There are three main types of men in the 00 Section: double-firsts, soldiers of fortune, and men who count life well lost for 1,000 pounds sterling a year (DAF 12). This was first said in 1956, so presumably, allowing for salary increases to meet the rise in the cost of living, tens of thousands of pounds sterling is what such men currently count life well lost for. But you're clearly not one of them. You may be more tempted to consider yourself a double-first, impressing girls and others by your wealth of culture. Don't try it. You can go on amassing the stuff for years and still be tripped up in conversation. And 007s must never be tripped up. Stick to being a soldier of fortune, as you need nothing more than a small basic culture-kit, as follows:

Literature

You read at an ornate Empire desk, but your library should be modest [M 3]. Owning a lot of books tends to go with serious criminal tendencies [LALD 7].

On your reading shelf we find only

• "The Traveller's Tree", by Patrick Leigh-Fermor. (Good on Haitian voodoo.) [LALD 3].
• Chesterfield's "Letters" (For the odd quote) [DN 20].
• "How to play your Best Golf All the Time", by Tommy Armour [DAF 6].
• "Modern Fundamentals of Golf" by Ben Hogan [G 22].
• "Scarne on Cards" (Information about Cheating) [M3].
• "Profiles in Courage", by J.F. Kennedy [TMWTGG 7].
• "The Craft of Intelligence", by Allen Dulles [TMWTGG 17].
• "The Mask Of Dimitrios", by Eric Ambler [FRWL 13].
• A Nero Wolfe novel or two by Rex Stout [OHMSS 20].
• A Philip Marlowe novel by Ray Chandler [G 22].
• "The Bible Designed to be Read as Literature". This, the gem of your collection, has had the middle part of its pages removed to make room for a Walther PPK 7-65 mm. automatic [G4]. The gun itself is an optional extra. If you decide to do without it, just say lightly that you only keep it in the Bible on special occasions.

The permissible journals and newspapers are "The Field" for golfing articles [G10], "Country Life" [G11], "The Times" [FRWL 2], "The Daily Express" [M13], the "Evening Standard" [DAF 6] and in Jamaica the "Daily Gleaner" [TMWTGG 4].

You have heard of Poe, Le Fanu, Bram Stoker, Ambrose Bierce [YOLT 8].

You yourself are not an author of note. Our founder, when on a visit to Japan, once composed the following haiku, or short epigrammatic poem:

You only live twice:

Once when you are born,

And once when you look death in the face. [YOLT 11]

Get a literary friend to run you up a few more examples for trotting out in talk. It shouldn't take him more then ten minutes. You're thinking of writing a Service manual on unarmed combat, to be called "Stay Alive!", but you never actually get down to it. [G5] Note: Treat any copy of Tolstoy's "War and Peace" with care. It may have a gun concealed in the binding which will go off if you press at the end of the spine. [FRWL 25-26]

Music

You tolerate cabaret-style voodoo drumming [LALD 6], calypso bands [DN 4] and, in the company of a girl, 'La Vie en Rose' [CR 14]. You have heard of Wagner. [YOLT 17]

Painting

You're acquainted with the Mona Lisa [T 1], and with Botticelli's Venus [DN 8]

Drama

If caught in a theatre, explain you're only there because the man you're following is, too [FYEO 3].

Cinema

You remember Charles Laughton in "The Private Life of Henry the Eighth", but since it came out in 1933 you might be better advised to shut up about it [G 2].

Architecture

You like the look of exclusive London clubs and Miami hotels [M 4]. If caught, say , in a Venice church [G 3], explain you're only there to see if anybody follows you in [FYEO 4].

In fact, what really appeals to your aesthetic sense, such as it is, is modern luxury trains [LALD 10], famous trains [FRWL 21], antique trains [DAF 19], ocean liners [DAF 21-22], ocean-going yachts [FYEO 5], casinos [CR 10-13, etc], cars [M 18, etc], birds [FYEO 2] and fish [FYEO 5]. And girls, of course.