The James Bond Bedside Companion

by Benson, Raymond

  Complementing the release of Octopussy, a one-hour television special was produced in both England and the United States. "James Bond—The First 21 Years" assessed the two decades of James Bond on film. Several luminaries were interviewed, including Alexander Haig, Burt Reynolds, Alistair Cooke, and even President Ronald Reagan, and each expressed his opinion on the social significance of 007. Other events kept the renewed Bond mania from waning—a "Spy Con" was held in New York in July, bringing together secret agent fans from the surrounding areas. A new generation of 007 lovers had been born.

  Kevin McClory and Jack Schwartzman had their share of problems with Never Say Never Again in the latter part of the spring and early summer—the Trustees of the Ian Fleming Estate (financed by Eon Productions/Danjaq/UA) brought an injunction against them to stop the release of the film, and fought them with appeal after appeal; but the court ruled in favor of the new Sean Connery Bond. The final appeal court verified McClory's rights in the original copyright assignment Never Say Never Again was released by Warner Brothers on October 7 in the U.S., and has grossed $25,000,000 to date (as per Variety, 1/11/84). Encouraged by this success, McClory has been engaged to launch a series of James Bond films based on the copyrights of the "The Film Scripts" and the film rights to THUNDERBALL. Paradise Productions III made an announcement in February 1984 that the first film would be titled SPECTRE. Broccoli's reaction to this remains to be seen at the time of writing.

  If James Bond survives the eighties, he will have lived four decades. If the films continue to be made throughout the eighties, James Bond will be the only character in cinema history to span a series of films made over three decades. When Ian Fleming first sat down at Goldeneye and wrote those opening sentences of CASINO ROYALE, he had no idea what he was creating. The James Bond phenomenon has far outlived Fleming, and still shows no signs of dying. If asked today how it felt to be finally successful, Fleming would probably reply as he did in 1964 when an old Etonian friend asked him the question. "Oh," Fleming said with a sigh, "it's all been a tremendous lark."

  PART TWO: IAN FLEMING – A REMEMBRANCE

  Ian Fleming in a pensive moment in Jamaica, circa 1951. (Photo by Josephine Bryce.)

  Many people have attempted to describe Ian Fleming, the man. Those who knew him did so individually; his relationships were such that he was a man who appeared to be different things to different people. Ian was a complex person, a man of many moods and conflicts, but with an obvious passion for life and boyish zeal for adventure. His friend Ernest Cuneo describes him as "a knight out of phase; a knight errant searching for the lost Round Table and possibly the Holy Grail, and unable to reconcile himself that Camelot was gone and still less that it had probably never existed." One close friend remembers that it was his "innocence, geniality, merriment, wonderful sense of humor and of the comic; bashfulness under the scorching criticism poured on him—all that and his zest for extracting what cheer he could from the daily situation, and injecting joie de vivre into companions, that rendered him so attractive to be with. He was privately, almost secretly, generous minded, and there was nothing petty about him."

  Former Attorney General Francis Biddle once said that the British were "an incredibly brave and incredibly boyish people," and Ian Fleming was both of these things. He carried himself with the Etonian air sometimes described as the "consciousness of effortless superiority," which gave him sophistication and nobility; but he also had an almost childlike sense of playfulness, and was willing to try anything once. This mixture of conflicting traits gave Ian Fleming a great deal of charisma. It has been said that he radiated so much energy that he "lit up the room."

  Fleming was considered extremely good-looking. He had a fine, high forehead topped by a head of thick brown, almost black, slightly curly hair, which he parted on the left. He had a strong jawline and possessed striking blue eyes. His nose was broken. One close friend said that Fleming carried himself more like an American than an Englishman. In a typical stance, he would rest his weight on his right leg, left foot and shoulders slightly forward. He was very "smooth-muscled," and stood six feet tall, or perhaps a shade under. Ian wasn't a fancy dresser by any means. One might have caught him in a short-sleeved white shirt and a blue bowtie with white polka dots. Outdoors, he always carried a battered, soft black felt hat. For casual wear, Fleming chose shorts and cotton shirts, much like James Bond. For swimming in his private cove at Goldeneye, Fleming chose to wear nothing.

