Action sequences, sassy sidekicks, cool gadgets, wild locations and dramatic deaths?
Yes, we’re about to get all 007 up in here, but with a fabulous queer twist. There’s so much more going on behind the scenes than is obvious in the media, we say bring it on!
The wonderful Mark O Connell is more than just a superfan of Bond, he’s a dedicated individual who has taken the time to deep dive into the history of the worlds most celebrated spy to educate us all on the rich rainbow background of the iconic series.
In Review
We all enjoy opening a parcel in the morning it’s one of life’s simple pleasures, but when the contents is a new book? That just hits harder somehow.
Before we even talk about the contents, let’s take a moment to appreciate how fun and colourful the cover is. Illustrator Michael Wertz really captivated the spirit of bright, camp joy while incorporating some classic bond elements to create an eye-catching piece of art that let’s you know things are about to get very fabulous.
As queer people we all have a special place in our hearts for our mothers cos let’s be honest, they’re usually the ones that have our backs. Seeing the dedication be toward the authors mum feels like a great way to start things and really tugged at the heartstrings.
The book itself has so much to offer and is a truly special take on what has always been typically known as a very heterosexual led story. We get to delve into the history of the bond series and really get to grips with how it became such a widely enjoyed world of action, but through a unique queer lens that provides some brand new insight to pleasantly expose the LGBTQIA+ culture behind it.
Each chapter has a cute little illustration to introduce it, which felt like a nod toward the iconic opening sequence in each of the movies. They are then followed by carefully curated facts and information that will pack your mind a bit like Daniel Craig did with those delightful blue trunks. You’ll also find some imagery along the way to mark key historical moments and iconic elements that come together to build the world of action that we all enjoy.
Whether you’re chilling with a martini (shaken, not stirred), soaking up some facts in the bath, on your own travel adventure or anywhere else you might fancy flicking through the pages of this true literary success, you’re going to love it.
Inside the mind of a Spy (enthusiast)
Let’s check in with the writer himself to get some insider knowledge and see what other secrets we can get him to spill for us. We promise no torture techniques were involved.
To get things started, give us a little introduction to yourself, the man
behind the book.
Well hello there. Nice to chat. So I started out from a film background. I started
with writing short films that were nationally screened and moved then into
screenwriting. Eventually that became comedy writing and I was immersed in
that world for a while. I wrote sketches, stand up, worked with some great
comedy names and producers and became an in-house Comedy Writing
Apprentice at the BBC. I worked on Jonathan Harvey’s great sitcom Beautiful
People before gaining one 17th of a BAFTA for a new comedy pilot I was part of!
I then did more and more pop-cultural reportage – and now journalism and
broadcasting has become a more recent sidebar of that too.
Before we talk your latest release, can you give let us know what amazing
work you’ve already put into the world?
So I was always a writer. And then I was always a fan of cinema, Bond, Star
Wars, the VHS era classic, and Spielberg. I would be part of 007 fan forums and
found my posts and new movie reviews receiving a lot of traffic. So I pondered
whether or not a book would be a good idea. Eventually my debut book
Catching Bullets – Memoirs of a Bond Fan (2012) became a thing and a global
product so I would be called up and in for media comment around all things
Bond. It also – more pertinently for this new work – pushed me into LGBTQ
writing and cultural thinking. I have had columns for OUT magazine in the
States and find great value and importance in underlining the vivacity, vitality
and need for good queer culture and better queer culture reporting. Catching
Bullets was very much a queer kid’s set of remembrances, and that straight spy
icon meets pasty assed gay kid from Surrey dynamic seemed to work. And stick.
I now write about a lot of movies, franchises and pop culture. I followed up
Catching Bullets with Watching Skies – Star Wars, Spielberg and Us – a VHS ode
to that late 1970s, early 1980s period of amazing matinee cinema and being
that queeny kid into Superman and Supergirl whilst he makes his ow
superhero capes out of trash bags! And this all felt like a great starting grid for
Bond, Queer Bond – The Fabulous Other History of a Spy!
Your new book “Bond, Queer Bond” gives a unique insight into the queer
world and people behind our typical heterosexual hero, please spill some tea
on what readers can expect.
