I came across this book in the week that Boris Johnson became the UK's prime minister. He was making speeches about energy, optimism and enthusiasm, resonating with the book's subtitle, Technological Enthusiasm. It seemed that the zeitgeist might be changing back to the Victorian approval of Samuel Smiles's biographies in which creative engineers starved in a garret before their enthusiasm led to success. Maybe the role of individuals was going to be back in fashion.

It was not to be. Johnson's optimism died out. Millard's book is not about enthusiastic inventors of gadgets. It is about the enthusiastic receipt of new technology. In particular, the technology of the gadgets that appear with James Bond.

For historians, the most interesting feature of this book is that it offers a new method for the study of change. It was 1953 when James Bond first appeared in Ian Fleming's novel Casino Royale. Since then there were more novels and then the films, with the second Casino Royale film appearing in 2006. The technologies used both by Bond and by the villains who threaten the world change even though the plots remain roughly the same.

As an example, there is a famous scene in Goldfinger with Bond strapped to a table and a cutting device slowly advancing between his legs. In the original book, the cutting is done by a circular saw; in the film a laser is used to cut the table and threaten Bond.

The films are often slightly ahead of reality. The laser cutting the table is an illusion created by a light beam with a saw hidden underneath the table. Bond uses ‘smart phones’ before they existed. Sometimes, this drifts into science fiction, as with the car that turns invisible at the touch of a switch. This happens in Die Another Day but comes with an attempted explanation. It evolved out of camouflage research and relies on the transfer of an image from one side of the car to the other, creating a ‘see-through’ illusion.

It is not just gadgets that have changed since 1953. The role of women could be studied from doll to air pilot or to the evil Rosa Klebb with the spring-loaded poison dagger in her shoe. The nature of the bad guys and the threat posed by their technology have changed, reflecting changes in the worries of different generations. However, those interested in looking at social change through the Bond stories are recommended to look at a collection of studies edited by Christopher Lidner (The James Bond Phenomenon, 2003).

Millard's book has some fascinating detail about the production side of the films. He also describes the nature of the British secret service and its slowness in adapting new technology. Apparently, interviews were still being recorded on acetate discs when Bond had moved on to electronics. Equipping James Bond would make an interesting present for those relatives and friends who seem to have everything and are above a certain age.