Amazon Prime

Amazon Prime is a paid subscription service offered by Amazon that gives users access to services that would otherwise be unavailable, or cost extra, to the typical Amazon customer. This includes free two-day delivery, streaming music and video, and other benefits. In April 2018, Amazon reported that Prime had more than 100 million subscribers worldwide.[2] Prime's ability to drive customer spend is often compared to Costco's membership program
History
Early history
In 2005, Amazon announced the creation of Amazon Prime, a membership service offering free two-day shipping within the contiguous United States on all eligible purchases for an annual fee of $79 (equivalent to $101 in 2018),[4] and discounted one-day shipping rates.[5] Amazon launched the program in Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom in 2007; in France (as "Amazon Premium") in 2008, in Italy in 2011, in Canada in 2013,[6] in India in July 2016[7] and in Mexico in March 2017.[8] According to Amazon, there are now Prime members in 17 countries in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.[9]

From 2012 to 2016
Amazon Prime membership in Australia, Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, India and the United States also provides Amazon Video,[10] the instant streaming of selected films and TV programs at no additional cost.[11] In November 2011, it was announced that Prime members had access to the Kindle Owners' Lending Library, which allows users to borrow up to one a month of specified popular Kindle e-books.[12] People with an email address at an academic domain such as .edu or .ac.uk, typically students, are eligible for Prime Student privileges, including discounts on Prime membership.[13]

In March 2014, Amazon increased the annual US membership fee for Amazon Prime from $79 to $99.[4][14] Shortly after this change, Amazon announced Prime Music, providing unlimited, ad-free music streaming.[15] In November 2014, Amazon added Prime Photos, adding unlimited storage of files deemed to be photographs in the users' Amazon Drive.[16][17][18] Amazon began offering free same-day delivery to Prime members in 14 United States metropolitan areas in May 2015.[19]

In April 2015, Amazon started a trial partnership with Audi and DHL in order to deliver directly into the trunks of Audi cars, available in the Munich, Germany area to some Audi-connected car users.[20]

Amazon announced that July 15, 2015, its 20th birthday, would be "Amazon Prime Day", with deals for prime members similar to those on Black Friday.[21] That month Amazon Prime announced[22] signed up Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond, and James May, formerly of BBC's Top Gear, to begin working on The Grand Tour, which was released in 2016. On July 13, 2016, Amazon Prime said customers placed 60 percent more orders worldwide on "Prime Day".[23]

In December 2015, Amazon stated that "tens of millions" of people were Amazon Prime members.[24] Amazon Prime added 3 million members during the third week of December 2015.[25] That month Amazon announced the creation of the Streaming Partners Program,[26] a subscription service that provides Amazon Prime subscribers with additional streaming video services. Among the programming providers involved in the program are Showtime, Starz. Lifetime Movie Club (containing recent original movie titles from Lifetime Television and Lifetime Movie Network), Smithsonian Earth, and Qello Concerts.

2016 onward
In January 2016, Amazon Prime reached 54 million members according to a report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.[27] Several reports in January 2016 said that nearly half of all U.S. households are members of Amazon Prime.[28]

In April 2016, Amazon announced same-day delivery would be expanded to include the areas of Charlotte, Cincinnati, Fresno, Louisville, Milwaukee, Nashville, Central New Jersey, Raleigh, Richmond, Sacramento, Stockton, and Tucson, bringing total coverage to 27 metro areas.[29][30]

In September 2016, Amazon launched a restaurant delivery service for Prime members in London, England, with free delivery on all orders over £15.[31]

In September 2016, Amazon subsidiary Twitch announced features available to users with an Amazon Prime subscription (Twitch Prime), including monthly offers of video games and add-on content, and the ability to purchase a free subscription to a user's channel once per-month.[32][33]

In December 2016, Amazon began offering Prime membership for an alternative monthly, instead of yearly fee, of $10.99 per month,[34] increased to $12.99 in February 2018.[35]

In December 2016, Amazon announced Wickedly Prime, an own-brand line of food and beverages available to Prime members.[36]

Amazon announced , a service that lets customers try on clothes before they pay, in June 2017.[37]

In 2017, Amazon announced the Prime Exclusive Phone program, which offers some smartphones displaying Amazon ads on the lock screen from companies including LG, Motorola and Nokia at a discount.[38]

In May 2018, Amazon increased the annual US Prime membership fee from $99 to $119.[39]

In June 2019, Amazon expanded their one-day delivery with Amazon Prime. Prime Free One Day is available to U.S. members on more than 10 million products with no minimum purchase.[40]

Prime Music
Prime Music is a music streaming service that is most similar to Spotify. It offers a limited library of most songs to Amazon Prime members for free. Amazon offers a separate subscription service called Amazon Music Unlimited which unlocks all other songs not available without a subscription. It costs $7.99 per month for Prime members and $9.99 per month for non-Prime members.

Prime Video
The service debuted on September 7, 2006 as Amazon Unbox in the United States. On September 4, 2008, the service was renamed Amazon Video on Demand. The Unbox name still refers to the local program, which as of August 2014 is no longer available for downloading purchased instant videos. On February 22, 2011, the service rebranded as Amazon Instant Video.

Prime Reading
Beginning in October 2016, Prime members in the U.S. receive access to a rotating set of Kindle e-books through Prime Reading.[41] Some magazines and travel guides are also available through the service.[42] Prime Reading is unrelated to the Kindle Owners Lending Library, Kindle Unlimited, and Kindle First, all of which continue to be available.[43]

Prime Pantry
In April 2014, Amazon began a service for shipping non-perishable grocery store items into a single box for delivery for a fixed fee. The service is available in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, India, Japan, Italy, Spain and France.

