Article by Edward Biddulph Fleming is famous the world over for his writing, and there is increasing appreciation of his experiences during the Second World War. Fleming’s interest in books, however, is not so widely known, despite his listing of ‘first edition collecting’ under ‘Recreations’ in Who’s Who, and his founding of The Book Collector…
Talk of the Devil is a collection of rarely-seen journalism and other writing by Ian Fleming. It belongs to a special edition of his complete works published in 2008 by Queen Anne Press to commemorate the centenary of his birth. The edition is intended to celebrate Fleming not only as the creator of Bond but as…
Ian Fleming at times, had as many slings and arrows as his creation had to deal with and the debate about the severity of these flaws still rages on today. Here was Fleming’s take on Bond from the Thunderball blurb: “Bond is not a hero, nor is he depicted as being very likable or admirable. He is…
7:30am – Get up with the birds, bathe in the ocean before breakfast. Come back for a proper breakfast with scrambled eggs and sit in the garden until 10am. 10am – Sit in the bedroom and type 1500 words without looking back. 12:15pm – Snorkle in the baylooking for lobsters, come back and have a couple of…
Of these once best-selling volumes of action pulp, “Dr. No,” “Live and Let Die,” “The Man With the Golden Gun” and the short story “Octopussy” are largely or partly set in Jamaica. Strawberry Hill is an 18th-century coffee plantation turned resort owned by Chris Blackwell, the founder of Island Records. A Jamaican native, Mr. Blackwell…
Fleming had been planning to write a 15th 007 novel, to follow “The Man With The Golden Gun” and he sought assistance from his old friend Geoffrey Jenkins who would be able to advise Fleming about the setting for his latest novel: South Africa. Of the author, Fleming once said: “Geoffrey Jenkins has the supreme…
In 1960 Fleming was commissioned by the Kuwait Oil Company to write a book on the country and its oil industry. The Kuwaiti Government disapproved of the typescript, State of Excitement: Impressions of Kuwait, and it was never published. According to Fleming: “The Oil Company expressed approval of the book but felt it their duty to submit the…
The late Christopher Hitchens was one of Britain’s most revered, influential, antagonistic, polarizing, brilliant, erudite, eloquent, intelligent and entertaining writers. If you have not read any of his books and articles or watched him speak interviews and discussions, then it’s time you started. Much like his comrade the late, great Kingsley Amis, Hitchens was a…
In June 1955 Raymond Chandler was visiting the poet Stephen Spender in London when he was introduced to Ian Fleming; Fleming subsequently sent Chandler a copy of Live and Let Die. He loved the book and offered to endorse it, which he often refused to do in the United States. Chandler wrote to Fleming with his endorsement: “Ian Fleming is probably…
Christopher Lee‘s association with Bond goes beyond Francisco Scaramanga from his role in The Man With The Golden Gun. Lee was in fact step-cousin to Ian Fleming and knew each other fairly well. His mother, Evelyn, then married Harcourt George St Croix Rose, a banker and uncle of Ian Fleming. Lee’s military past was just as…
After finishing the first draft of Casino Royale, Ian Fleming rewarded himself with a Royal Quiet Deluxe Portable gold-plated typewriter. Fleming bought the gold-plated version from a New York dealer in 1952 as a trophy and wrote to his friend Ivar Bryce in New York asking him to bring the typewriter over on his next trip…
Ian Fleming had many homes from home but none more so than at his great friend’s farm in southern Vermont. He used to visit his friend Ivar Bryce at Black Hole Hollow Farm right on the border between New York and Vermont. Fleming’s first visit to Vermont was to visit Bryce who he had first met…
The cover of From Russia, with Love (1957) was similarly in trompe l’oeil style, the imagery of rose and dew drop being specified by Fleming, the Smith & Wesson revolver lent by the author. Fleming asked Geoffrey Boothroyd, a firearms expert, if he could lend his illustrator, Richard Chopping, one of his guns to be painted for the…
Artistic Licence Renewed 