The Guy Who Complained So Hard He Made it Into a James Bond Novel

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The Walther PPK has appeared in more James Bond movies than Sean Connery and is responsible for more on screen deaths than Bruce Lee’s right hand. The gun is widely considered to be Bond’s signature weapon, which is odd considering he initially used a totally different gun in the books. 

As noted in the image above, in the first couple of Bond books penned by Ian Fleming, James Bond sleuthed around while packing a heavily customised Beretta 418 outfitted with a silencer. If you’re not a gun nut, or just blacked out during the previous sentence and don’t like trying to read things twice, this is a Beretta 418.

PEW, PEW!
PEW, PEW!

Look at that thing, it looks like a novelty lighter made for chain-smoking children with smaller than average hands, we wouldn’t take Liam Neeson seriously if he was holding that and we’d be scared of that man if he was only holding his breath. Regardless of how teeny and/or weeny the gun was, Bond shot people with it for five straight novels until a Geoffrey Boothroyd, a big fan of the books, decided to complain to Fleming directly about how stupid it was that Bond would be armed with such a gun.

Now Boothroyd just so happened to be a world renowned expert on firearms who’d written a book on the topic of small arms, so instead of just criticising Fleming’s choice and calling him a dipshit while acting like an entitled dickhead like people would today, he actually explained why the gun wasn’t an ideal firearm and even included a list of other guns he felt were a better, more murdery choice.

Boothroyd’s major concern with the Beretta 418 was its lack of power, in the letter he penned to Fleming he openly called it a “lady’s gun” and suggested that Bond would have far better results if he was armed with a revolver, a Walther PPK or just a really firm back hand.  Fleming was so impressed by Boothroyd’s intimate knowledge of the subject that he quickly wrote a letter back to pick his brains about how he personally felt Bond should be armed. In Fleming’s very next novel, Dr No, Bond was issued with a spanking new Walther PPK by his new armourer, Major Boothroyd.

This guy!
This guy!

As if being immortalised in print (and later film) as the guy who made sure Bond was always ready to kick ass wasn’t great enough, one of Major Boothroyd’s very first lines in the book (and the movie) are him talking shit about the Beretta, saying that it wouldn’t look out of place in a lady’s handbag.

The Walther PPK went on to become James Bond’s signature weapon, starring in almost every movie in the series in some way, shape or form. Proof for everyone reading this that complaining about things always results in change, as long as you literally wrote a book about the thing you’re complaining about that is.