  Ian Fleming was a man of intense energy and curiosity, with a mind for detail and organization. "He wrote such succinct and trenchant Intelligence reports that I was somewhat scandalized later when he wanted to publish CASINO ROYALE under his own name!" says Clare Blanshard, who had known Fleming since the war. The author was obsessive about accuracy as well. He extracted ideas and fine points with the fervor of a sharp detective, scribbling down notes in a little pad which he always kept with him. He loved questioning people about their jobs, learning what they did, how they did it and why. He was the sort of person who wanted to know a little about everything. He longed to be "learned," like his elder brother, Peter.

  Geoffrey Boothroyd, the arms expert who helped "re-arm" James Bond, once said that Fleming wanted to know the whys and the hows of something, but could care less about all the other details. He would become attached to an object simply because he liked the sound of its name. Boothroyd claimed that Fleming chose a Walther PPK for Bond to use because the name "rolled off the tongue nicely." And Fleming liked "double-barreled" words, like "Rolls-Royce," "Smith and Wesson," or "Aston Martin." This attraction to the sound of words is nowhere more evident than in the names Fleming gave his characters: Le Chiffre, Hugo Drax, Pussy Galore, Vesper Lynd, Auric Goldfinger, Vivienne Michel, Kissy Suzuki, Tiger Tanaka. . . the list goes on and on.

  Fleming appreciated fine craftsmanship, especially in objects of value. He had a fascination for diamonds and how they were cut and polished. He was extremely interested in gold and its metallurgical qualities. Ian respected the thought behind all works of art, which underlies his appreciation for books and first editions. He had particular interest in schemes and plots and how they were devised and a passion for crime—not to commit one, but to learn how it was done. Gambling odds intrigued him, and he would pursue a system for beating the odds in almost every game he played. At the end of Chapter Five in a proof copy of MOONRAKER, in which Bond warns M that he is about to be dealt a "Yarborough," Fleming asterisked "Yarborough" and wrote an explanation in ink: "A hand containing no card higher than nine. The odds against it are 1,827 to 1." He was always collecting bits of information to plug into the Bond books.

  That Ian Fleming was a lover of nature is certainly apparent in the novels. He liked pretty things, like shells, and took pleasure in collecting them. He loved the underwater world, and enjoyed exploring it in his private cove at Goldeneye. Outdoor sports went hand in hand with Fleming's penchant for nature, for he was an avid skier in his younger days and found mountain climbing especially invigorating. Ernest Cuneo tells a story of a time when he and Ian climbed the mountain next to Cuneo's farm. "Let's climb Goose Egg Mountain," Ian suggested one day, and Cuneo agreed. The two friends, both at this time in their forties, scrambled up the steep cliff. Cuneo remembers tiring halfway up and making an excuse to stop by pointing out the view. A little later, it was Ian who suggested stopping for a "view." "Aha!" Cuneo thought "Now he's tired." Cuneo had worked up a sweat, but Fleming appeared undaunted. After they had reached the top, Fleming proclaimed that it was harder to go down a mountain than to climb it because one's muscles had to fight the force of gravity. Cuneo refuted him, saying that the best way of descending Goose Egg Mountain was to "brake your speed by grabbing a pine bough as you hurtle past it." Fleming accepted the challenge and the two men raced down the cliff like "whirling dervishes," laughing like mad.

  Al Hart, editor of the first six Bond books in America, remembers that Ian Fleming had the uncanny ability to make one feel witty. He laugh
ed a lot, and found ways of turning everyday things into absurdities. Fleming's sense of humor was sharp and jocular. He enjoyed a good joke, a nuance, or a play on words. A favorite expression was "What fun!" (a telling clue to his personality). "The Bond books were amusing to him," Al Hart says. "We used to laugh about sections together." Once, while Hart was reading the manuscript of LIVE AND LET DIE, he couldn't help laughing at a certain line of dialogue. Near the end of the book, Bond and Solitaire are tied together, naked, about to be pulled behind Mr. Big's boat over a coral reef. It was over one hundred pages into the story and Bond still had not made it to bed with Solitaire. Now, here they were, and she says, "I didn't want it to be like this." Hart called Fleming and asked, "Listen, do you want to leave this line like this?" And Fleming, roaring with laughter, said, "Yes! Leave it. . . leave it!!" When the name Pussy Galore first came up, Hart called Fleming again and said, "You can't use this name." And Fleming grandly stated, "Oh yes I will, and not only that, we're going to get away with it!"

