating exhibition centered on the ever-current concept of ‘citizenship.’ The display paints a powerful portrait of the prolific writer and his enduring ideas, through the words and image, which link his artistic and political activities.

The Library will present beautiful and important editions of Milton’s major works, taken from its collections, including the rare first edition of Areopagitica and the first twelve-book edition of the greatest epic poem in the English language, Paradise Lost.

However Milton’s powerful effect and lasting influence is also a source of extensive exploration for the Library. Milton’s ideas and words have vigorously lived on through the inspired works of artists, type-makers and illustrators such as John Martin, Mary Groom, Arthur Rackham and Samuel Palmer, whose magnificent painting The Prospect is being lent by the Ashmolean museum.

Modern interpreters of Milton, including Geoffrey Hill, Tony Harrison and Philip Pullman, also have their works represented.

http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/

Some 50 unpublished letters written from the First World War trenches by J.B. Priestley can now be read by the public.   

The personal archive of letters and postcards written by one of the last great literary voices to emerge from the conflict has been donated to Bradford University by J.B. Priestley’s son, an author and filmmaker who is publishing the full correspondence as a book next year.

Through this collection, one can glimpse a vivid picture of the dreadful conditions endured by the young man, although he was never able to incorporate this material into his novels and plays.

The author offers stark descriptions of the nightmare posting to the infamous Vimy Ridge in 1916, where Priestly was heavily wounded by a mortar shell.

"You must have heard of the famous Labyrinth - well this is it," he told his family in March 1916. "Great hills half blown away; old trenches full of heads, legs and arms; bloodstained clothing & old equipment."

Bradford special collections librarian, Alison Cullingford, who is archiving the letters, recently published an account of Priestley’s war service in, Bradford in the Great War. She said: "The influence of the war can be seen in his peace campaigning in the 1930s and in references such as the account in his English Journey of his regiment's reunion in 1933, when he was furious that some veterans did not come because they could not afford decent clothes. But he could not reconcile his brilliant ability to make fun of stupidities such as the army's pomposity with the scale of the horror."

Although Priestley never wrote a formal book of memoirs, his literary reminiscences, Margin Released, 1962, provide valuable insights into the author's work. He said: "The army ought to have turned on [the commander-in-chief] Haig and his friends and sent them home." During Priestley’s life, whenever he thought of playing fields of his schooldays, he saw instead “a crowd of ghosts.”