In honour of the Olympics the Queen has apparently 'knighted' James Bond, in a film to be shown at the Games’ opening ceremony (have you read London's Olympic Follies: The Mayhem and Madness of the 1908 London Games? You should, I tell ye).
According to the Telegraph, 'the Queen is said to have gamely agreed to take part in the action and makes a cameo appearance in the film, which will be beamed around the world.'
It's fantastic that the Queen has agreed to appear (have you pre-ordered your copy of Brian Hoey's Her Majesty, out tomorrow? You should, I tell ye...again. Ahem.), rather than have a older lady with a grand gown and a posh voice imitate her (for a spectacularly bad portrayal of the Queen I’d recommend What A Girl Wants. It's one of Colin Firth's, um, lesser roles).
Ok, so they've got the real Queen. But do they have the real James Bonds? Well, in a word no. They've got Daniel Craig, and the real James Bond he is not.
So who is the real James Bond? Or, more to the point, the James Bonds? Michael Smith has just the answer.
His book, Six: The Real James Bonds 1909-1939, tells the complete story of the Intelligence Service's birth and early years, including the tragic, untold tale of what happened to Britain's extensive networks in Soviet Russia between the wars. It reveals for the first time how the playwright and MI6 agent Harley Granville Barker bribed the Daily News to keep Arthur Ransome in Russia, and the real reason Paul Dukes returned there. It shows development of tradecraft and the great personal risk officers and their agents took, far from home and unprotected. In Salonika, for example, Lieutenant Norman Dewhurst realised it was time to leave when he opened his door to find one of his agents hanging, dismembered, in a sack.