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Licence To Queer
Licence to… chill?
Licence to… chill?

When someone says they meditate, what do you imagine them doing? Many of us picture someone in a lotus position listening to 'chillout' music. Not the sort of thing we associate with James Bond. However, there's both more - and less! - to meditation than this...

Book Review: Quantum of Menace
Book Review: Quantum of Menace

The announcement of Quantum of Menace put me in a quandry: I’d long desired a genre diversification of Bond but surely ‘cosy crime’ would be too quotidian for the exotic, fast-paced world of 007? And what of Q himself… how could a character whose page count has, to date, been barely quantifiable, sustain a whole novel? So, now that Vaseem Khan’s book is out in the open, have my qualms been qualified, or have they been rendered quiescent?

Queer re-view: GoldenEye
Queer re-view: GoldenEye

Brosnan’s opening mission ends with the death of his best buddy. But unbeknowst to him, the object of his bromantic affections isn’t really deceased: he’s just watching from the shadows. Will Bond manage to stay Onatopp of things? Will he leave it up to a Russian computer programmer to save the day while he runs off to have a messy break up with his best mate? And will we ever get to the bottom of why 007 spends so much time hanging around in men’s bathrooms?

No time to be discussing politics
No time to be discussing politics

Bond and politics don’t mix. So why, when Bond himself resists being drawn far along either end of the political spectrum, do both sides persist in wielding poor 007 like a blunt instrument?

Licence To Queer covers queer aspects of Bond books, video games and more. Search here for your favourite titles and characters or find content related to particular queer identities (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, etc).

Callum McKelvie Callum McKelvie

No Time To Dirk: Bond and Bogarde

60 years ago, when the movie Bond began, England’s most popular actor was Dirk Bogarde, a closeted gay man. Dirk was even approached to play Bond. But big Bogarde fan Callum McKelvie is glad the matinee idol never donned 007’s tux (although he would have looked great in it).

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Callum McKelvie Callum McKelvie

Spectre-al Visions: Queers, Horrors and Bond

Waking up to a golden cadaver; witnessing an astronaut suffocate in space; watching a woman be torn apart by dogs; wincing as a man’s head decompresses… the world of Bond has given many of us nightmares. Perhaps it’s this transgressiveness which makes both Bond and horror films such good (death)bed mates. Callum McKelvie investigates.

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