The Bond Code: The Dark World of Ian Fleming and James Bond

by Philip Gardiner

The Bond Code is the remarkable story of how Fleming's association with the occult world led him to create a masterful series of clever clues, ciphers, and codes within his books. Philip Gardiner finally unravels the secret of James Bond piece by piece from the novels and films used to create his aura of mystique. This book not only introduces new material, but also radically reappraises everything we thought we knew about Bond--and his creator.

256 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2008

Reviews

[Troy Disabato · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad for a bit of fun

[Asher · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly bs, but at least it was short.

[Kevinjwoods · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is one of those books which have as their blurb a quite interesting idea, that the James Bond books are secretly filled with Occult references and details, but when you actually get around to reading it you discover that there were nowhere near enough direct references so the author decided simply to waffle on about the history of Gnosticism, Alchemy, and anything else he can think of.
And naturally when you start to look at the evidence he provides then it all starts to come apart. Some of the evidence is barely enough to start a research project, for example the fact that his mothers surname was St. Croix Rose and James Bond’s mother was a Delacroix is treated as if it was Prima Facie evidence that Fleming secretly stuck hundreds of phrases and ideas relating to Rosicrucianism (very few of which are listed), the fact that he once translated a speech by Jung on Paracelcus is virtually the entirety of the evidence provided that Fleming flooded his stories with evidence of Alchemy and Gnosticism. The basic concepts of a Bond novel are treated as if they are directly related to Occultism rather than a standard plot idea used by hundreds of novels and stories throughout history. And when there is actually evidence that Fleming had another idea or reason in mind he simply says that this was said to distract attention from the truth as he believes it.
And then there is the half to two thirds of the book that has no relevance to his thesis and consists of a brief biography of Fleming and explanations as to what the Occult, Alchemy etc are as well as extensive promotion of his previous books.
On the whole this is a book that not only has very little to do with James Bond but has very little to interest anyone with the slightest ability to come to their own conclusions.

[Greg · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was terrible, not to mention flat out boring. There is no evidence of what the author claims to be true here. The whole basis of it is the author's conjecture on what Fleming may or may not have been thinking and influenced by while writing Bond novels. The basis for his conclusions are mainly taking character names and the supposed origins behind them, and reading way into each one.

Then he goes on and on about Fleming's supposed fascination with the occult and with alchemy. I could not see the relevance of any of the so-called proofs the author came up with. This book is trash and even if the author's conclusions are correct, I don't care.

[Bhan13 · Rating 1 out of 5]

I started to compose a review, starting with the nit-picky (the author refers to a woman as 'he' for an entire paragraph, he refers to Tantric 'rights' instead of 'rites' twice in another paragraph), on through bigger issues (Gardiner openly admits that he is writing based on speculation rather than research, he claims even some easily found facts are unknown to anyone), but this book is so bad it is better to just recommend avoidance unless you are on a plane and the person next to you is asleep. Which is how I ended up reading the whole book.

[Jay D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some interesting info that makes it worth it but also a good bit of bullshit.