Skip to content 
Search

Latest Stories

No ‘offensive racial references’ in James Bond novels’ new edition

No ‘offensive racial references’ in James Bond novels’ new edition

JAMES BOND novels will be reissued with “a small number” of racially offensive references removed while “keeping as close as possible to the original text”.

Racial words “likely to cause great office now” have been altered in the rewritten version of the thrillers in line with modern sensibilities, Ian Fleming Publications Ltd said on Monday (27).

The publisher said the British author, Ian Fleming, who had approved the removal of “racially troubling” references from the American edition of his second novel Live and Let Die, would have approved these edits too.

A Telegraph report said the offensive ‘N-word’ used to refer to black people will be dropped from the new version of the novels to be made available from April this year.

But racial terms for east Asian people and Bond’s disparaging views of Oddjob, Goldfinger’s Korean henchman will remain, it said.

References to the “sweet tang of rape”, homosexuality being a “stubborn disability” and “blithering women” failing to do a “man’s work” will also stay in the spy novels.

The news comes after another publisher, Puffin UK, last week announced it would release the original versions of Roald Dahl's children's books following a wave of backlash over their re-editing for a modern audience.

Novelist Salman Rushdie led the condemnations of changes to Dahl's books describing them as "absurd censorship" by "bowdlerising sensitivity police".

In the case of James Bond novels, Ian Fleming Publications said the “changes will be small in number,” while some books including the author’s first novel Casino Royale will remain completely unaltered.

“We are certain Fleming would approve these edits just as he approved the change to the American edition of Live and Let Die”, the Fleming family company that owns the literary copyrights on his books said.

The writer’s fictions featuring Bond with his codename 007 rank among all-time best-seller series and movies based on the spy novels have become popular worldwide.

More For You

Modi set for UK visit to sign free trade agreement

FILE PHOTO: Keir Starmer (L) with Narendra Modi. (Photo: Getty Images)

Modi set for UK visit to sign free trade agreement

INDIA's prime minister Narendra Modi is likely to travel to the UK by the end of this month for a visit that could see both sides formally sign the landmark India-UK free trade agreement and explore ways to expand bilateral ties in the defence and security sphere, diplomatic sources said.

Both sides are in the process of finalising the dates for Modi's visit to the country by the end of July or the first part of August, they said.

Keep ReadingShow less
Rishi Sunak returns to Goldman Sachs, will donate salary to charity

Rishi Sunak. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

Rishi Sunak returns to Goldman Sachs, will donate salary to charity

FORMER prime minister Rishi Sunak has returned to the banking world as senior adviser at Goldman Sachs group, with plans to donate his salary to the education charity he recently established with his wife Akshata Murty.

The US-headquartered multinational investment bank, where Sunak worked before entering politics, made the announcement on Tuesday (8) after the requisite 12-month period elapsed since the British Indian leader's ministerial term concluded following defeat in the general election on July 4 last year.

Keep ReadingShow less
 Post Office Horizon

A Post Office van parked outside the venue for the Post Office Horizon IT inquiry at Aldwych House on January 11, 2024 in London.

Getty Images

Post Office scandal linked to 13 suicides, says inquiry

Highlights:

 
     
  • Public inquiry finds up to 13 suicides linked to wrongful Post Office prosecutions.
  •  
  • Horizon IT system faults led to false accusations, financial ruin, and imprisonment.
  •  
  • Sir Wyn Williams says Post Office maintained a “fiction” of accurate data despite known faults.

A PUBLIC inquiry has found that up to 13 people may have taken their own lives after being wrongly accused of financial misconduct by the Post Office, in what is now described as one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British history.

Keep ReadingShow less
UK ramps up drought response following driest spring

The EA has begun conducting more compliance checks on high-usage industries

Getty Images

UK ramps up drought response following driest spring since 1893

Key points

  • Spring 2025 was England’s driest and warmest in over 130 years
  • Reservoirs across England only 77% full, compared to 93% average
  • Environment Agency increases monitoring and drought planning
  • North-west England officially declared in drought

Water conservation measures stepped up ahead of summer

The UK government has increased efforts to manage water resources after confirming that England experienced its driest and warmest spring since 1893. The Environment Agency (EA) reported that reservoirs were on average only 77% full, significantly lower than the usual 93% for this time of year.

The announcement came after a National Drought Group meeting on Thursday, which reviewed the impact of continued dry weather on crops, canal navigation, and river flows. Poor grass growth and dry soil conditions were noted as threats to food production and livestock feed.

Keep ReadingShow less
Norman Tebbit

Following Thatcher’s third general election victory in 1987, Tebbit stepped back from frontline politics to care for his wife. (Photo: Getty Images)

Getty Images

Former minister, Thatcher ally Norman Tebbit dies at 94

Norman Tebbit, a close ally of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and a former Conservative Party cabinet minister, has died at the age of 94. His son William confirmed the news on Tuesday.

"At 11:15 pm on 7th July, 2025, Lord Tebbit died peacefully at home aged 94," William Tebbit said in a statement.

Keep ReadingShow less