MOONRAKER

The most astonishing thing about Moonraker is that it only goes as far as Dover. No exotic locations, no bronzed beauties... Simply another card game, this time Bridge and the sneaking suspicion that a multi-millionaire industrialist and philanthropist is not what he seems...

There's something very charming about M's assertion that Sir Hugo Drax must be a bad apple because he cheats at cards, in England it's simply not the done thing. The first half of the book in which Bond helps M to determine the truth behind Drax's amazing run of luck is brilliant. Fleming's creation of Blades, an institution as recognisable and yet as fictional as Hogwarts immediately draws you in to its cloistered rooms, devoted to gambling. Bond is clearly going to have fun snaring his prey and even admits to M that he'll need to be a little 'tight' to do it... and proceeds to bash the equivalent of a Speed/Champagne cocktail (he even has a come-down the next morning).

The other good thing about the opening is seeing the boredom with which Bond tackles his day job. Inbetween judo and shooting, he has to read file upon file about new inventions, drugs, espionage techniques and he's grateful as soon as M calls him for an audience. We should have more Bond behind a desk, not great cinema, but at least you think "wow, that sounds a bit more like me!".

The second half is Bond in the Big Base, except he works for the boss. He gets involved with Special Branch beauty Gala Brand, who sensibly ignores most of his advances and together they work out that something is deeply wrong with Project Moonraker. The audacity of Drax's terrorist plot - to destroy London with a nuclear missile built for its own defence is both terrifying and slightly ridiculous, could you really use all those Nazi rocket scientists without someone finding out? However, it does tap into a basic fear following WW2 that the Nazi menace could reappear and target the UK, this time in a post-Hiroshima world.

Luckily, next time Bond goes after diamond smugglers in... America - AGAIN! Where are the high-risk missions to assassinate SMERSH operatives with the Cold War in the balance, eh? We shall soon find out...