LONDON:

Sean Connery will offer the first public glimpse of his memoirs at this year’s Edinburgh Book Festival, organisers announced.

The first — and, many say, the best — actor to play 007 on the big screen, Connery is a vocal supporter of the pro-independence Scottish National Party. He lives in the Bahamas and has said he will not reside in Scotland until it gains independence from the United Kingdom.

In a six-decade career, the former Edinburgh milkman also starred in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Hunt for Red October and The Untouchables, which earned him an Academy Award for best supporting actor.

“This book has gone through more permutations than James Bond has had ‘shaken not stirred’ martinis — different co-writers, different publishers,” festival director Catherine Lockerbie said.

She said the memoir, written with Scottish filmmaker Murray Grigor, would share Connery’s views on “many aspects of Scottish culture and life, including sport, architecture and, of course, the gothic tendency in Scots literature.”