  Being a bachelor for over forty years tended to make Fleming a bit particular in his ways. Cuneo remembers, "His favorite drink was a martini, and the instructions were maddening. He didn't want the gin 'bruised,' and was painfully specific about both the vermouth and the gin and explained each step to the guy who was going to mix it as if it were a delicate brain operation. Several times I impatiently asked him why the hell he didn't go downstairs and mix it himself, but he ignored me as if he hadn't heard and continued right on with his instructions. Equally annoyingly, he always warmly congratulated the captain when he tasted it as if he had just completed a fleet maneuver at flank speed." While on their celebrated cross-country train ride, Fleming, in grandly pronouncing the oysters and steak as excellent, managed to inflect that slight touch of surprise that makes it patronizing.

  Ian Fleming did not necessarily consider himself a gourmet, but did appreciate fine food. He was amused by the sounds of fancy menus and often had a good laugh concocting the meals James Bond ate. Naomi Burton remembers, "A good way of teasing Ian was to tell him we were going to take him out and make him eat one of James Bond's meals. Indeed, "Beef Brizzola" which appears in DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER was a bastardization of a dish served at New York's "21" club. Fleming liked scrambled eggs for breakfast, simple and straightforward. In Jamaica, his favorite meal was ackee and sailfish (codfish), the national Jamaican dish. He also liked baked black crab and fish done in any form.

  Fleming's particular "charming conceits" gave critics the excuse to accuse him of snobbery. One of these "charming conceits" was the way he carefully chose his friends and kept them all in separate compartments. He had his golfing friends, and he had his Sunday Times friends. He had his acquaintances with whom he shared adventure, and he had his companions with whom he shared his personal problems. None of these friends knew the same Ian Fleming. He would reveal different sides of himself to various people, but was intentionally inconsistent with what he chose to reveal to whom. Some might consider this compartmentalizing of relationships a form of snobbery; in truth, Fleming simply valued his privacy. He only associated with those he considered "fine people," and couldn't be bothered by those who bored him. Once, while Ian was in New York, a friend of his agent, Naomi Burton Stone, invited him to accompany her for drinks at the Stones' apartment "You must come and meet Naomi's husband," she told him, but Fleming was evasive. "No, no, I need to do some other things," he told her, making excuses. She persisted, and finally he said, "Oh, all right; but I can only stay for half an hour." He was afraid of getting caught in a situation in which he would have to feign interest in the conversation when he might be bored to tears. But as it turned out, Fleming took to Naomi's husband immediately (they had both served in Naval Intelligence during World War II), and the men talked for hours!

  Relaxing in the sun at Goldeneye. Ian, Anne, Robert Harling, and Ivar Bryce (sitting on ground). (Photo courtesy of owner.)

  According to one close friend, Fleming was not a snob at all. "Ian exhibited great kindness through his generous ways of dealing with the people he cared for. He was very protective of his friends." Indeed, Fleming was known to do special favors for the people who meant something to him. If he could help a friend in his career, he was always more than willing. He respected those with whom he associated, whether they cleaned the windows or played bridge with him.

  Fleming lived his life intensely and to the fullest. He was never one to "wallow" (one of his favorite words, which he would pronounce with exaggeration as if the word itself were wallowing), and was always intent on extracting the most out of life. His greatest fear was boredom; he dreaded the "soft life," a malady James Bond himself suffered at times. Ivar Bryce, who had known Fleming since childhood, believes that Ian was always searching for adventure; and throughout the years, the two friends indulged in many unusual escapes. They were constantly sending letters and telegrams inviting the other to accompany him on some outlandish expedition (such as the trip to Inagua in 1956); every invitation closed with the words, "Fail Not." One time Bryce and Fleming decided to lose weight together. They visited a doctor in New York, who put them on a strict diet and said to come back in two weeks. After the allotted time period, when Bryce met Fleming at the airport he appeared much fatter than he did two weeks earlier. Fleming thought to himself, "Well, I've got this one won." Then Ivar laughed and pulled out a pillow from underneath his overcoat. Actually, he had lost the most weight.

