But are patience, learning and integrity the virtues that mark him out in a government of bond-traders and spin-doctors the right qualities for dealing with post-Soviet Russia, where scholarship is out of fashion and gamesmanship is in?

ECONOMIST: Strobe Talbott, deliverer of Russia

Winder said returning to Fleming's original Bond storylines was a smart move, adding that Bond's longevity as a character -- as other action heroes have gone in and out of fashion -- was largely due to the tight plotting of the original novels.

CNN: James Bond: The world's favorite spy

One possible explanation is that venture capitalists had much better investment opportunities available to them in the 1990s, as the technology revolution gathered speed, whereas buy-out funds were badly hit by the collapse of the junk-bond market in the late 1980s and the recession of the early 1990s.

ECONOMIST: Pick carefully