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?

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?

I’ve spoken with so many avowed fans of Fleming – people who have read all fourteen Bond books cover to cover ad infinitum – who have never even picked up a copy of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, let alone read one. Why?