|
Post by Jaqhama on Sept 29, 2008 15:29:22 GMT
Just thought I'd mention that if you haven't read Peter O'Donnel's Modesty Blaise series you're really missing out on quite possibly the best female action character ever created.
Written around the same time that Fleming was writing his 007 novels, the Modesty novels are superior in every way.
Most people (including myself) only recommend the first six books in the series. Modesty Blaise. A Taste for Death I; Lucifer Sabre Tooth Pieces of Modesty The Impossible Virgin
About four or more books after these, but no where near as good as the first six.
Two movies from the book series. One we shall not talk about starring Monica Vitti back in the 60's. Pure and utter CRAP! Another recent movie directed by Tarantino, about Modesty's life before she became head of the international criminal empire; The Network. Modesty's partner is henchman Willie Garvin. A master of hand to hand combat and knife fighting/throwing. Another great literary creation.
What a lot of people point out about the Modesty novels is that they are filled with small bits of humaness. Quiet conversation, walks in the country, an evening out with friends...that normally aways preludes some death defying action and adventure.
There's no super hero like stuff in these novels. Modesty and Willie often get hurt, both emotionally and bodily.
Throughly recommended for anyone who likes action/adventure/thrillers/suspense/crime.
Probably out of print, but available from used on-line bookstores. Peter O'Donnel is still alive I believe and refuses to let anyone continue writing about Modesty and Willie's adventures.
In the Cobra Trap he killed them off. But that was just a silly short story to stop others attempting to write future adventures using his characters. No one took that short story seriously. Hardly worth while writing it to be honest. It was dismally below the excellent writing style he employed in the first six books.
Cheers: Jaq.
|
|
|
Post by benedictjjones on Sept 29, 2008 18:50:22 GMT
they used to do a modesty blaize comic strip in the evening standard and i remember the awful film version they did as well.
|
|
|
Post by Jaqhama on Sept 30, 2008 5:21:08 GMT
Yes.
O'Donnell started the Modesty Blaise series of book from the comic strip characters he created for the newspaper.
I understand it ran for years and years.
|
|
|
Post by benedictjjones on Sept 30, 2008 7:32:29 GMT
i don't what year it started but it was still running in the 90's
|
|
|
Post by mattofthespurs on Sept 30, 2008 8:36:47 GMT
I've been collecting the Titan reprints of the newspaper strip (as well as the Bond ones). The index in the back states that the original strips run from 13/05/1963 (La Machine story) until 11/04/01 (The Zombie story). A total of 95 seperate stories. They are a cracking read. I have several of the novels, including a first edition HB of the first story and can heartily recommend them.
|
|
|
Post by franklinmarsh on Sept 30, 2008 8:46:47 GMT
Yipes! Have to disagree with you on a couple of points Jac - I prefer Fleming, although O'Donnell does write a good yarn. I do like some of the later books (The Silver Mistress, Last Day In Limbo) although I'd say I, Lucifer and Sabretooth were the best overall. Although I hated Joe Losey's 1966 spoof on first viewing, I've come to appreciate it a little more - especially Dirk Bogarde's wonderfully camp reading of Gabriel.
|
|
|
Post by Jaqhama on Oct 1, 2008 5:54:01 GMT
I'll politely disagree about Fleming being a better writer than O'Donnell. To be quite honest I found Fleming's writing style to be very bland.
Modesty and Willie always came across as 'real' people. To me, Bond never did. Some of the scenes between Modesty, Willie and Tarrant are wonderful. It's the little things that make a good writer. The background stuff that isn't central to the main story, but adds to the sense that you're reading a well thought out tale.
I also prefer the plots and dialogue and secondary characters and villians in the Modesty books. Some of the fight scenes are the best ever written. Especially Modesty's duel with the Twins in Sabre Tooth and Willie's fight with the giant villian who feels no pain, at the end of A Taste for Death. And having a Cockney hardman as a main character was a superb idea.
