When I first saw “Skyfall” on the big IMAX screen on opening night here in Canada I turned to my son at the end of the film and said “Wow”. That is exactly the same reaction I had when I picked up this very hefty, big, beautiful book and opened it up for the first time – “Wow!” It’s more than I could ever have imagined. The James Bond Archives is an oral history of the film series set in an opulent book format. The author has compiled hundreds of fascinating interviews and combined them along with hand written notes, architectural drawings, quick sketches, internal memos, huge gorgeous photographs, posters, call sheets, schedules, scripts and every kind of minutiae that fans can wallow in. Considering just the time alone that the author spent combing through one million items and fifty years of archival material is simply mindboggling. How he managed to choose what to share and what to discard must be a story in itself. Two things I particularly appreciated. One, that Ian Fleming’s Playboy Interview was used as the basis for Fleming’s oral history and two, that Skyfall received full coverage even though the book was published only a few weeks following the film’s release. My only negative comment has nothing to do with the book’s fantastic content but it’s fantastic size. It is more than a coffee-table book, it is an immense IMAX size monograph. It is now the largest and heaviest book I own and storing it without breaking my bookshelves will be my next challenge. I highly recommend this beautiful, classy book and give it an 11/10!