How 007 stopped using a lady's gun

Boothroyd came onto the scene soon after Ian Fleming's cool super spy first appeared. He wrote to Bond's creator, Ian Fleming, telling him that even though the spy was portrayed as a deadly professional, the Beretta used in the first book Casino Royale was 'utterly useless as well as being a lady's gun.'

Given Boothroyd's credentials as a gun expert, Fleming was, justifiably, embarrassed. He soon hired the dealer as a firearms adviser, and even went to the extent of later introducing him as a character in the series. In fact, Boothroyd was the model for Q, the eccentric weapons and gadgets expert so integral a part of Bond mythology.

Now, according to London's The Telegraph, Fleming's letters to Boothroyd -- written between 1956 and 1963 -- are to be auctioned by the latter's family, three years after his death. Apart from interesting details about why Bond abandoned his Beretta for a Smith & Wesson and his now famous Walther PPK, the letters reveal that Fleming always referred to Bond as though he were a real person.

With time, Fleming grew to rely on Boothroyd's advice a lot more. The Smith & Wesson was used in an illustration for From Russia, With Love, a copy of which Fleming promptly sent to Boothroyd inscribed: 'To Geoffrey Boothroyd. Herewith Appointed 'Armourer' to J Bond.'