This is the first book to focus on James Bond's relationship to the playboy ideal through the sixties and beyond. Examining aspects of the Bond phenomenon and the playboy lifestyle, it considers how ideas of gender and consumption were manipulated to construct and reflect a powerful male fantasy in the post-war era. This analysis of the close association and relations between the emerging cultural icons of James Bond and the playboy is particularly concerned with Sean Connery's definitive Bond as he was promoted and used by the media. By exploring the connections that developed between Bond and Playboy magazine within a historical framework, the book offers new insights into these related phenomena and their enduring legacy in popular culture.

Reviews

'This book engages a range of topic relevant to university courses in fields such as English, History and Cultural Studies. It will also appeal to fans of Bond and popular culture. The playboy and James Bond is concise, fluent and eminently readable, striking the right balance between sharp analysis and telling a compelling story.'
Professor Christoph Linder, University of Oregon

'The more fascinating part of Hines's analysis, however, goes beyond the two enterprises' mutual boosting to spotlight the astonishingly parallel guidance they provided in encouraging male consumerism. One of the shared foci, on "fetishized mechanical objects", was represented by Bond's Aston Martin DB5 car and the Playboy automated round bed. Both Playboy and Bond encouraged the commodification of women and guilt-free (hetero-)sexuality, as evidences by the Bond girls and Playboy Bunnies. Both championed elaborate male grooming routines, gourmet food and alcohol, and travel to exotic locations . [This book] would be of use to scholars and teachers of intertextual analysis, magazine studies, and gender and sex in the media. It could also make an excellent addition to the reading lists of seminars on fanship studies or fan magazines.'
Journal of Magazine Media

Introduction
1 Before the Bond
2 The literary Bond
3 The Connery Bond
4 The consumer Bond
5 The Bond women
6 The Bond beyond
Index