Laid in are two excellent and attractive original color photographs of Maud Adams signing the book and displaying it. The final story, The Living Daylights, shows Bond doing 00- work, and here we see him cranky and human. In 1987 Eon used the plot of "The Living Daylights", almost unchanged, for a section of their 1987 film of the same name. This Vintage edition includes an introduction by Sam Leith, who not only explains what he owes to Bond (his life, no less) but also delves into what these short stories tell about who Bond is (and who or what he’s not).

Ian Fleming passed away in 1964 and Octopussy and The Living Daylights was published posthumously in 1966 after Fleming had taken the world by storm, introducing us to his master spy James Bond.This was going to be bad news, dirty news, and he didn't want to hear it from one of the Section officers, or even from the Chief of Staff. What we have here is a fairly dark tale that shows Bond's taste for a little revenge when the job gets too close to home. It is not known for certain whether any of these stories were ever actually earmarked by Ian Fleming for his never-completed collection, though it is likely "The Living Daylights", at the very least, would have been a strong contender since it (unlike the others) had already been widely published by 1964. Overall a nice FINE-/N-FINE books in VG+ to N-FINE dust jackets of a very difficult to find Ian Fleming James Bond complete set of all 14 James Bond books published in 3 large omnibus hardcovers by the ORIGINAL UK PUBLISHER JONATHAN CAPE. Frankly I don't think I'd enjoy a full length novel with these sorts of stories, but at these lengths, they really work well.

Still, the author takes pains to show that Smythe is a pitiful, unsympathetic character, and decidedly quite the bastard. Inside was the famous Emerald Sphere by Fabérgé and papers, in Russian and French, stating the provenance of the piece. The Chief Range Officer is pleased with the results, as Bond is consistently getting bullseyes even in the fading light. The "Octopussy" collection concludes with "The Property of a Lady," which first appeared in "The Ivory Hammer" (a publication of Sotheby's auction house), of all places; it was later reprinted in "Playboy" magazine.Bond chooses not to take Smythe into custody immediately, but leaves him to contemplate his options – suicide or a court martial. The story has an interesting double flashback structure, and the section in which Smythe reflects on those crimes is a fascinating one. The last story of the collection, "OO7 In New York", is the only disappointment, simply because it has nothing to tell. This was going to be dirty work and Bond, because he belonged to the Double-0 Section, had been chosen for it.

Two of these titles were made into full-length films only because they were the only two that had half-decent endings and enough of a back-story to build a script around.I cannot remember if the movie version of this story had anything to do with Cold War Berlin, but it does include Bond encountering a blonde Cello player, which was in the movie.