A series of lectures has begun at the University of West London designed to provide insights into a wide range of topics, from James Bond to political interference in policing.

Professor Jeremy Strong says he had been re-reading Bond novels for the first time since his childhood when he became aware of just how much attention Fleming, and by extension Bond, was paying to food.

So his talk on Thursday is a way of combining his love of food and literature.

He said: “I’ve always had a long-standing interest in food and I tend to, when I’m reading any novel and come across food sections, always pay a bit more attention. There was quite a lot of evidence of discrimination, it’s about Bond, how he chooses and how much he knows about food.

“There’s a kind of showing off, and I think, in this respect, Bond and Fleming have a lot of overlap there. I think Bond’s food tastes are really Fleming’s food tastes.”

For readers coming out of the Second World War and rationing, the academic says Bond’s use of eggs and butter and other scarce products would have been quite exotic.

The 42-year-old author and academic, whose first novel, Mean Business, is out now, said: “It’s quite seductive… Bond has Eggs Benedict, it’s fairly run of the mill fare now, but it would have been quite swanky fare back in the 1950ss.”

While Bond is known for his shaken not stirred vodka martinis, his knowledge, and drinking, of wine is also important.

Prof Strong said: “He takes time to describe things in such a way that readers can get to the end of the section and feel ‘that’s something I know about’. They could, afterwards, flaunt it as a bit of their own connoisseur knowledge.”

The didactic nature of the books is one the author feels that Fleming particularly excels at, from the involved description of the rules of baccarat in Casino Royale (the card game was replaced with the more contemporary poker in the 2006 film), to golf in Goldfinger.

“He explains it, not in a textbook way, but integrating it into the narrative.”

While the books are accessible to the layperson, Prof Strong argues that these snobbish trends of Bond hint at a bigotry in the character, and perhaps in Fleming.

“Bond is a patho-logical classifier of things and people,” argues the professor. “He’s interested in food, what’s the best kind of food, which is a kind of a harmless, seductive ability to have. But it also hints at the sexist tones inherent in the book, which Prof Strong says were archaic even at the time.

“He looks at women as flesh. He’s appraising their ages, their sizes,” he said.

To reserve a seat for Prof Strong’s talk or find out more about other public lectures at the University of
West London, visit uwl.ac.uk/PLS or call 0208 231 2199.