A close relation of Winston Churchill, Amherst Villiers is perhaps best known as the man who supercharged the Blower Bentley (which his close friend Ian Fleming had James Bond drive in Casino Royale and Moonraker). However, he also developed racing cars, designed Malcolm Campbell's first land speed record breaking Bluebird and made a return to front-line motor racing in the 1960s with BRM and in the 1970s with Graham Hill's eponymous Grand Prix team. He spent the best part of 30 years in North America working for the likes of Grumman, Douglas and Boeing on a variety of space projects. In his spare time, he was a society portrait painter, and his paintings of Fleming and Hill hang in the London's National Portrait Gallery.

JAMES BOND declares war on Le Chiffre, French Communist and paymaster of the Soviet murder organization SMERSH. The battle begins for the ace secret agent in a fifty-million-franc game of baccarat...gains momentum in his fiery love affair with a sensuous lady spy...and reaches a chilling climax with fiendish torture at the hands of a master sadist. The critics give a winning hand to Ian Fleming’s superlative thriller of espionage, adventure, intrigue and murder—CASINO ROYALE “Hums with tension...Author Fleming keeps his incidents and characters spinning through their paces like juggling balls.”—Time “A speed-breaker for thrills with a big dramatic scene set in a crowded casino.” Atlanta Journal Constitution “Excitement enough to intrigue the most hardened reader.”—Newark News “Mounting suspense on every page.”—Houston Chronicle “It’s superlative, everything such a story should be...One can only beg for more from Mr. Fleming.”—Pensacola News-Journal

You may not know it, but you've seen Vic Armstrong's work in countless movies. From performing stunts in the James Bond movie You Only Live Twice to directing the actions scenes for recent blockbusters The Green Hornet and Thor, the Academy Award-winning Vic Armstrong has been a legend in the movie industry for over 40 years. Along the way he's been the stunt double for a whole host of iconic heroes, including 007, Superman, and most memorably, Indiana Jones - as Harrison Ford once joked to him, "If you learn to talk I'm in deep trouble." As a stunt co-ordinator and second unit director, Vic is behind the creation of such movies as Total Recall, The Mission, Dune, Rambo III, Terminator 2, Charlie's Angels, Gangs of New York, War of the Worlds, I Am Legend and Mission: Impossible III, to name but a few, as well as several Bond films. He's got a lot of amazing stories to tell, and they're all here in this hugely entertaining movie memoir, which also features exclusive contributions from many of Vic's colleagues and friends, including Harrison Ford, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, Pierce Brosnan, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Angelina Jolie, Kenneth Branagh and Sir Christopher Lee. With an introduction by Steven Spielberg, and over 100 previously unpublished on-set photos from Vic's own collection.

LIFE Magazine is the treasured photographic magazine that chronicled the 20th Century. It now lives on at LIFE.com, the largest, most amazing collection of professional photography on the internet. Users can browse, search and view photos of today’s people and events. They have free access to share, print and post images for personal use.

Once a common sight on Britain's roads, few people today seem to have heard of the Bond Minicar not a diminutive, gadget laden conveyance for the fictional 007 character, but a popular, practical, motorcycle-engined, three-wheeler that in the post-war austerity period, gave tens of thousands of people affordable personal transport at a time when conventional vehicles were beyond the reach of the average household. Yet whilst the later, mostly imported, 'Bubble cars' have remained in the public eye, it is largely forgotten that the first of the postwar 'Microcars' to go into significant production was the British designed and built Bond. Equally enigmatic seems to be the designer of this vehicle, Lawrence 'Lawrie' Bond a prolific automotive design genius, with a penchant for weight-saving construction techniques. He was responsible for a wide range of two, three and four wheel vehicles; from ultra-lightweight motorcycles and scooters, such as the Minibyke, Lilliput and Gazelle, as well as his other Microcars the stylish Berkeley and perhaps less-than-pretty Opperman Unicar and finally to his later work, including the innovative, but troubled Bond 875 and styling the Equipe GT sportscar.Here the story is told in full, covering all Lawrie's innovative designs and the various vehicles that bore his name, all in prolifically illustrated detail, together with his passion for motor racing, which resulted in a number of technically acclaimed racing cars, some of which can still be seen competing is historic racing events today.

LIFE Magazine is the treasured photographic magazine that chronicled the 20th Century. It now lives on at LIFE.com, the largest, most amazing collection of professional photography on the internet. Users can browse, search and view photos of today’s people and events. They have free access to share, print and post images for personal use.

Award-winning writer Richard Williams tells the remarkable story of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, one of the world's most iconic motorsports events, which celebrates its centenary in 2023. The event was created by a group of Frenchmen in 1923 and remains uniquely compelling to spectators, to the major motor manufacturers who continue to see it as an opportunity for priceless publicity, as well as to drivers hoping to add their names to its distinguished roll of honour. Between the wars, those manufacturers included Bugatti, Bentley and Alfa Romeo. Subsequently, Ferrari, Jaguar, Mercedes, Aston Martin, Ford, Porsche, Audi and Toyota have all been serial winners, guaranteeing the continuation of ferocious inter-marque rivalry. Over the decades the race acquired a rich folklore, including stories of leaking petrol tanks being sealed with chewing gum, one competitor making his last pit-stop for a fill-up and a glass of champagne, or the woman who drove her MG through the night wearing a fur coat. Competitors have included princes, debutantes, drug smugglers and a Nazi spy. Leading Hollywood film-makers lured to the romance of the race include Steve McQueen, who conceived and starred in Le Mans in 1971, and James Mangold, who made Le Mans ’66 in 2019. But in 1955 it had also been the scene of the greatest tragedy ever to befall motor racing, when 82 people were killed by a competing car, an accident that for a while threatened the sport’s entire future. From the Bentley Boys of the 1920s, through record-breaking multiple winners Jacky Ickx and Tom Kristensen to modern stars such as Allan McNish, 24 Hours celebrates the skill, courage and technical brilliance of the men and women who gave the race its worldwide renown.