For $6, Amazon Prime members can have box of "pantries" delivered to their homes. As people shop, Amazon quantifies the space each item takes up so that people can assess the number of boxes needed before check off and shipping.[citation needed]

Prime Now
In December 2014, Amazon announced that as a benefit to Prime members located in parts of Manhattan and New York City the capability to get products delivered to them within one hour for a fee of $7.99, or within two hours for no additional fee. As of 2014, 25,000 daily essential products were available with this delivery service.[44] In February 2015, the service was extended to include all of Manhattan.[45] By mid-2016, it had been expanded in the United States to include parts of Chicago, Miami, Baltimore,[46] Seattle, Dallas, Atlanta, Austin, Nashville, Portland, San Antonio, and Tampa.[47][48][49] Outside of the United States, it has expanded to parts of the United Kingdom,[50] Italy,[51] Germany,[52] France,[53] Spain,[54] Japan,[55] and Singapore.[56] To meet the on-demand needs of Prime Now, Amazon further launched Amazon Flex, a platform for independent contractors to provide delivery services.[57]

Amazon Key
In-Home
In October 2017, Amazon.com added an option for Prime members to get in-home deliveries by its Amazon Flex contractors, who gain entry using a one-time code.[58] The service, Amazon Key, became available for customers residing in 37 United States metro areas in April 2018.[59][60] As of 2018 the service required a Kwikset or Yale smart lock and a special version of Amazon's Cloud Cam security camera.[61]

Customers are given a time window of four hours for the package to be delivered. Once the courier opens the door, the Cloud Cam records a clip until the door is locked, which is sent to the customer's smartphone.[62] Participants in the service can also use the Amazon Key companion app for iOS and Android to lock and unlock the door, monitor the camera, and issue virtual keys.[63]

A month after the service was launched, a security expert found a flaw, since patched, in the system which would freeze the camera and stop image transmission.[64]

In-Car
Amazon Key In-Car is a service allowing owners of vehicles with OnStar (that are 2015+ models) or Volvo on Call, to get packages delivered in their vehicle's trunk.[65] The service is available in the same areas as Amazon Key's In-Home delivery, but requires no additional hardware.[66] Customers are provided with a four-hour delivery window.[67] During that time, their vehicle must be located in a publicly accessible area.[68]

In-Garage
At CES 2019, Amazon announced a partnership with the Chamberlain Group, allowing packages to be placed in customers garages with myQ-enabled openers, as part of the Key service.[69]

Prime Air
60 Minutes announced on December 1, 2013 that Amazon Prime Air was a possible future delivery service expected to be in development for several more years. In concept, the process would use drones to deliver small packages (less than five pounds) within 30 minutes by flying short distances (10–20 km) from local Amazon Fulfillment Centers.[70][71] In the United States, the project will require the Federal Aviation Administration to approve commercial use of unmanned drones.[72]

In July 2014, it was revealed the company was developing its 8th and 9th drone prototypes, some that could fly 50 miles an hour and carry 5-pound packages, and had applied to the FAA to test them.[73]

Despite the company's confidence, the project is not yet in flight, and Amazon is awaiting both patents and logistic agreements from the US and UK governments.

Prime Day
On July 15, 2015, in honor of the website's 20th anniversary, Amazon first held Prime Day. The event features a large number of sales and promotions that are exclusively available to Amazon Prime subscribers, with Amazon promoting that the first edition would feature "more deals than Black Friday". The inaugural Prime Day faced criticism over the quality of the discounts offered, with many of them being tied to items not in high demand. Some users jokingly described the event as a "yard sale", and Walmart also countered the event with a promotional blog post arguing that customers "shouldn't have to pay $100 to find great deals". Amazon defended criticism of the event, noting that order volume on the website had "surpassed" Black Friday sales in 2014.[74][75][76][77][78]

The 2018 edition was preceded by a concert event headlined by Ariana Grande, and streamed on Amazon Video and Twitch.[79] The 2019 concert was held on July 10 ahead of Prime Day starting on the 15th, and streamed exclusively for Prime subscribers, featuring Taylor Swift, Dua Lipa, Becky G, and SZA.[80][81][82]

In 2018, Prime Day first became tied to protests of Amazon and employee strikes due to the treatment of workers at its fulfillment centers. Supporters of these actions have urged boycotts of Amazon during Prime Day as solidarity, covering all services provided by the company or its subsidiaries

John Lewis

John Lewis & Partners is a chain of high-end department stores operating throughout the United Kingdom. Concessions are also located in the Republic of Ireland and Australia. The chain is an employee-owned mutual organization known as the John Lewis Partnership. It was created by Spedan Lewis, son of the founder, John Lewis, in 1929. It is currently the largest co-operative in the UK.[3][4] The chain has promised since 1925 that it is "never knowingly undersold" - it will always at least match a lower price offered by a national high street competitor.[5][6]

The first John Lewis store was opened in 1864 in Oxford Street, London, and there are now 51 stores throughout Great Britain. The first John Lewis concession in the Republic of Ireland opened in a Dublin Arnotts store in October 2016. The first Australian John Lewis concession opened in a Sydney Myer store in November 2016.[citation needed].

