Some of the works containing appearances by Ian Fleming When he came to write the James Bond books, Ian Fleming frequently named his characters after his friends and acquaintances, and sometimes even gave the people he knew walk-on parts. In On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1963), for example, Irma Bunt points out to Bond the presence, in Piz Gloria's restaurant, of Lady Daphne Straight, an old girlfriend of Fleming's, and her husband Whitney, as well as Ursula Andress, fresh from her appearance in the film of Dr No (1962). Ian Fleming was not alone in this habit, and, even befor ..read more

May saw the publication by Queen Anne Press of John Pearson's Ian Fleming - The Notes, literally a volume of the notes that John Pearson wrote up after his interviews while preparing his biography of Ian Fleming, published in 1966. John Pearson has called it a book about writing a book, but it is more than that. Packed with candid reflections by those who knew Ian Fleming that didn't necessarily appear in the biography, as well as John Pearson's initial thoughts and queries, the book is, in essence, the reading between the lines.  The book is a perfect companion to the 1966 biography, a ..read more

Back in 2013, during the 40th anniversary of the release of Live and Let Die (1973), I trawled through the archives of the Gleaner, probably Jamaica's best-known newspaper which James Bond reads from time to time in the novels, to find out how the newspaper covered the filming of Roger Moore's first Bond film, much of which was set on the island.  The previous year, I delved into the Gleaner's archives to find out how the paper covered the filming of Sean Connery's first outing as Bond, Dr No (1962).   Last year, Eon Productions returned to Jamaica to begin filming on Daniel Craig ..read more

This Easter, my thoughts turn to one man - James Bond and the part that a 'suberb green-gold Imperial Easter egg by Carl Fabergé' played in the film of Octopussy (1983). The egg and the auction in which it (or, rather, a fake) is sold are, of course, taken from Ian Fleming's short story, 'The Property of a Lady'.  Writing the story, Fleming turned to Kenneth Snowman's The Art of Carl Fabergé for inspiration and information. There is a reference to the book itself, and Fleming mentions a miniature terrestrial globe that is described in Snowman's volume on plate 249 (not plate 280 as Flemi ..read more

Back in 2015, I explored the possible inspirations for the fictional seaside resort of Royale-les-Eaux, introduced in the first James Bond novel, Casino Royale (1953) and revisited in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1963). I noted that the location had shifted between novels, being first on the Côte Picarde on the south side of the Somme estuary before moving north to the Côte d'Opale in Pas-de-Calais. A trip last year to explore the French locations in Goldfinger (1959) took me first to Le Touquet, from where James Bond begins his pursuit of the gold-obsessed villain. The idea that Royale-l ..read more

Ian Fleming seems an unlikely champion of animal rights, but the evidence is there in his writing. That he was an animal-lover is clear from his heartfelt descriptions of animals, particularly birds and fish, in his James Bond novels. Scotland's red deer were also close to his heart.  Red deer hind (image: Charles J Sharp / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)) In his 'Atticus' column, published in the Sunday Times on 7th November 1954, Ian Fleming lamented the cruel and unnecessary killing of deer during the winter months, when the onset of snows forced the animals to low ..read more

Books in which the authors talk to people about James Bond are like buses. You wait ages for one, then two show up at once. The first to arrive, slightly ahead of the second, is The Many Lives of James Bond: How the Creators of 007 Have Decoded the Superspy, by Mark Edlitz. The second is Nobody Does it Better: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of James Bond, by Mark A Altman and Edward Gross. Mark Edlitz’s book is the slimmer of the two, but is no less interesting or insightful. The book contains interviews conducted by the author with individuals who in one way or anot ..read more

Hear the words ‘America First’, ‘fake news’ and ‘agents of influence’, we would probably think of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign slogan, the pernicious spread of disinformation via traditional news outlets and social media, and Russian interference in the US presidential election. To Ian Fleming, these phrases would have meant one thing – the British campaign, led by William Stephenson, to bring the United States into the Second World. In his new book, Henry Hemming reveals the full story of MI6’s head of station in New York and his audacious campaign, which till now has only partially ..read more

During the summer, I went on an epic road-trip and retraced James Bond’s route in pursuit of Goldfinger from Le Touquet on the north coast of France to Geneva in Switzerland, as described in Ian Fleming’s 1959 novel.  For just a few days I became Bond as I followed the same roads, drove through the same towns and villages, stopped at the same hotels and ate the same food mentioned in the novel. Along the way, I re-discovered a France before the construction of the motorway network and sights and places away from the usual tourist routes.  An article about my journey has just been published ..read more

Another titbit from the Sunday Times's Atticus archive: in July 1954, Ian Fleming wrote about a Madame Rybkin, a forbidding figure in Russian Intelligence who held the rank of colonel and, Fleming claims, was the most powerful woman in the world of espionage. Sounds familiar?— Edward Biddulph (@bondmemes) September 23, 2019 In From Russia, With Love (1957), Rosa Klebb holds the rank of colonel and is 'one of the most powerful women in the [Soviet] state, and certainly the most feared'.— Edward Biddulph (@bondmemes) September 23, 2019 Interestingly, Fleming links Colonel Rybkin to the Khok ..read more