Geoffrey Boothroyd was a weapons expert and the ultimate inspiration for Q (Major Boothroyd) in the James Bond film series and novels.
Bond Involvement[]
Boothroyd wrote a letter to Ian Fleming stating his admiration for the Bond character but not his choice of weapons, being that James Bond's default weapon at the time was a Beretta 418. In response to the letter, Fleming had 007's default weapon switched from the Beretta 418 to the Walther PPK in his sixth novel, Dr. No. Boothroyd also suggested 007 attaching a silencer to the weapon that is also used by other characters. This was in response into Fleming's first impression of the suggested weapon being dull and uninteresting. Fleming then created the character Major Boothroyd, who's occupation is stated as an armourer.
According to Paul Simpson, the writer of "Bond vs. Bond: The Many Faces of 007", writer John Gardner had consulted Boothroyd's book, "The Handgun", when searching for new handgun to succeed the Walther PPK as James Bond's sidearm.[1]
Films[]
Work in progress
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ Simpson, Paul (2020). Bond vs. Bond: The Many Faces of 007 (Revised and Updated) (in En-UK). Race Point Publishing, 71-72. ISBN 9781631066962. “[Bond was issued PPK]... although when writing in 1980s, John Gardner was conscious that a PPK belonging to the Royal Protection Squad had jammed during the attempted kidnapping of Princess Anne in 1974, and therefore changed Bond's gun.[...][Talking about other pistols Bond has used as sidearm] Bond does carry another gun more than one mission: the ASP 9mm, which makes its debut in John Gardner's fourth novel, Role of Honour, after the author had experimented with different firearms prior to that and had sought inspiration from the book "The Handgun" by Geoffrey Boothroyd.”