Bond, Queer Bond is a reminder, a repositioning, a much needed queer
chronicle and a timely new adventure for the openly straight James Bond. I
wanted to write a book that remembered and presented the LGBTQ creatives,
artists, moments and history that fed into the James Bond project. And as
queer literature, stories and history have become political collateral for bovine
minded and viciously venal ‘political’ movements, it feels a bit subversive and
fresh to illuminate the rainbow heritage of Commander Bond. And wholly
necessary. If any history does not include all history then is it really history?
When the kneejerk masses kick off that ‘it is all woke now and Fleming would
be spinning in his grave’, it is ever curious how the Bond author himself was
also aware of what a great ‘wide-awake’ city is. He said as such about San
Francisco – that somewhat queer mecca.
Is there a certain fact about the queer people behind Bond that you find
the most exciting?
Many! Perhaps the overriding take-away is that so many queer creatives and
artists helped establish the very DNA of James Bond – be it onscreen, the
written page or beyond – when their own lives and loves were illegal, had
prison sentences hanging over them and could end in social and economic
ruin. One of the more delicious, eyebrow raising moments was when I
discovered a whole world of gay porn homages to 007. Often with unlicenced
music, Bond inspired title sequences and a fascinating inversion of the hetero
tropes in such fare. And when I delved in 1985’s A View to a Kill and its queer
art icon Grace Jones, I encountered a great backdrop of other, very famous
queer art icons who not only celebrated her Bond role but also fed into it and
advised Jones on how to play and frame the part of May Day. Andy Warhol
once said that three of the greatest films of all time were the first three Bond
films. He was proud of Grace Jones starring in a Bond film and would
photograph her private celebration parties for A View to a Kill.
One of the most vivid and more profound realisations I made was that these
gay artists and pioneers who were helping to forge the templates and stylings
of Bond were rarely shy bystanders in their own lives. The cover illustrator
Richard Chopping and the publishing editor William Plomer were very different
and vital spurs to the Bond project. Plomer recognised the repeat business of a
Bond novel and pushed Fleming to make Bond a returning literary project…
which in turn made better scope for United Artists to produce a film series
starting in 1962. However, Plomer and Chopping were also living very real
domestic lives with their respective partners. And to me those gay guys living
semi-visible lives at that time is exactly why we were decriminalised. That
generation of gay men set an example with a very important legacy… and that
is before the legacies gifted the Bond project many times over.
What motivated you to delve deep into research and write such a
wonderful insight into the world of Bond?
I do not think I could have written this book fifteen or even ten years ago. The
internet and its ever-changing sense of curation and record has really moved
on. It is easier now to research, although you still need the detective skills and
that vital sense of sieving truths and remembrances. The motivation came very
early on and that was success. Every day I would pause with hand on mouth
and mentally – or even literally – shout out ‘no way!’. One thing that the
internet and social media loves is nostalgia and groups encouraging folk to
remember and comment. That is where suddenly the [sometimes] lost
histories of San Francisco, Fire Island, New York, Soho, Berlin and all their
queer clubland and community notes came into their own in quite a profound
way. And you have to dive deep to be correct. And then that deep dive has to
be done elsewhere to check all over again. I really relished the detective work
and am oddly surprised the great review feedback so far on the book has also
praised the research. I just thought that is what every decent historical odyssey
needs!
As an absolute expert in the field, what do you believe was the most iconic
on screen moment for queer fans of the series?
An absolutely fabulous expert in the field (!)… maybe. I think since 2012 and Skyfall and that ‘Javier Bardem doms Daniel Craig’ scene that now feels like something out of PILLION is pretty queer! Written by gay screenwriter John Logan the scene is not only showing that Craig’s Bond (and not for the first time) likes to take a subservient seat for a villain to tie him to… not only does it provide a great queer fashionista villain the guise of Silva… not only is it Bond flirting with a villain as they both wear gay designer Tom Ford… not only does it suggest Bond has used his charms on all the genders he needs to to complete a mission… it is also the first time any big franchise movie has gone there with a rimming gag (!!). The villain Silva has a line that suggests to Bond ‘we can either eat each other…’ – and with a raised eyebrow was never just about the rats on an island metaphor as presented! More seriously, it is also a moment where the very real queer history of British espionage is finally weaved into a Bond film. Fleming was wise to the gay spy traitors of the 1950s when writing the initial Bond novels. This is a full circle moment. And a delicious one!
