With a new James Bond film you expect a slew of new books and this year’s collection is befitting the golden anniversary of 007 coming to the screen. The issue for any book on such a well known and well-studied franchise, be it film or book, is to be authoritative and not a carbon copy of previous offerings.

The book that has taken most of the attention this round is Sir Roger Moore’s Bond on Bond (Michael O’Mara Books, £25), written with Gareth Owen and hailed as the ultimate book on the 50 years of cinematic 007. I approached this with some hesitation. Sir Roger’s own autobiography, My Word Is My Bond, was a dull affair. And when you first open this up and see him constantly refer to Bond as Jim, Jimmy and Jimbo, the initial impression is this is a glib cashing in.

However, once you get over this from Sir Rog (see, it’s not nice or right, is it?) the book is remarkably informative. Sir Roger’s dry wit comes through far more than the aforementioned biog and he has plenty of insights as he breaks down the franchise into various subjects: villain’s girls, gadgets, style etc. There is plenty of tittle-tattle from his time on set, including the odd dig at (unnamed) leading ladies who got a little ahead of themselves.

The only disappointment is his review of the actors to play Bond — it’s all very on-message. The other offering that is top drawer is All About Bond (Evans Mitchell, £29.95), principally a sumptuous collection of Terry O’Neill’s photography during his time as a Bond photographer, broken up by an interesting set of essays. Dylan Jones writes about Bond Street Style; Honor Blackman, Shirley Eaton, Joanna Lumley, Britt Ekland and Maryam d’Abo recount their times as Bond girls, while George Parry writes about Connery and Moore. It is a coffee table book that comes in a smart boxcover, with the only gripe a couple of typographical and factual errors. Sticking with photographic Bond, Greg Williams returns with his fourth photographic film tie-in, Bond On Set: Filming Skyfall (DK, £25). It has been published by Dorling Kindersley, which also has a cracking coffee table book of posters and a boxset of postcards as a natty souvenir (James Bond: 50 Years of Movie Posters, £35; James Bond: 50th Anniversary Postcards, £14.99). Finally, there’s Nigel Cawthorne’s A Brief Guide to James Bond (Robinson, £7.99), which runs through the books and films and it is a functional resource book but has little additional for the true fan.