On 1 January 2008, the Oxford Street store was awarded a Royal Warrant from Queen Elizabeth II as "suppliers of haberdashery and household goods".[7] John Lewis & Partners Reading is also the holder of a Royal Warrant from the Queen in 2007 as suppliers of household and fancy goods.[8]

The John Lewis & Partners Christmas advert was first launched in 2007 and it has since become something of an annual tradition in British culture,[9][10] and one of the signals that the countdown to Christmas has begun in the UK
History
Early history
The flagship store on Oxford Street began as a drapery shop, opened by John Lewis in 1864. In 1905 Lewis acquired a second store, Peter Jones in Sloane Square, London. His eldest son, John Spedan Lewis, began the John Lewis Partnership in 1920 after thinking up the idea during his days in charge of Peter Jones. John Spedan Lewis also thought up the idea of the Gazette, the partnership's in-house magazine, first published in 1918.

In 1933 the partnership purchased its first store outside London, the long established Jessop & Son in Nottingham. Jessops only rebranded itself as John Lewis on 27 October 2002. In 1940 the partnership bought Selfridge Provincial Stores. This group of sixteen suburban and provincial department stores included Cole Brothers, Sheffield; George Henry Lee, Liverpool; Robert Sayle, Cambridge; and Trewin Brothers, Watford; all of which continue to trade today but are now re-branded as John Lewis & Partners.

In 1949, it was reported that London branches included Peter Jones, John Barnes (now a branch of Waitrose & Partners), John Pound and Bon Marche. The "provincial branches" were Robert Sayle, of Cambridge and Peterborough, Tyrrell & Green, of Southampton and Lance & Lance of Weston-super-Mare. They also had "silk shops" at Edinburgh, Hull and Newcastle upon Tyne.[14]

In 1953 the Reading department store Heelas became part of the John Lewis group, retaining its original name until 2001, when it adopted the John Lewis name. Also in 1953, the partnership bought Herbert Parkinson, a textile manufacturer, a business which still makes duvets, pillows and furnishings for John Lewis.[15]

History since 1972
The first John Lewis store constructed as part of a shopping centre was the relocated Jessops, in Nottingham, which has been in the Victoria Centre since it opened in 1972. The announcement of an anchor tenant such as John Lewis contributes to the certainty of developers' proposals, and so attracts other retailers to the area.

Before the relaxation of UK Sunday trading laws in 1994, John Lewis stores closed on Mondays to allow staff a full two-day "weekend".

The John Lewis Partnership were the first department store group in the UK to adopt central buying, launching the 'Jonell(e)' name for own-brand merchandise in 1937. That brand name has gradually been replaced with the 'John Lewis' name since 2001. Additional own brands include Collection by John Lewis as well as John Lewis & Co. and Collection Weekend by John Lewis. Several Waitrose own-brand products, such as cleaning materials and party stationery, are also available from John Lewis.

Many stores acquired by the Partnership retained their original names for many years, including Tyrrell & Green in Southampton until 2000,[16] Bonds in Norwich until 2001, Trewins in Watford until 2001, Jessops in Nottingham (its first store outside London) until 2002,[17] Bainbridge's in Newcastle until 2002, Robert Sayle in Cambridge[18] and Cole Brothers in Sheffield until 2002. All have now been rebranded John Lewis, with the exception of Peter Jones in south west London and Knight & Lee in Southsea.

Investment has been made across the group in the twenty first century. This has included the renovation of Peter Jones at a cost of £107 million, completed in 2004.[19] The original Oxford Street shop is still the flagship and largest branch in the partnership. A complete refurbishment of the building was completed in late 2007 at a cost of £60 million. This introduced the new 'Place To Eat' restaurant and a brasserie and bistro in the store. A 'John Lewis Food Hall from Waitrose' opened in the shop's basement on 3 October 2007. A second Food Hall opened at the John Lewis Bluewater store on 6 August 2009.

On 4 September 2018, John Lewis underwent a major rebrand to become John Lewis & Partners. Waitrose underwent a similar rebrand.[20]

In October 2018, recruitment website Indeed named John Lewis & Partners as the UK's eighth best private sector employer,[21] based on millions of employee ratings and reviews.[22]

Stores
Department stores
As of October 2018, the John Lewis Partnership operated 52 John Lewis stores throughout Great Britain.[23] The Oxford Street store, originally opened in 1864 (rebuilt in 1953 following significant bomb damage in World War II), is the largest operated by the partnership. 35 of the stores are traditional department stores and 12 are 'John Lewis at home' stores.

John Lewis at home
In 2009, John Lewis announced a new format of "John Lewis at home" stores, the first of which opened in Poole in October 2009. The "at home" stores are located within pre-existing shopping regions, and focus on electrical, home and technology products.

The store in Poole opened on 22 October 2009 at the former Courts site at the Commerce Centre retail park in Branksome.

Following the early success of the Poole "at home" store, five further "at homes" opened in 2010/11 in areas outside of the catchment of the traditional John Lewis stores, including Croydon, Tunbridge Wells, Tamworth, Chester and Swindon. Further stores in Newbury and Chichester, West Sussex, opened in the spring of 2012, with Ipswich following in November 2012.[24] On Thursday 17 June 2015, a new John Lewis at home store opened in Horsham, West Sussex along with a branch of Waitrose that relocated from the town centre.[25]

Airport store
In the summer of 2014, John Lewis opened a small store airside in the newly rebuilt Terminal 2 at London Heathrow Airport.[26][27]

Australia and Republic of Ireland
In spring 2016, John Lewis confirmed it planned to enter the Irish market with a concession based in Arnotts Dublin store on Henry Street. It opened in October 2016 with a limited number of John Lewis branded home furnishings.

