Fleming himself approved these changes to the US printings prior to his death in 1964. Previously, the N-word has been replaced with “Black person” or “Black man” while a segment describing accented dialogue as “straight Harlem-Deep South with a lot of New York thrown in” was also removed. The main sticking point is the novel 'Live And Let Die' (Fleming’s second Bond book published in 1954), which has already had its racial references toned down by US publishers. Regarding the James Bond books, Ian Fleming Publications released a statement to the Telegraph saying that they had “reviewed the text of the original Bond books and decided our best course of action was to follow Ian’s lead”.
Readers will therefore be given the option to choose between the two versions.
In response to criticism, Dahl’s publisher Puffin UK said it would release the original versions as well as the new edited texts to cater for modern sensitivities.
