It’s interesting to note that the character of Quarrel, Bond’s black ally, appears in the book and film versions of Live and Let Die and Dr No. Remember the scene where Bond is tied to a girl and hauled through shark-infested waters from For Your Eyes Only? You’ll find it here. What this novel offers Bond enthusiasts is the chance to see how it influenced other Bond movies besides the one it gives its name to.
Illustration ©2019 Fay Dalton from The Folio Society edition of Ian Fleming’s Live and Let Die
However, Mr Big’s nefarious plot is a clever racket in smuggling gold that Bond must locate, infiltrate and smash. Live and Let Die is a treasure trove for James Bond fans – there’s a healthy amount of the big screen adventure that survives intact, such as Bond’s adventure in Harlem tracking down Mr Big, the involvement of Bond girl and psychic medium Solitaire, a subplot about voodoo and, delightfully, the chair that spins around to send Bond into Mr Big’s lair (without Moore’s excellent quip about a “funny turn”). It’s always interesting for aficionados of both the books and the films to see what the producers salvaged from Fleming’s characters and plot, and what was reinvented for the big screen. It’s easy to forget that, because it was the movie that introduced Roger Moore – the third Bond – to the role of the super spy two decades after the book was published. Live and Let Die is only the second James Bond novel written by Ian Fleming (after his debut with Casino Royale), originally appearing in 1954.
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