By February 2017, John Lewis had opened five shop-in-shop branches in Myer department stores in Australia.[28][29] The merchandise focus is on homewares. Manchester (as bedding, linens and towels are called in Australia) is manufactured to Australian bed sizes.
Current department stores
All stores go under 'John Lewis' unless stated otherwise.

Aberdeen (opened 1989)
Birmingham (opened 2015)
Greenhithe, Bluewater (opened 1999)
Brent Cross (opened 1976)
Bristol, Cribbs Causeway (opened 1981)
Cardiff (opened 2009)
Cambridge (acquired 1940 but demolished and redeveloped 2004-2007; previously Robert Sayle)
Cheadle (opened 2000)
Chelmsford (opened 2016)
Cheltenham (opened 2018)
Edinburgh (opened 1973)
Exeter (opened 2012)
Glasgow (opened 1999)
High Wycombe (opened 1988)
Kingston-Upon-Thames (opened 1990)
Leeds (opened 2016)
Leicester (opened 2008)
Liverpool (opened 2008 in current location; originally George Henry Lee; acquired 1940)
London, Oxford Street (opened 1864)
London, Sloane Square (trades as Peter Jones) (acquired 1905)
London, Westfield Stratford (opened 2011)
London, Westfield White City (opened 2018)
Milton Keynes (opened 1979)
Trafford Centre, Manchester (opened 2005)
Newcastle upon Tyne (opened 1976 in current location; originally Bainbridge's; acquired 1952)
Norwich (originally Bonds of Norwich: acquired 1982)
Nottingham (opened 1972 in current location; originally Jessops and Sons; acquired 1933)
Oxford (opened 2017)
Peterborough (opened 1982)
Reading (originally Heelas, acquired 1953)
Sheffield (opened 1963 in current location; originally Cole Brothers; acquired 1940)
Solihull (opened 2001)
Southampton (opened 2000 in current location; originally Tyrrell & Green; acquired 1934)
Watford (originally Trewins Brothers; acquired 1940)
Welwyn (originally Welwyn Department Store, acquired 1983; opened 1984; actually in nearby Welwyn Garden City, not Welwyn itself)
York (opened 2014)
At Home stores
Basingstoke (opened 2015)
Chester (opened 2011)
Chichester (opened 2012)
Croydon (opened 2010)
Horsham (opened 2015)
Ipswich (opened 2012)
Newbury (opened 2012)
Poole (opened 2009)
Swindon (opened 2010)
Tamworth (opened 2011)
Tunbridge Wells (opened 2011)
Other formats
Swindon (outlet; opened 2007)
Hounslow (Heathrow Airport Terminal 2; opened 2014)
St Pancras railway station (opened 2014)

Jolyon Maugham

Jolyon Toby Dennis Maugham QC (born 1 July 1971)[1] is a British barrister, as of 2019 practising in tax law at Devereux Chambers.[2] He is the founder and director of the Good Law Project, through which he has played a key role in bringing to court a number of legal challenges to the Brexit process, which he opposes
Early life
He is the son of David Benedictus, although they did not meet until Maugham was 17, and he was brought up by his mother, Lynne Joyce Maugham, and his adoptive father Alan Barker in New Zealand.[1][4][5]

Education
He was schooled at Wellington High School, New Zealand.[1] He graduated with a first-class LLB in European Legal Studies from Durham University (Hatfield College) in 1995.[6] He also spent some time studying in Belgium at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, and later completed an MA at Birkbeck, University of London.[2] As a student he was sent by a temping agency to carry out secretarial work at a law firm, but was sent back for being a man. Maugham sued, claiming to be a victim of sexism, and was awarded damages.[7]

Career
Maugham completed his pupillage in the chambers of Lord Irvine.[7] He became a QC in 2015.[2] He is not a member of any political party, but previously advised the Labour Party on tax policy under Ed Miliband.[8] Maugham sits on the advisory council of liberal conservative think tank Bright Blue, which advises Conservative Party policy.[9]

In September 2019, Maugham revealed that the Mail on Sunday was going to publish the name of his postal address at a time when he received death threats. Since then he received thousands of messages of support. The next day, he criticised right wing journalist and talkRADIO presenter Julia Hartley-Brewer for 'doxxing' him. In October, he also criticised debate programme Question Time for having Hartley-Brewer on the show, which was in Beckenham, south London. Thousands of complaints have since been filed to the BBC. There have also been calls to boycott Question Time for their decision to have her on the show.

On Boxing Day 2019, Maugham claimed in an early morning Twitter post that he had bludgeoned a fox to death with a baseball bat. The fox had apparently got caught in chicken wire near a hen coop in his garden. The Tweet was reported by other Twitter users to the RSPCA who encouraged any witnesses to come forward.[10][11]

Legal challenges to Brexit
Maugham's cases include defending the rights of British expatriates in Europe,[12][13] a case to clarify whether the Brexit process can be reversed by Parliament,[14] and a legal challenge to referendum spending by Vote Leave.[15][16] In April 2017 Maugham contemplated a new centrist political party, "Spring The Party",[17] and standing for election against Prime Minister Theresa May in her constituency of Maidenhead,[18] but decided against it

جيمس بوند

جيمس بوند (بالإنجليزية: James Bond)(يعرف أيضا بالعميل 007) شخصية خيالية لجاسوس بريطاني أبدعها المؤلف إيان فلمنغ Ian Fleming في عام 1953 عبر أول رواية كازينو رويال. كتب فلمنغ عدة روايات وقصص قصيرة من بطولة بوند خلال حياته حتى مماته في 1964. ثم تابع التأليف الأدبي لروايات ومغامرات بوند كلا من كينغسلي أميس Kingsley Amis (الاسم المستعار روبرت مارخام)، جون بيرسون، جون غاردنر، ريموند بينسن وتشارلي هيغسون. إضافة لعدة كتاب كتبوا مغامرات بوند للإنتاج السينمائي مثل كريستوفر وود.

