Sensitivity readers remove offensive language from James Bond books including Casino Royale

The James Bond novels, including Casino Royale and Octopussy, have been edited to suit modern sensibilities with a host of racist and sexist terms removed ahead of 007’s 70th anniversary this year.

The publishers of Bond creator Ian Fleming’s books have commissioned a review by ‘sensitive readers’ to modernize them, according to the Sunday Telegraph. It comes as Roald Dahl’s children’s books have been stripped of potentially offensive language with the Oompa Loompas, the workers at Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, rendered gender neutral.

In the new version of the Bond novel Live and Let Die, a scene in which Bond visits a New York club is modified to remove the reference to a striptease. In the 1954 original it says: “Bond could hear the audience panting and grunting like pigs at the trough.”

The revised version will now reportedly say: “Bond could feel electrical tension in the room.”

The N-word, which author Ian Fleming used to refer to blacks when writing during the 1950s and 1960s, was dropped from the revised texts. Outdated references to other ethnicities remain, however, as do phrases like “the sweet taste of rape” and the description of homosexuality as a “stubborn handicap.”

The N-word, which author Ian Fleming used to refer to blacks when writing during the 1950s and 1960s, was dropped from the revised texts. Pictured: Roger Moore and Maud Adams

Casino Royale, published in 1953, is a James Bond novel that is being edited to remove sexist and racist language.

Bond publisher Ian Fleming Publications said it had changed the terms to those that are more widely accepted today, while making sure they are in keeping with the time the books were written.

Reissued spy novels will feature a disclaimer that reads: “This book was written at a time when terms and attitudes that modern readers might find offensive were commonplace.

‘A number of updates have been made to this edition, keeping as close as possible to the original text and the period in which it takes place.’

Bond’s publishers, Ian Fleming Publications Ltd, commissioned a revision by “sensitive readers” of the classic texts under their control to modernize the works, according to the Sunday Telegraph.

In the sensibly reader-approved version of Live and Let Die, a scene in which Bond visits a nightclub in Harlem, New York, is altered to remove the reference to a striptease.

Other changes to Fleming’s books result in some depictions of black people being altered or removed.

Bond publisher Ian Fleming Publications said it had changed the terms to those that are more widely accepted today, while making sure they are in keeping with the time the books were written. Pictured: Roger Moore in Octopussy

Ian Fleming Publications said it had changed the terms to those most accepted today and made sure they were in keeping with the time the books were written.

However, outdated references to other ethnicities remain, such as Bond’s racial terms for East Asian people and the spy’s disparaging views of Oddjob, Goldfinger’s Korean henchman.

References to the ‘sweet taste of rape’, ‘dumb women’ who can’t do a ‘man’s job’, and homosexuality as a ‘stubborn disability’ also remain.

The n-word, which Fleming used to refer to blacks when writing during the 1950s and 1960s, was almost entirely dropped from the revised texts.

Ian Fleming Publications said it had changed the terms to those that are more widely accepted today, while making sure they are in keeping with the time the books were written.