Article by Mike Ripley I first met Reg Gadney five years ago, at a rather hectic Christmas party for regular freelance contributors to The Guardian. I knew the name, of course, from numerous excellent spy thrillers (more than a dozen) and as a scriptwriter, especially for his award-winning adaptation of Minette Walters’ psychological crime novel…
Article by ©Julian Parrott, 2017 There isn’t much of Ian Fleming’s Jamaica left these days. Perhaps there never really was. Fleming’s Jamaica was only a momentary period in his own nostalgic yearnings for an ideal of the British Empire. Jamaica was an idyll where he could ignore the Empire’s inexorable death throes and home-nation decline.…
On July 4,1952, Ian Fleming wrote ‘Pleasure Islands?’ for The Spectator shortly after completing the draft of Casino Royale, in which he discusses race relations in Jamaica. Article by Revelator; first published here. There are several notable things about this article, starting with the date. Perhaps it’s true that “after forty it is difficult to start a new life,”…
Article by Edward Biddulph If you were asked to name the places with which Ian Fleming is most closely associated, you would almost certainly put Goldeneye, Fleming’s the winter home in Jamaica where he wrote all the Bond books, on the top of your list. Further reflection might bring to mind his London properties, among…
Article by David A. Reinhardt, Member – Board of Directors, The Ian Fleming Foundation Originally written for the James Bond Classic Charity Golf Tournament for UNICEF, held on Monday June 11th, 2001 at Stoke Poges Golf & Country Club. When Ian Fleming was asked about the source of the name for his suave British Secret…
Words by Revelator After reading Mathew Parker’s book it will be impossible to over-estimate the importance of Jamaica to James Bond. Beginning with Fleming’s wartime discovery of the island, Goldeneye: Where Bond Was Born is a chronological countdown of his years there, interlaced with a concurrent history of country. Goldeneye, Fleming’s Jamaican residence, mirrored the…
By Jon Pettigrew This Two Act play neatly book ends the start of the James Bond books and the beginning of the end for Ian Fleming. He dies young, but his alter ego lives forever. He only lives twice, you see. The settings make one feel that we are there, in the warmth of Jamaica at Goldeneye and we…
We are privileged to welcome Matthew Parker in from the cold, to discuss his latest book about Ian Fleming and his beloved second home in Jamaica. Matthew is in the unique position as someone who has lived in the Caribbean and is a successful author of many books including about the Battle of Britain, the…
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…
Artistic Licence Renewed 