إلا ان شهرة بوند الحقيقية تحققت بشكل أساسي عن طريق السينما من خلال أربعة و عشرين فيلما من إنتاج إي أو إن برودكشنز EON Productions بالإضافة لإنتاجين سينمائيين مستقلين ومسلسل أمريكي مستمد من روابات فلمنغ.
ابتكار الشخصية
بسبب عمل المؤلف فعليا في جهاز المخابرات البريطانية في فترة من حياته جعله يعشق العمل المخابراتي مما حد به إلى كتابة رواية مليئة بالاكشن لبطل بريطاني اطلق عليه اسم (جيمس بوند) ويبدوا ان القصة قد راقت للملايين فراح يكمل السلسلة بعدد من المغامرات التي تحبس الأنفاس للشخصية. و قد اقتبس (فيلمنج) الاسم من كتاب يدعى (طيور جاميكا).

ممثلي الشخصية
حتى الآن تعاقب على أداء شخصية بوند سبعة ممثلين في السلسلة الرسمية لجيمس بوند :

باري نيلسون Barry Nelson بدأ 1954
شون كونري Sean Connery أعوام 1962–1967; 1983,1971
جورج لازينبي George Lazenbyعام (1969)
روجر مور Roger Moore أعوام (1973–1985)
تيموثي دالتون Timothy Dalton أعوام (1987–1989)
بيرس بروسنان Pierce Brosnan أعوام (1995–2002)
دانييل كريغ Daniel Craig أعوام (2006– حتى اليوم)
افلام جيمس بوند
Dr. No
From Russia With Love
Goldfinger
Thunderball
You Only Live Twice
On Her Majesty's Secret Service
Diamonds Are Forever
Live and Let Die
The Man with the Golden Gun
The Spy Who Loved Me
Moonraker
For Your Eyes Only
Octopussy
Never Say Never Again
A View to a Kill
The Living Daylights
Licence to Kill
GoldenEye
Tomorrow Never Dies
The World is Not Enough
Die Another Day
Casino Royale
Quantum of Solace
Skyfall
Spectre
ألعاب الفيديو
James bond Goldeneye
James bond quantum of solace
James bond bloodstone
Nightfire: James Bond 007
العين الذهبية 007 (لعبة فيديو 2010)

James Bond

The James Bond series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have written authorised Bond novels or novelizations: Kingsley Amis, Christopher Wood, John Gardner, Raymond Benson, Sebastian Faulks, Jeffery Deaver, William Boyd and Anthony Horowitz. The latest novel is Forever and a Day by Anthony Horowitz, published in May 2018. Additionally Charlie Higson wrote a series on a young James Bond, and Kate Westbrook wrote three novels based on the diaries of a recurring series character, Moneypenny.

The character has also been adapted for television, radio, comic strip, video games and film. The films are the longest continually running film series of all time and have grossed over $7.040 billion in total, making it the sixth-highest-grossing film series to date, which started in 1962 with Dr. No, starring Sean Connery as Bond. As of 2019, there have been twenty-four films in the Eon Productions series. The most recent Bond film, Spectre (2015), stars Daniel Craig in his fourth portrayal of Bond; he is the sixth actor to play Bond in the Eon series. There have also been two independent productions of Bond films: Casino Royale (a 1967 spoof) and Never Say Never Again (a 1983 remake of an earlier Eon-produced film, Thunderball). In 2015 the series was estimated to be worth $19.9 billion,[1] making James Bond one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time.

The Bond films are renowned for a number of features, including the musical accompaniment, with the theme songs having received Academy Award nominations on several occasions, and two wins. Other important elements which run through most of the films include Bond's cars, his guns, and the gadgets with which he is supplied by Q Branch. The films are also noted for Bond's relationships with various women, who are sometimes referred to as "Bond girls".
Ian Fleming created the fictional character of James Bond as the central figure for his works. Bond is an intelligence officer in the Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6. Bond is known by his code number, 007, and was a Royal Naval Reserve Commander. Fleming based his fictional creation on a number of individuals he came across during his time in the Naval Intelligence Division and 30 Assault Unit during the Second World War, admitting that Bond "was a compound of all the secret agents and commando types I met during the war".[2] Among those types were his brother, Peter, who had been involved in behind-the-lines operations in Norway and Greece during the war.[3] Aside from Fleming's brother, a number of others also provided some aspects of Bond's make up, including Conrad O'Brien-ffrench, Patrick Dalzel-Job and Bill "Biffy" Dunderdale.[2]

The name James Bond came from that of the American ornithologist James Bond, a Caribbean bird expert and author of the definitive field guide Birds of the West Indies. Fleming, a keen birdwatcher himself, had a copy of Bond's guide and he later explained to the ornithologist's wife that "It struck me that this brief, unromantic, Anglo-Saxon and yet very masculine name was just what I needed, and so a second James Bond was born".[4] He further explained that:

When I wrote the first one in 1953, I wanted Bond to be an extremely dull, uninteresting man to whom things happened; I wanted him to be a blunt instrument ... when I was casting around for a name for my protagonist I thought by God, [James Bond] is the dullest name I ever heard.

