
My book started out with a column about James Bond that I wrote for The Record in North Jersey back in 2015.
I wanted to write about Bond because of the 007 connection, and because he was from my hometown, Philly. But to write about Bond for the newspaper, I needed a New Jersey angle.
I contacted author David Contosta, who had written a short biography of Bond more than 25 years ago, and asked him if Bond had any New Jersey ties.
Contosta replied that Bond's aunt in Trenton had
encouraged him to be a naturalist and that she was a Roebling, as in the Brooklyn Bridge-building Roeblings.
Hmm, I thought, I bet there's a lot more to learn about this guy, and off I went.
After the column ran, I started looking into Bond in earnest, and my book is the result.
Last year, to mark a decade of writing "The Bird Watcher" column, I put together a free e-book of my favorite 50 columns. I included "The Real James Bond" in the collection.
You can learn more about the e-book online and download it for iPad and other tablets here.
You can read the Real James Bond column here. (I didn't have room to put in the quote about Bond's aunt.)
If you poke around, you can read the rest of the "Best of" book as well.