Romney Marsh Times' very own secret agent Kyle Hill finds himself in Double-O-Heaven when he meets up with Lydd resident and worldwide James Bond authority Graham Rye.

A childhood interest continues to grow in Graham Rye’s house in Lydd.

Since 1979, the Surrey native has compiled and edited 007 Magazine, a periodical devoted to all things related to Ian Fleming’s fictional MI6 agent James Bond. After being an online-only publication the last four years, the magazine returned to print in August, with the next issue due out in November.

"It’s been a long hard slog, it still is," Rye said. “It’s worthwhile insomuch as it always gives me great pleasure when I get the printed magazine back from the printer."

Talking about his publication two weeks ago, Rye expressed amazement at the success 007 Magazine has achieved.

"There’s still a market for it, people are still interested in it, they still hold 007 Magazine in high esteem," Rye said. "I never thought it was going to take over my life, but that’s what it’s done."

Rye’s Victorian-era house, which originally served as a butcher’s shop, is his personal museum to the long-running series of spy stories. Save EON Productions, which has produced the 22 movies officially considered Bond movies, Rye has the largest collection of its kind. Archives of interviews Rye has conducted over the past 30 years fill the shelves that surround his workspace. Bond paraphernalia, ranging from Daily Express comic strips and promotional posters to props and autographed stills from the movies in the series, hang throughout the house.

Rye serves as its docent and curator, explaining each artefact present with authority through his extensive knowledge and personal experiences. Coupled with the encyclopaedic knowledge of 007 that would rival even Q’s, glimmers of appealing intrigue hearken back to days when childhood imagination drove the dreams of young boys in a changing world.

"This is, as far as I can make it, the last remaining actual box from Morland and Co. on New Bond Street, and those were the three gold-ring cigarettes that Fleming purchased for himself and gave to his character Bond," Rye commented as he presented a framed display of two packs surrounded by screenshots of Bond smoking the same brand. As he motioned toward the box on the left, he added: "That one I’ve had since I was a schoolboy."

The one on the right, Rye said, was a duplicate produced for use in the 1989 TV film Goldeneye starring Charles Dance as Ian Fleming.

An appreciation forms
Rye said he first became interested in the Bond series at age 11, when his father took him to see the first Bond movie released by EON Productions, 1962’s Dr. No.

Rye said: "My dad said, ‘We’re going to go to the cinema tonight, we’re going to see a film I think you’re going to like.’ He had obviously read the book. I didn’t know what it was going to be until I got there. I didn’t know anything about it, I had no preconceived ideas at all. I just went to the cinema with my dad."

In vivid detail Rye recalled what initially drew him in.

"As it always does, the cinema goes dark," Rye continued. "Suddenly you get this high pitch noise, this little dot goes up, the gun barrel – which I didn’t realise until my dad told me it was a gun barrel. I thought: ‘Wow, this is strange, this is different. There’s nothing else that you’d ever seen in the cinema or television that had the same kind of feel.’

"This really pulsating, fantastic theme of music, which eventually segues into dancing, silhouette girls, and then segues into – beautifully and seamlessly done – silhouettes of the Three Blind Mice, the three Jamaican hitmen with the white sticks, which again then segues into the actual film."

Rye added that he watched a lot of television in his childhood and lived near a dozen cinemas. On average, he would visit them four times a week. None of that prepared him for what he would see next.

"The idea that suddenly, within ten minutes, you see a guy brutally shot dead, who was quite a nice guy because he just gave a supposed beggar some money, it’s very shocking and startling. And then after that, the same bad guys go and kill his secretary. The idea of seeing a woman killed in a film of any kind, I don’t think it had ever been done before. And then suddenly they turn her over on the carpet, there’s blood on the carpet, blood on the front of her blouse, you think: ‘Blimey, what’s this all about?’ It really does take your breath away at that age."

"It was trendsetting, [Sean] Connery’s performance and the way he cut a swathe through everything that was in his way. None of it got in his way for long."



Rye summed up his first impression of Bond as hero worshipping in the making.

He said: "I was only 11, I was an only child, I was rather shy, here was this guy – nothing crossed him at all. I thoroughly enjoyed myself."

While the movies caught his interest, Rye said Fleming’s writings ultimately hooked him.

"It wasn’t until the third film that I discovered that these films were based on books," Rye said. "Unbeknownst to me, my uncle who lodged with us had book club editions of all of these novels in his book rack in his bedroom. He gave me the books and I started reading them, and that’s when it really took off, because for me, Bond is at his best in Fleming’s books."

Oddjob
Afterward, Rye began collecting random magazines and souvenirs with his dad. In 1968, after taking a job as a messenger for an advertising firm in London’s West End, Rye discovered a shop on Museum Street that proved to be his first goldmine of Bond memorabilia.

Rye said: "In the window one day walking past, there were these front-of-house stills from a Bond film. This guy had boxes and boxes of production photographs. These were all original prints, printed from the original negatives."

During the 70s, Rye expanded his search, visiting boot sales and events where he bought pictures and transparencies. Through these events, Rye networked with crew members and directors from the films, who began giving him props. One of the props he obtained, the bowler hat used by Oddjob in the movie Goldfinger, went under the hammer at Christie’s in September 1998 at the first ever auction devoted to James Bond memorabilia. Rye earned £62,000 from its sale, the largest sum ever paid for a single Bond prop to date. While the proceeds went into the 007 fan club Rye ran at that time, it also marked the end for free props from crewmembers to Rye.

"People began to see that there was a considerable value on some of these items," Rye said.

Also expanding at the time was Rye’s talents as an advertising designer and photographer. Ascending from the mailroom to the studios, Rye began taking photographs for campaigns and painting murals. After a sabbatical in 1978, Rye began work on the first issue of 007 Magazine. As the publication grew, Rye turned to freelance work in the 80s, photographing celebrities including Sir John Mills.

By 1989, Rye made the magazine and expanding the 007 knowledge base his principal focus. That year, also the year License to Kill debuted in theatres, 007 Magazine received official approval to be sold on newsstands across the UK as an unlicensed product. Also in 1989, the first edition of Rye’s book 'The James Bond Girls' arrived on bookshelves. Eventually 25,000 copies would sell.

Rye’s role as an expert in the Bond saga would net him several additional projects in the 90s. The publisher Boxtree asked him to design the cover for their book ‘The James Bond Bedside Companion’, published in 1988. Many other Bond designed items would follow. Rye would appear in and assist with several Bond-related documentaries on DVD, including a 1992 film about him by student filmmakers.

As the then creative director of The James Bond 007 International Fan Club & Archive, Rye was about to hold two events inside London’s Pinewood Studios, becoming the first person outside the film industry to do so. In addition to an annual fan convention, Rye also organised an annual Christmas lunch at Pinewood Studios. High-profile actors from the 007 movies, including George Lazenby, Lois Maxwell and Desmond Llewelyn, headlined the guest list.

> Read From Romney Marsh, with Love - Part II