BECOME A FLEMING INSIDER > JOIN HERE
Swedish-born Mia Johansson has spent years travelling the globe, living in NYC and London to hone her cocktail craft, before becoming a managing partner at award-winning London bar, Swift, alongside her husband Bobby Hiddleston, Edmund Weil and Rosie Stimpson.
Now living in Stockholm, Sweden, Mia is part of the team responsible for the imaginative recipes in Shaken: Drinking with James Bond and Ian Fleming, first published in 2018.
Bobby is a renown mixologist and former managing partner at award-winning London bar, Swift.
After cutting his teeth at Milk & Honey, Bobby has spent his time perfecting his craft in New York and London, before joining up with his wife Mia Johansson, Edmund Weil and Rosie Stimpson to open Swift.
Now living in Stockholm, Sweden, Bobby is part of the team responsible for the imaginative recipes in Shaken: Drinking with James Bond and Ian Fleming, first published in 2018.
John Burningham was an award-winning artist and illustrator, known especially for the wit and humour in his storytelling and artwork. His critically acclaimed picture books are loved all over the world. Titles include Humbert, Granpa, Oi, get off our train!, Would You Rather, and Patrick Norman McHennessy: The Boy Who Was Always Late. In addition to his picture books, John published books for older readers including Around the World in Eighty Days, England, France, The Time of your Life and Champagne.
John won numerous awards during his career, including the Kate Greenaway Award in 1963 for his first picture book, Borka, The Adventures of a Goose with No Feathers. This success set wheels in motion and John was asked to create the art for Ian Fleming’s new children’s story, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Originally published in three volumes in 1964–1965, John’s witty and timeless artwork, along with Fleming’s imaginative text, led Chitty to become the most famous car in English language fiction
Born in 1936, John went on to marry illustrator Helen Oxenbury and they lived for many years in Hampstead, London. In 2018 John and Helen were jointly presented with the Book Trust Lifetime Achievement Award for their work in children’s publishing. The Estate of John Burningham has been set up by John’s family to keep awareness of his books and work alive.
Artist John McLusky is the man responsible for developing the visual style of James Bond in his comic strips for the Daily Express newspaper in the late 1950s.
Born in Glasgow in 1923, John studied at the Slade School of Art and became an artist for Air Force Bomber Command during WWII, drawing training schematics and aircraft interiors. He went on to work as a freelance illustrator before being commissioned to bring Fleming’s secret agent to life in a new comic strip series. After approval from Fleming, the first strip was published in August 1958. It was an instant hit with readers and boosted sales of the newspaper.
John partnered with writer Henry Gammidge from 1958 for seven years, creating a Bond comic strip each day, six days a week, before passing the baton to a new pairing of artist Yaroslav Horak and writer Jim Lawrence. Later, in 1981, John returned to work with Jim on an additional four Bond adventures.
John’s strips, composed with meticulous detail and pace, brought Fleming’s stories to a wide audience and are said to have been storyboard references for the 007 filmmakers. His Bond has a similar look to Sean Connery and is thought to have had an influence on the actor’s casting for the Dr. No movie. John lived in Hertfordshire until his death in 2006 at age 83. His work and influence on the world of James Bond live on.
Yaroslav Horak was an Australian artist, born in 1927 in Manchuria to a Czech engineer father and Russian mother. In 1966 he took over from John McLusky as illustrator on the James Bond Daily Express comic strips.
In 1939, Yaroslav’s family migrated to Sydney, Australia following the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, where he took evening art classes at the Sydney Technical College. Yaroslav first worked as a portrait painter before segueing into the world of publishing and becoming one of Australia’s most prolific cartoonists. He moved to the UK in 1962 and illustrated adventure stories for D.C. Thompson of Scotland. Four years later he took the lead on the 007 comic strips series, forming a partnership with writer Jim Lawrence to bring five of Ian Fleming’s original novels and short stories to life.
Yaroslav returned to Australia in 1975 but continued to work with Lawrence on James Bond until 1984, even when the series moved to the Daily Star and Sunday Express in 1977. In 2018 he was awarded the Ledger of Honour and inducted into the Australian Comics Hall of Fame for his extensive contributions to the nation’s comics. Yaroslav died in 2020, aged 93. He is remembered for his work on 33 James Bond strip sequences.
Thomas Gilbert is a graphic artist and illustrator, based in Warwickshire, England. Working primarily in the field of poster illustration, he has a passion for modernising vintage styles through a combination of traditional and digital media.
Thomas comes from a background in the car industry, with a Master’s Degree in Automotive Design. Through his career as a creative exterior designer, he has enjoyed creating several high-profile cars for iconic British marques.
Thomas designed and illustrated Ian Fleming Publication’s latest Chitty Chitty Bang Bang paperback, and designed the cover for Raymond Benson’s The Hook and The Eye.
Steve Antony grew up in Mexico and often talks at schools about his experience of living in the desert and regularly visiting his local Public Library for inspiration. After taking redundancy from a Swindon call-centre in 2010, Steve pursued his long-held dream of becoming an author and illustrator.
Over the past ten years Steve Antony has written and illustrated 22 picture books, which have been translated in over 23 languages, including the award-winning and bestselling The Queen’s Hat and the Mr Panda series, which has sold over 1.4 million copies worldwide. Steve has also illustrated five picture books including the Chitty Chitty Bang Bang picture book, written by Peter Bently.
From cake raffles to art auctions, with every book launch Steve holds a fundraiser. Over the years he has raised thousands for various charities. Through his work as an Author and Illustrator he has supported the National Literacy Trust, Coram Beanstalk, My AFK, PAMIS, Three Peas, DEC Ukraine Appeal, The Willow Foundation, Read For Good and CLPE. His Queen’s Hat inspired Shaun the Sheep statue sold at auction for £15,000 in aid of Wallace and Gromit’s Children’s Charity in 2015.
Fay Dalton is a London-based illustrator who combines traditional drawing and painting methods with digital painting. She is the winner of the 2010 Pickled Ink Award for Illustration.
She has illustrated Ian Fleming’s Bond books for The Folio Society, filling the pages with lush evocative works of art. Her work for The Folio Society is incredibly detailed and boasts a vintage quality, which she describes as reminiscent of 1950’s Mills and Boon novels and the infamous Coca-Cola Christmas adverts.
Skip to main content