July 2010 Guest Editor Marcus Sedgwick explains why he has selected Casino Royale: "I could give you a thousand reasons (well, almost) why I wish I'd written this, the first James Bond novel by Ian Fleming. Okay, so some bits of it haven't aged so well, but overall it's just so exciting, bold, and fast, just like 007 himself. Later books may have more to recommend them, but this is where I fell in love."
Introducing James Bond: charming, sophisticated, handsome; chillingly ruthless and very deadly. This, the first of Fleming's tales of agent 007, finds Bond on a mission to neutralize a lethal, high-rolling Russian operative called simply 'Le Chiffre' - by ruining him at the baccarat table and forcing his Soviet spy masters to 'retire' him. It seems that lady luck is taken with James - Le Chiffre has hit a losing streak. But some people just refuse to play by the rules, and Bond's attraction to a beautiful female agent leads him to disaster and an unexpected savior.
Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British author, journalist and Second World War Navy Commander. Fleming is best remembered for creating the character of James Bond and chronicling his adventures in twelve novels and nine short stories. Additionally, Fleming wrote the children's story Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and two non-fiction books.
