A Bond ' on the Rock '

We French have always treated Ian Fleming's hero litterary adventures with some disdain ( even if the said writer positively loved France . Sigh )   .

That is , apart from one publisher , Plon ( then part of the Presses de la Cité Publishing group ) who kept re-issuing all of Mr Fleming's titles - including Thrilling Cities and The Diamonds Smugglers in hardcover editions complete with original Brit edition inside pics ( plus Mr Kingsley Amis Colonel Sun as well ) up till the mid seventies . The Plon collection uses Sir Sean Connery famous silhouette from FRWL as a generic logo on a white cover , and also published ' movie tie-ins ' from time to time ( such as for ' Goldfinger ' , featuring a superb color cover of Shirley Eaton's dead Golden Girl on her Miami bed , or for OHMSS with a striking cover featuring George Lazenby in his famous film poster ski apparatus , and last for Live and let die - featuring this time the original 1973 Film Poster . )
Last but not least , Plon also published in 73' Roger Moore diary on the shooting of that latest movie - titled in French '  Vivre et Laisser Mourir - Le Film d'un Film ' .

When Plon ceased to exist , Presse Pockets ( another division of Les Presses de la Cité ) took over in the late 70s with covers this time featuring various female models dressed ( or undressed ) as the main character of each novel . Same translations as the original 1960iish Plon ones - which then began to date a little bit ( strange to read Interpol still using Telex when the first personnal computers started to appear everywhere for instance ) .
And after the demise of that collection too,  various Publishers tried to grab a piece of Fleming's prose .
Fleuve Noir first re-issued some titles by 1979 , starting with the Bond of the moment Moonraker - with appaling covers of semi naked girls taking poses which had nothing to do anymore with the very own stories they were illustrating . °/°

Then in 2006 a new publishing company , Bragelonne , commissioned a French artist to create some bold new graphic covers to coincide with the launch of a new James Bond collection .
Halas , said collection only offered three titles before folding out - for lack of sales ...

By 1981 though another French Publisher , Les Editions du Rocher , a Monte-Carlo based Publishing company ( Monaco being affectionaly known as ' The Rock ' in France ), bought the rights of some John Gardner titles as well - and published for the very first time in French Licence Renewed - retitled Operation Warlock . This was followed by  Mission Particulière ( For Special Service ) the year after and by L' Homme de Barbarossa ( The Man From Barbarossa ) ten years later in 1993 .

By a strange twist of fate , those very same Editions du Rocher will be publishing my very own essay on James Bond by late october this year .
Titled ' James Bond , le Dossier secret ' , it will feature various pieces of little known facts of the 007 mythos , both book-wise and movie-wise as well - complete with an amazing foreword penned by the delightful Miss Rachel Grant ( aka ' Peaceful Fountain of Desire ' in D.A.D ) .
There's no coincidences ...