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(photo credit: TASCHEN: © 2013 TASCHEN GmbH, Hohenzollernring 53, D-50672 Köln, www.taschen.com)

“Bond, James Bond”

With those three words, spoken by Sean Connery in 1962, the world was introduced to one of the longest-running and perhaps best-loved cinematic characters of all time.

50 years on, the 23rd James Bond film, Skyfall, was released and those three words were uttered once more, this time by Daniel Craig.

When the cameras first started rolling in Jamica on Dr No all those years ago, no one could have predicted what Ian Fleming, Harry Saltzman and Cubby Broccoli had started.

Ian Fleming began writing the first Bond novel, Casino Royale, at his Jamican holiday home, Goldeneye, in 1952. It was something he had thought about for some time. During World War 2, Fleming had been personal assistant to Admiral John Godfrey, director at the Naval Intelligence Division of the Admiralty. He was an organiser and ideas man on a multitude of fronts; in short he had been a spy.

Prevented by the Official Secrets Act from talking about it openly, Fleming, like spies before him and since, for example W. Somerset Maughan and John le Carré, turned to fiction. Through writing, Fleming could immerse himself in that world once more.

The Bond novels were successful, touching a chord in a generation of Britons who had lived through the war and wanted a more exotic lifestyle than the austerity measures at home.

Fleming let producer Harry Saltzman option the Bond film and television rights. Through a mutual friend Saltzman met Albert R. “Cubby” Broccoli, an experienced film producer, and they agreed to go into business together making Bond movies as EON Productions.

EON Productions made the first Bond movie, Dr No, in 1962.

To mark the 50th anniversary, publishing house Taschen and dedicated editor, Paul Duncan, created this book as an appropriate tribute to this incredible milestone.

The James Bond archives is exactly that. Paul Duncan spent two years researching over one million images and 100 filing cabinets of documentation.

The result is the most complete account of the making of the series, covering every James Bond film ever made, beginning with Dr. No (1962) and ending with Skyfall (2012), including the spoof Casino Royale (1967) and Never Say Never Again (1983).

This fascinating and, at 600 pages, huge book looks not just at each Bond film but at the world behind the films and everything it took to make them happen -the writers, producers, directors, actors, production staff, designers, costumers, special effects technicians and composers.

Containing rare and previously unseen photographs and documents found in the EON and MGM archives, this book is a fitting tribute to the legend of James Bond.

You can find further details of The James Bond archives on our catalogue.

(Photo credit: Ashgate, Gower & Lund Humphries Publishing)

This fascinating book by Richard Gray is an exploration of the history of the cinema building in Britain, from its 19th century origins right up to the present day.

The earliest cinemas were little more than shop conversions or basic rectangular rooms. As film-going grew in popularity during the World War I period, and later with the arrival of the ‘talkies’ from Hollywood in 1928, there was a great surge of new building, with cinemas becoming far more complex in style.

The movie palaces of the 1920s and 1930s – the heyday of cinema – could seat as many as 4000 people and often featured fantasy interiors, styled for example after Egyptian temples of Gothic cathedrals.

With the arrival of television in the late 1940s, however, cinema audiences began to dwindle, and a new type of building with several, smaller auditoria became necessary.

The recent resurgence in the popularity of film-going has accompanied, or even been boosted by, the arrival of the ‘multiplex’.

At the same time, an increasing recognition of the architectural importance of these often magnificent buildings has so far led to around 120 British cinemas being granted listed status. Thus they have been preserved for future generations.

Cinemas in Britain evokes the unique magic of cinema while providing a fascinating architectural history.

Further details of Cinemas in Britain: a history of cinema architecture can be found on our catalogue.

(Photo credit: Titan)

Joss Whedon’s contribution to contemporary pop culture can hardly be overstated but there has never been a book providing a comprehensive survey of his career as a whole – until now.

PopMatters, the acclaimed international magazine of cultural criticism, have brought together over 40 contributors to provide a mix of analysis, interpretation and celebration. Some essays are short reviews that introduce a show or comic or movie to a reader who has never seen/read it. Some are longer, more serious academic articles by internationally known scholars. Some are interviews with actors or writers.

Whedon’s influence on pop culture has been so deep and wide-ranging that it is hard to believe that it is only a decade and a half since the debut of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

This fun, informative book covers all the TV series, movies, and comic books, including:

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• Angel
• Firefly
• Dollhouse
• Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
• Astonishing X-Men
• The Avengers… and more!

You can find further details of Joss Whedon: the complete companion on our catalogue.

Monsters from beyond space and time! Alien invaders! Ghouls beneath the city streets! Mad scientists resurrecting the dead!

H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) is generally acknowledged as the most important American writer of macabre fiction since Edgar Allan Poe and one of the most influential writers of horror tales in the 20th century.