— Ian Fleming, The New Yorker, 21 April 1962[5]
On another occasion, Fleming said: "I wanted the simplest, dullest, plainest-sounding name I could find, 'James Bond' was much better than something more interesting, like 'Peregrine Carruthers'. Exotic things would happen to and around him, but he would be a neutral figure—an anonymous, blunt instrument wielded by a government department.
Fleming decided that Bond should resemble both American singer Hoagy Carmichael and himself[7] and in Casino Royale, Vesper Lynd remarks, "Bond reminds me rather of Hoagy Carmichael, but there is something cold and ruthless." Likewise, in Moonraker, Special Branch Officer Gala Brand thinks that Bond is "certainly good-looking ... Rather like Hoagy Carmichael in a way. That black hair falling down over the right eyebrow. Much the same bones. But there was something a bit cruel in the mouth, and the eyes were cold."[7]

Fleming endowed Bond with many of his own traits, including sharing the same golf handicap, the taste for scrambled eggs and using the same brand of toiletries.[8] Bond's tastes are also often taken from Fleming's own as was his behaviour,[9] with Bond's love of golf and gambling mirroring Fleming's own. Fleming used his experiences of his espionage career and all other aspects of his life as inspiration when writing, including using names of school friends, acquaintances, relatives and lovers throughout his books.[2]

It was not until the penultimate novel, You Only Live Twice, that Fleming gave Bond a sense of family background. The book was the first to be written after the release of Dr. No in cinemas and Sean Connery's depiction of Bond affected Fleming's interpretation of the character, to give Bond both a sense of humour and Scottish antecedents that were not present in the previous stories.[10] In a fictional obituary, purportedly published in The Times, Bond's parents were given as Andrew Bond, from the village of Glencoe, Scotland, and Monique Delacroix, from the canton of Vaud, Switzerland.[11] Fleming did not provide Bond's date of birth, but John Pearson's fictional biography of Bond, James Bond: The Authorized Biography of 007, gives Bond a birth date on 11 November 1920,[12] while a study by John Griswold puts the date at 11 November 1921.[13]

Novels and related works
Whilst serving in the Naval Intelligence Division, Fleming had planned to become an author[15] and had told a friend, "I am going to write the spy story to end all spy stories."[2] On 17 February 1952, he began writing his first James Bond novel, Casino Royale, at his Goldeneye estate in Jamaica,[16] where he wrote all his Bond novels during the months of January and February each year.[17] He started the story shortly before his wedding to his pregnant girlfriend, Ann Charteris, in order to distract himself from his forthcoming nuptials.[18]

After completing the manuscript for Casino Royale, Fleming showed it to his friend (and later editor) William Plomer to read. Plomer liked it and submitted it to the publishers, Jonathan Cape, who did not like it as much. Cape finally published it in 1953 on the recommendation of Fleming's older brother Peter, an established travel writer.[17] Between 1953 and 1966, two years after his death, twelve novels and two short-story collections were published, with the last two books – The Man with the Golden Gun and Octopussy and The Living Daylights – published posthumously.[19] All the books were published in the UK through Jonathan Cape.

مارجو روبي

مارجو روبي (بالإنجليزية: Margot Robbie) مواليد 2 يوليو 1990 في كوينزلاند، أستراليا، هي ممثلة أسترالية بدأت مسيرتها الفنية عام 2007.
الأعمال
أفلام
حان الوقت
ذئب وول ستريت
التركيز
أسطورة طرزان
الفرقة الانتحارية
أنا، تونيا
ويسكي تانغو فوكستورت
الأرنب بيتر
مفاجأة مذهلة

Margot Robbie

Margot Elise Robbie (/ˈmɑːrɡoʊ ˈrɒbi/ MAR-goh ROB-ee; born 2 July 1990)[1][2][3] is an Australian actress and film producer. She has received nominations for an Academy Award and three BAFTA Awards. In 2017, Time magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and in 2019, she was ranked among the world's highest-paid actresses.

Born and raised on a farm in Dalby, Queensland, Robbie studied drama at Somerset College. She began her career in Australian independent films in the late 2000s, before working in the soap opera Neighbours (2008–2011), which earned her two Logie Award nominations. After moving to America, she starred in the ABC drama series Pan Am (2011–2012). In 2013, she had a supporting role in the romantic comedy About Time and made her breakthrough by co-starring in Martin Scorsese's black comedy The Wolf of Wall Street. Robbie launched a production company named LuckyChap Entertainment in 2014.

