For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond at the Imperial War Museum

London's Imperial War Museum is the location for a major Ian Fleming and James Bond exhibition - For Your Eyes Only.

A look at the man and the character, it features a large amount of material on show for the first time, including  a selection of annotated Bond manuscripts and Fleming’s Colt Python .375 Magnum revolver, along with material from the films including the ‘blood–splattered’ shirt worn by Daniel Craig in Casino Royale, Rosa Klebb’s flick–knife shoes in From Russia With Love and Halle Berry’s bikini from Die Another Day.

There's also a number of events and family activities relating to Bond, plus free screening of some early Bond classics - Dr No, From Russia With Love and Goldfinger. The exhibition opens on 17th April 2008, running until 1st March 2009. See the website for full listings.

Find out more at the Imperial War Museum website

Via Retro To Go

Coming in January: James Bond postage stamps

It takes a lot to get me excited about postage stamps, but the Royal Mail's James Bond stamp collection just about does it.

Unveiled today and available to buy and use from January 8th 2008, the James Bond collection marks the centenary of the birth of Bond creator Ian Fleming and includes six 'extra-long' stamps, each featuring different covers of six of his most famous Bond novels.

The two 1st Class stamps feature Fleming’s first novel Casino Royale (1953) and Dr No (the first novel to be filmed). The 54p stamps shows the covers of Goldfinger and Diamonds are Forever, while the final 78p pairing features For Your Eyes Only and From Russia with Love.

All can be ordered now as collector's packs from the Royal Mail website.

Find out more at the Royal Mail website

McQueen's Machines: The Cars and Bikes of a Hollywood Legend

It's stating the obvious somewhat to say that Steve McQueen had an interest in cars and bikes - it was probably more of an obsession. And now you can share that obsession with McQueen's Machines: The Cars and Bikes of a Hollywood Legend.

Journalist Matt Stone was given access to the McQueen family albums to create this 176-page hardback book, packing each page with images of vehicles driven, owned, and raced by Steve McQueen. And to give it continuity, there's plenty of facts too - including his obsession with Triumph motorbikes (James Dean introduced them to him apparently), the disappointing news that he didn't do the motorcycle jump in the Great Escape and the ever-increasing value of his vehicles - his 1963 Ferrari Lusso, which sold last summer for a massive $2.3 million.

This book is available for a more modest price - £10.19 from Amazon.

Find out more about the book at Amazon.co.uk

Taschen's Cinema Now - book and DVD set

Lacking a good knowledge of contemporary film? Cinema Now from Taschen could fill the gaps.

Cinema Now examines the work and key themes of 60 filmmakers working around the world today, from Hollywood to the new wave of Asian directors and new movie men (and women) in Europe and Latin America, including the likes of Pedro Almodóvar, Wong Kar-Wai, Alejandro González Iñárritu and Carlos Reygadas, Guy Maddin, Matthew Barney, and Tsai Ming-Liang.

As well as facts and photos, the book also features an exclusive DVD containing exclusive short films, extracts, trailers, and much more, so you can see for yourself the work in question. Combined, the book and DVD sell for £24.99 (and probably less if you shop around.

Find out more at the Taschen website

10 Questions with Tom Lisanti

Above: Author Tom Lisanti with actress Francine York

Author Tom Lisanti has written numerous books about sixties-era screen starlets including Fantasy Femmes of 60's Cinema, Drive-In Dream Girls, Film Fatales and Hollywood Surf and Beach Movies: The First Wave, 1959-1969. Tom's latest book is called Glamour Girls of Sixties Hollywood: Seventy-Five Profiles and it features many profiles of beautiful actresses from that decade who are often overlooked such as Edy Williams, Lee Meredith, Melodie Johnson, Lisa Seagram, Tura Sutana, Susan Denberg, Sharon Tate, Beverly Adams, Victoria Carroll, Joy Harmon, Inga Neilson, Yvonne Craig and Ann Morell. I recently got the chance to ask Tom a few questions.

Cinedelica: Your latest book is called Glamour Girls of Sixties Hollywood and it features profiles on 75 actresses as well as some fascinating interviews. Were there any actresses that you especially enjoyed interviewing for your book?

Tom Lisanti: All the actresses were great but I have to say Lisa Seagram and Victoria Carroll kept me laughing throughout the interviews. They were a lot of fun.