James Bond books rewritten by 'sensitivity experts' to remove Ian Fleming's 'racist' language

All of the James Bond novels have been rewritten because of fears Ian Fleming's language is too racist for 2023.

The books are set to be re-released in April to coincide with the 70th anniversary of Casino Royale, the first Bond novel.

But the new texts will contain a disclaimer which makes clear they've been updated to reflect changing attitudes in society.

Each of the books will now include a prominent paragraph which reads:“This book was written at a time when terms and attitudes which might be considered offensive by modern readers were commonplace.

“A number of updates have been made in this edition, while keeping as close as possible to the original text and the period in which it is set.”

Several changes are bing made to the books, with many depictions of black people being reworked or removed.

Ian Fleming Publications Ltd, the company that owns the literary rights to the author’s work, made the amendments after commissioning a review by sensitivity experts.

Ian Fleming, the genius behind James Bond, died in 1964
PA

In a statement, the company said: “We at Ian Fleming Publications reviewed the text of the original Bond books and decided our best course of action was to follow Ian’s lead. We have made changes to Live and Let Die that he himself authorised.

“Following Ian’s approach, we looked at the instances of several racial terms across the books and removed a number of individual words or else swapped them for terms that are more accepted today but in keeping with the period in which the books were written.

“We encourage people to read the books for themselves when the new paperbacks are published in April.”

It comes just days after Puffin UK was forced to U-turn on its decision to amend the language in Roald Dahl's classic children’s books.

It had said the latest editions were to be edited to remove potentially offensive language after advice from sensitivity specialists.

But the publishers will now release a unedited classic collection, alongside the newly-released Roald Dahl books for young readers, which have been rewritten to cater for the sensitivities of modern audiences.

Some of the changes including removing the word "fat" from every book, with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory character Augustus Gloop being described as "enormous".

The iconic Oompa Loompas were also set to be altered, from "small men" to the gender-neural "small people".

It emerged on Saturday that Dahl had threatened to never write another word if his publishers ever changed his language.

In the James Bond novels, there are several notable changes in the new editions.

According to the Sunday Telegraph, The word “n*****”, which Fleming used to refer to black people in the he 1950s, has been almost entirely removed and replaced by “black person” or “black man”, while racial descriptions are entirely dropped elsewhere.

James Bond row: Pussy Galore, played by Honor Blackman, in the 1964 smash Goldfinger
MGM

In the newly-approved version of Live and Let Die, African criminals are no longer “pretty law-abiding chaps I should have thought, except when they’ve drunk too much”, but now just “pretty law-abiding chaps I should have thought.”

Another passage during Bond’s night out in Harlem, which includes an argument between a man and his girlfriend in a dialogue Fleming describes as “straight Harlem-Deep South with a lot of New York thrown in”, has been deleted.

The ethnicity of a barman in Thunderball is similarly omitted in new editions.

In Quantum of Solace, a butler’s race now also goes unmentioned.

Detail is also removed from Goldfinger, where the race of the drivers in the Second World War logistics unit, the Red Ball Express – which had many black servicemen – is not mentioned, instead referring only to “ex-drivers”.