Real talk, what is your favourite of all the Bond theme tunes so far?
It is easier to say I am less keen on Sheryl Crow’s ‘Tomorrow Never Dies’ from
the same 1997 film. No Bond song should sound like a cow girl lamenting a
spilt Martini in the back of a pick-up truck! But then the film also had the lush
kd lang track ‘Surrender’ which gets some love in the book. I have always been
Team Duran Duran when it comes to Bond anthems. ‘A View to a Kill’ defined
my burgeoning Bond kid summer of 1985. And the queer connections there
were also exciting! I also adore ‘Diamonds are Forever’ – that glittering camp
bauble of a 007 standard that accompanies such a great glittering camp bauble
of a film! It also matters to the book that gay lyricist Lionel Bart penned the
first Bond song. Bond composer David Arnold shed great and honest light on
Lionel and lent such beautiful observations on Bart’s ‘From Russia with Love’
title song. He gave the Bond sound that sense of enduring yearning, and that
Lionel Bart DNA has not only straddled decades and is all over Lana Del Rey’s
recent ‘First Light’ track, it is evidencing how a gay man created a whole new
musical genre for Bond that is still going strong. You watch – as soon as the
next Bond actor is formalised and announced, the very next clickbait headline
will be about who is singing the song.
Are there any queer artists you would love to have the opportunity to
write the next theme?
Hell yes! Many. All of them!! I am still in mourning that Freddie Mercury was
never added to Bond’s jukebox. Whilst they are maybe more allies and very
proven ones at that, I genuinely believe that the likes of Kylie Minogue, Lola
Young and Lady Gaga should be on the audition tapes of the next Bond song.
Gaga alone is in the best career position right now. The best Bond songs are
always the ones that allow the artist to do their song before it is a 007 one.
Gaga has the drama and gravitas and vocal chops for it. Another lesser framed
name is Alison Goldfrapp. And whilst Amazon MGM Studios will no doubt opt
for a semi-obvious musical moment for the next Bond film anthem, there is a
wealth of great – and queer friendly – artists and bands who should be given
the gig… Dua Lipa, Depeche Mode, The Rolling Stones, Rae, Elton John. Whilst
the casting for the next Bond song is a tough one, I would also like to see some
creative casting. CMAT anyone?! Florence and the Machine would deliver. And
it is also a question of best producer. The best queer pop hits are the best produced.
Mark Ronson came close once to a Bond song, has the Gaga airmiles and is always
someone I would like to see steer a new 007 track.
Just for fun, if you could create a new gadget or weapon to assist our
favourite spy on a future mission, what would it be?
Explosive lube! A nipple ring with a sonic boom capability? That could be
saying more about me than maybe Commander Bond’s needs! I have always
pondered an Aston Martin with magnetic wheels – so suddenly a car chase
upside down on the Sydney Harbour Bridge or down a skyscraper is slightly
more doable. It gets ever harder as we all have nearly every useful gadget 007
has had on the phones in our pockets.
Finally, though it may be a little early, are you working on any kind of
direct follow up or perhaps something else on the horizon?
I am still in PR mode for Bond, Queer Bond, but I do have my eyes on a few
next book options, yes. I am not done yet and the reaffirmation of queer
history, queer identity and queer fight that the research and writing for this
fabulous other history of a spy conjured up feels hard to just drop and move on
from. As LGBTQ books, writers and creatives are having to justify our very
existence more and more (again), I feel the need for proper queer history and
unique new voices and books is very necessary right now. For every LGBTQ
book that a red state bans in the US or every light blue UK ‘political’ party that
think it is damaging and denigrating us, another dozen voices and books get
their wings!
The Writer Who Loved Me
Now that we’ve got to know the book and the writer, there’s only a couple of things left to do to complete this delightfully camp mission.
Show some love on Instagram via the Bond, Queer Bond page and with the fabulous author Mark O Connell too for some bonus points.
The book is available right now via Amazon so click here and treat yourself.
Shoutout to The History Press for publishing such a great read!