Robbie's profile continued to grow with starring roles as a grifter in Focus (2015), Jane Porter in The Legend of Tarzan (2016), and Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad (2016). She gained critical acclaim for portraying the disgraced figure skater Tonya Harding in the biopic I, Tonya (2017), Queen Elizabeth I in the period drama Mary Queen of Scots (2018), Sharon Tate in the comedy-drama Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019), and a victim of sexual harassment in the drama Bombshell (2019). For the formermost, which she also produced, she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Early life
Margot Elise Robbie was born in Dalby, Queensland, and grew up in the Gold Coast hinterland.[4] Her parents are Sarie Kessler, a physiotherapist, and Doug Robbie, a former farm owner.[5][2][6] She has three siblings: brothers Lachlan and Cameron; and a sister, Anya.[6][7][8] Robbie grew up on a farm,[9] where she and her siblings were raised by their single mother; she has minimal contact with her father.[5][10] To make ends meet, Robbie worked three jobs simultaneously at the age of 16.[5] She studied drama at school,[5] graduating at Somerset College.[11] At the age of 17, Robbie moved to Melbourne to begin acting professionally.[12][13]

Career
2007–2012: Career beginnings and Neighbours
Robbie has been acting professionally since 2007, when she starred in the films ICU and Vigilante. After impressing the director with her performance during an audition, she won the lead in I.C.U. without an agent at the time.[1] Robbie also acted in commercials and had guest roles in The Elephant Princess as Juliet and City Homicide as Caitlin Brentford.[14][15] Robbie began appearing as Donna Freedman on Neighbours from June 2008.[1] The character was originally only a guest role, but she was soon promoted to a regular cast member.[16] In an interview with Digital Spy, Robbie said she had gone on a snowboarding holiday to Canada with her boyfriend soon after auditioning, but had to return after only two days when told that she had won the role.[17]

In early 2009, Robbie appeared in various Network Ten promotions, featuring an ensemble of popular Australian faces on the network. In July 2009, she filled the "Generation Y" guest spot on the Network Ten show Talkin' 'Bout Your Generation. Robbie also became a youth ambassador for missing persons as part of National Youth Week.[18] In the same year, Robbie was nominated for Most Popular New Female Talent at the Australian Logie Awards.[19] She was also nominated for Favorite Hottie at the Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards and was up against her Neighbours co-star Dean Geyer.[20] In September 2010, Robbie announced that she was to leave Neighbours after almost three years to pursue an acting career in Hollywood.[21] Her final scenes aired on 26 January 2011 and in April of that year, Robbie was nominated for Most Popular Actress at the Logie Awards.[22]

After arriving in Los Angeles for pilot season, Robbie auditioned for the new series of Charlie's Angels.[23] However, the producers at Sony Pictures Television preferred her for a role in ABC drama series Pan Am alongside Christina Ricci.[23] Robbie landed the role of Laura Cameron, a newly trained flight attendant.[24] Pan Am was cancelled after one season due to falling ratings, despite receiving positive reviews from critics.[25]

2013–2016: International recognition
Robbie joined the cast of Richard Curtis' romantic comedy About Time (2013) alongside Domhnall Gleeson, Rachel McAdams and Bill Nighy.[25] About Time was released in the United Kingdom on 4 September 2013 and in the United States on 1 November 2013.[26] The film received positive reviews[27] and grossed $87 million on its $12 million budget.[28] Robbie was next cast in the role of Naomi Belfort, the wife of the film's protagonist Jordan Belfort in Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) with Leonardo DiCaprio and Jonah Hill.[29][30] Garnering positive reviews it became a commercial success with a worldwide gross of $392 million, making it Scorsese's highest-grossing film.[31] The film was subsequently nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture.[32] For her performance as Jordan Belfort's second wife Naomi Lapaglia, Robbie was praised by critics for her Brooklyn accent.[33] Critic Sasha Stone wrote "She's Scorsese's best blonde bombshell discovery since Cathy Moriarty in Raging Bull. Robbie is funny, hard and kills every scene she's in".[34] She received a nomination for the MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance[35] and won the Empire Award for Best Newcomer.[36] In 2014, Robbie founded her own production company, LuckyChap Entertainment
In 2015, Robbie starred opposite Will Smith in the romantic comedy-drama film Focus. In the film, she plays an inexperienced grifter learning the craft from Smith's character.[38] The film was released on 27 February 2015 to generally mixed reviews.[39] However, Robbie's performance was praised. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone wrote "Robbie is a wow and then some. The Aussie actress who made us sit up and take notice as Leonardo DiCaprio's wife in The Wolf of Wall Street shows a comic flair backed up with beauty and steel. Even when Focus fumbles, Robbie deals a winning hand."[40] Focus grossed over $150 million worldwide.[41][42] In 2015, Robbie received a nomination for the BAFTA Rising Star Award.[43] Also in 2015, Robbie played the leading role of Ann Burden in the film adaptation of Z for Zachariah with Chris Pine and Chiwetel Ejiofor, which was shot in New Zealand.[44][45] The film premiered on 24 January 2015 at the Sundance Film Festival[46] and had its theatrical release on 28 August 2015, receiving positive reviews.[47][48] Robbie's performance was praised by critics. Drew McWeeny of HitFix wrote "Robbie's work here establishes her as one of the very best actresses in her age range today".[49]

Robbie appeared in a documentary special celebrating Neighbours' 30th anniversary titled Neighbours 30th: The Stars Reunite, which aired in Australia and the UK in March 2015.[50][51] She also appeared in Suite Française (2015) alongside Michelle Williams, Kristin Scott Thomas and Matthias Schoenaerts, an adaptation of Irène Némirovsky's novel.[52] The film received positive reviews.[53] Robbie made a cameo appearance in Adam McKay's comedy-drama The Big Short, released on 11 December 2015.[54]