  Because Fleming was a vigorous man of action, he was difficult to keep inactive for any lengthy period of time (except when he was at his most mellow during January and February at Goldeneye). James Bond's epitaph at the end of YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE is even more suited to Fleming: "I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time." This rather brave attitude, mixed with Fleming's undeniably boyish taste for the romantic, fed lifeblood into the Bond adventures, and for the most part, explains why they are so popular.

  Anne Rothermere (a year before she became Mrs. Fleming) with Ivar Bryce in Jamaica, circa 1951. (Photo by Josephine Bryce.)

  Ian Lancaster Fleming was born on May 28, 1908, in appropriately, the Mayfair section of London, England. His father, Valentine Fleming, was a Scot, who worked for his father's prestigious banking firm, Robert Fleming and Company, and who was elected a Tory M.P. for South Oxfordshire in 1910. He was well-liked and also extremely wealthy. His circle of friends included Winston Churchill. Ian Fleming's mother was Evelyn St Croix Rose, a beautiful woman of Irish, Scot, and Huguenot descent Eve Fleming was reported to be a romantic, passionate woman, full of surprises and changes. She was a strong-willed, somewhat vain, authoritarian person, capable of standing her ground against any form of challenge. From the beginning, his parents' characteristics (his father's pride, patriotism, geniality, intelligence, and love for the outdoors; and his mother's extravagance, taste, curiosity, and independence) blended to create a multifaceted individual.

  John Pearson wrote in The Life of Ian Fleming about Fleming's early childhood: "From the start he had one of those natures for which the world is uncomfortable in whatever shape they find it. . ." He was a precocious and sometimes mischievous child, a rebel as far as his family was concerned. According to Pearson, little Ian disliked everything his family loved, such as horses and dogs and family gatherings, and held no particular affection for Scotland.

  By August 1914, Valentine Fleming was in the army and had been sent to France where he soon became a major. Eve Fleming was left to care for four sons—Peter, Ian, Richard and Michael. In 1915, Peter and Ian were sent to a boarding school, the Dumford School, near Swanage, on the island of Purbeck. The school was run by a man named Tom Pellatt, who allowed the boys a good deal of freedom. In the next couple of years, young Ian Fleming became interested in adventure and mystery yams, for Pellatt's wife read aloud the stories of Bulldog Drummond to the boys. Soon, Fleming was addicted to the works of Sax Rohmer, Robert Louis Stevenson, and other adventure novelists.

  Tragedy str
uck on May 20, 1917. Valentine Fleming was killed in action in France. He was posthumously awarded a D.S.O., and Winston Churchill wrote an appreciation of him in The Times. Ian Fleming's father had died a hero, and this incident had a profound effect on the boy's emotional growth. Ian seemed to need a hero, and as a result, he began to idolize his older brother, Peter. As with most upper-crust English families, the emphasis on primogeniture was strong, and Ian was forced to walk in his brother's shadow for a good many years. Peter seemed to be the perfect son: he was well-behaved, extremely bright for his age, and held much promise for success. Ian, on the other hand, was considered eccentric, overly imaginative—the black sheep of the family.

  In the autumn of 1921, Eve Fleming, an extremely rich widow, packed Peter and Ian off to Eton. At thirteen, Ian had grown into a handsome boy, and he took great pride in his appearance and personal affectations. (It was reported that Ian's housemaster disapproved of his pungent hair oil.) Ian was never happy at Eton. According to Paul Gallico, Fleming actually loathed it, and constantly felt out of place. But this didn't stop the boy from making some kind of mark for himself. Ian found he was athletic, and was especially good in track. In 1925, Fleming was named Victor Ludorum (champion of the games) for the school. He won the title a second time in 1926, while he was still under eighteen. He broke his nose during a football match that year which tended to give his features a somewhat worldly look