He left school aged 16 for his first job as a studio boy at advertising agency George Street & Company in the City of London.

His most distinctive artistic legacy lies in the book jackets he designed for UK publishers, David Bruce and Watson, Hutchinson and Jonathan Cape.

They also show his attention to how the book’s spine appears on the shelf with his jacket art often extending on to the back cover.

Bill was asked to follow the style of Richard Chopping, designer of the original Fleming novels such as From Russia with Love (1957) and The Man with the Golden Gun (1965).

When Christopher Wood’s novelisation of the screenplay for James Bond, The Spy Who Love Me (1977) was published by Jonathan Cape, Botten broke free of that earlier genre and produced a large oil painting which referenced the Pre-Raphaelite style.