Cheers: Jaq.
|
|
|
Post by pulphack on Oct 1, 2008 12:27:38 GMT
i think you have a point there, jaq - o'donnel is concerned very much with involving his readers, and as such you get very drawn into his world. i've only read 'i. lucifer' and 'pieces of modesty', but enjoyed them very much. also got the second of the collected strips, and i think his concern with character makes him in some ways a better strip than prose writer.
i do disagree about fleming being an inferior writer per se. technically, he's excellent at that distancing, which may not be to everyone's tatse but allows him to describe scenes without his own POV intruding on what you, the reader, make of the scene; i'm thinking here of bond's torture in 'casino royale' in particular. the fact that you have the distance bond has to lend himself to do his job gives insight, and the nastiness of the torture is all the more horrific for being so flatly described. there's also that great chase scene - with hyperbole, it could have been too much, but fleming's coolness gives it an almost cinematic scope. in this, he shows a huge debt to the pre-war thriller writer dornford yates, whose 'chandos' series saw lots of driving and shooting in the austrian hills, described in a beautiful and fake pseudo-jacobean prose that really shouldn't have worked in a thriller, but did by dint of skill and sheer contrast.
having said that, i'm not massively fond of fleming as i prefer to be more involved with the characters. i do think his books flow better, though.
have you ever read anything by adam diment or desmond skirrow? the latter did three or four spy thillers, i think, and is supposedly a well-known kids author and ex-ad man in disguise. the former may either have been a pseudonym for a writer of crime novels, or a swinging london scenester who hit the hippy trail and never came back after four books about phillip macalpine. again, they're not techincally as good as fleming, but i prefer them as they have a great concern for character and those background touches that you like about o'donnel - which is why i think you'll like 'em if you haven't read them.
as regards the modesty movies - still haven't seen the recent one. i do love the sixties film as it's camp pop-art heaven, and a silly cartoon that makes little sense. however, i saw it before ever reading any of the strips or books, so i can see why someone who was a fan before seeing it might dislike it!
incidentally, although the strip ran in the standard, it wasn't owned by the mail group - it's actually owned by the mirror group, and may be in the portfolio that huwj's hayena studios will revive (they've already got garth up and running. as someone who's tried negotiating rights jungles before now, i'd love to know how come the mirror own it and it was in a mail paper!
|
|
|
Post by Jaqhama on Oct 1, 2008 14:00:58 GMT
Out of the six recommended Modesty novels I actually thought Modesty Blaise and Sabre Tooth and A Taste for Death were the best ones. Although the short first person story, narrated by Willie Garvin in Pieces of Modesty was great. I've only ever read a couple of the newspaper strip comics. Although I do have the Garth strip book that was published many years ago. Is that worth anything today? The Tarantino Modesty movie was really quite good. The unknown actress who played the part of a young Modesty was very well placed. Tarantino hopes to make another Modesty movie in the future. I have not seen those other books you mentioned, about MacAlpine. I guess I'll have to search the used on-line bookshops. It's amazing how Modesty and Willie's fame has spread. On a professional knife fighting/knife throwing website the question was asked: Who was/is the greatest exponent of knife combat in the world? The owner of the site immediately replied. "Willie Garvin."
|
|
|
Post by Jaqhama on Mar 4, 2009 15:21:45 GMT
Here's a thought for you. Assuming Tarentino or someone else makes another Modesty movie in the near future.
Modesty: Olga Kurylenko from Hitman and Max Payne.
Wille: Jason Statham from many action movies.
Just a thought. Olga's definetly got the exotic Modesty Blaise looks and voice though.
|
|
|
Post by severance on May 4, 2010 20:56:32 GMT
Just found out that Peter O'Donnell died yesterday aged ninety. He had been suffering from Parkinson's Disease for quite some time. Thanks Peter for giving us the exploits of the memorable Modesty Blaise.
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on May 5, 2010 10:11:39 GMT
Rest in peace, Mr. O'Donnell like the James Hadley Chase Corgi editions, the Modesty Blaise paperbacks seemed to be a perennial in the good old days when the Charity Shops were our best friends as opposed to avowed enemies and i regret not picking them up when i had a chance. There's a fetching if small Modesty Blaise gallery on Flickr, but can you spot the two cover scans posted by severance without first checking the credits? The answer, i think you'll find, is 'yes'.
|
|