Robbie co-starred with Tina Fey in Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, a film adaptation of The Taliban Shuffle.[55] She plays Tanya Vanderpoel, a British TV journalist.[56] The film also stars Martin Freeman and Alfred Molina[57] and was released on 4 March 2016 by Paramount Pictures.[58][59] Later that year, Robbie starred as Jane Porter in David Yates's The Legend of Tarzan, opposite Alexander Skarsgård, Samuel L. Jackson and Christoph Waltz. The film was released on 1 July.[44][60]

Robbie's third 2016 role was Harley Quinn in Warner Bros.' DC Comics supervillain film Suicide Squad,[61][62] as part of an ensemble cast that includes Will Smith, Jared Leto, Viola Davis and Joel Kinnaman. Principal photography commenced on 13 April 2015,[63] and the film was released on 5 August 2016.[64] Robbie hosted the season 42 premiere of Saturday Night Live on 1 October 2016, with musical guest The Weeknd.[65] She was scheduled to voice a character in the DreamWorks Animation Larrikins,[66] before the project was cancelled.[67]

2017–present: I, Tonya and beyond
In 2017, Robbie starred alongside Domhnall Gleeson in Goodbye Christopher Robin as Daphne de Sélincourt, wife of author A. A. Milne.[68][69] She next portrayed the American figure skater Tonya Harding in I, Tonya, written by Steven Rogers and directed by Craig Gillespie.[70][71] Reviewing the film for The Boston Globe, Ty Burr wrote, "Robbie is taller, bigger than the tiny, fierce Harding, but she gets the athlete's forward drive, and the anger that seemed to fuel the dynamo, and when life hands Tonya lemons, Robbie sets her jaw and bears down."[72] For her portrayal of Harding, Robbie was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical[73] and the Academy Award for Best Actress.[74] She was the first actress nominated for an Academy Award for playing a real-life athlete.[75] That year, Time magazine named her as one of the 100 most influential people in the world, and Forbes featured her on its 30 Under 30 list
In 2018, Robbie voiced the character of Flopsy Rabbit in the animated/live-action film Peter Rabbit, an adaptation of the Beatrix Potter book series.[78] She then starred in Vaughn Stein's thriller film Terminal as Annie.[79] She then made a cameo appearance as Audrey in Slaughterhouse Rulez,[80] and portrayed Queen Elizabeth I in Mary Queen of Scots, opposite Saoirse Ronan as Mary Stuart.[81] David Sims of The Atlantic dismissed the latter film as a "tawdry soap opera" but wrote that "with her little screen time, [Robbie] still manages to convey a real sense of resentment over Mary's status as a more traditional queen".[82] She received BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild nominations for Best Supporting Actress.[83][84]

Robbie began 2019 by starring as a femme fatale in Dreamland, a period crime thriller set during the 1930s Dust Bowl, which she also produced.[85] She next agreed to portray the actress Sharon Tate in Quentin Tarantino's comedy-drama Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, due to her desire to work with Tarantino. To prepare, she read the autobiography Roman by Polanski, by Roman Polanski, who was married to Tate.[86][87] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian wrote that despite a lack of female roles in the film, "Robbie gives a sympathetic portrayal of Tate", and Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph considered a sequence in which Tate watches her own performance in a cinema to be the film's "most delightful" scene.[88][89] She also served as an executive producer on the Hulu comedy series Dollface.[90] That year, Forbes ranked her as the eighth highest-paid actress in the world, with an annual income of $23.5 million, and The Hollywood Reporter listed her among the 100 most powerful people in entertainment.[91][92]

Robbie played Kayla Pospisil, a composite character based on several Fox News employees, in the drama Bombshell, which centres on the stories of various female personnel at the news network and their altercations with Roger Ailes.[93] Taking particular note of an "excruciating scene" in which her character is sexually harassed, Owen Gleiberman of Variety credited the actress for "let[ting] us feel the pressure-cooker agony of what’s going on inside her".[94] Manohla Dargis of The New York Times also opined that "it is Robbie — with her panicked, darting eyes and tensely resistant, then capitulating physicality — who conveys the horror of sexual harassment".[95] She received nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress, Screen Actors Guild and Critics Choice Awards.[96][97][98]

Upcoming projects
Robbie will next reprise her role as Harley Quinn in various projects, including Birds of Prey.[99] She will also reprise her voice role of Flopsy Rabbit in Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway.[100] Robbie has committed to star in and produce an adaptation of Matt Ruff's thriller novel Bad Monkeys, and to star as Maid Marian in an upcoming biopic.[101][102] She will also feature in Justin Kurzel's war thriller Ruin and in a live-action Barbie film.[103][104] Robbie will produce the drama thriller film Promising Young Woman, directed by Emerald Fennell.[105]

Personal life and other work
Robbie met British assistant director Tom Ackerley on the set of Suite Française in 2014,[5] and in December 2016, they married in a private ceremony in Byron Bay.[106][78] She and Ackerley previously lived in London with five other friends in a three-bedroom house.[107] They have since moved to Los Angeles.[108]

In May 2016, Calvin Klein announced Robbie would be the face of its Deep Euphoria fragrance.[109] In 2017, Robbie appeared in a commercial promoting Nissan electric vehicles.[110] In February 2018, Robbie was announced as an ambassador for the luxury fashion brand Chanel.[111] She was the last brand ambassador picked by Karl Lagerfeld before his death in February 2019.[112] Robbie later became the face of the company's fragrance Chanel Gabrielle Chanel Essence.[112] She was ranked as one of the best dressed women in 2018 by fashion website Net-a-Porter.[113]