Edlitz continued: “Of course, in the movie, Bond defeats Rosa Klebb in the end. But in the novel, 007 is not as lucky.

“In the last passage of the book, Bond falls to the floor; presumably dead. You see, Fleming thought that he might have written all that he wanted to about Bond’s exploits.

“So the novel ends with 007’s apparent death. But Fleming had a change of heart and additional novels followed. Similarly, we will see more of Bond’s adventures on the big screen, where he belongs.”

A year later his sixth Bond novel in Dr No was published, opening with 007 recovering from Klebb’s poisoning and being sent to report to M. Similarly, in the 1964 novel You Only Live Twice, Bond is presumed dead with his obituary appearing in newspapers, before returning to MI6 a year later in The Man with the Golden Gun – not dissimilar to the opening of Daniel Craig’s Skyfall.