‘I look forward with great anticipation to the next installment.’
13th October, 1960
Dear Mrs. Frewin,
Thank you for your really wonderful letter. In searching for even the meagrest riposte, may I point out that ‘instalment’, the last line of your letter, is spelt with only one l.
Now, let me say at once that all your points are extremely well made though you slipped up badly in not noticing that Vent Vert is made by Balmain and not by Dior, and that the brakes on the Orient Express are not hydraulic but vacuum.
Here are the answers to your specific points:
a) Miss Moneypenny, for obvious reasons, objected to having a red light in her room, and insisted on the more appropriate pastel shade bulbs, until the day the Office of Works repainted her room in green. The day after the painting was completed, and not noticing the green light against the green paint, she went into M’s room with some signals to find him fast asleep at his desk. She tiptoed out, but at once rang up the works department and had a red light fitted, which is still there.
b) Forgetfulness.
c) For security reasons the regulations for contacting headquarters are changed from time to time.
d) Bond only takes cream with his coffee at breakfast time.
e) The floors were re-numbered when two floors were concertinaed into one to accommodate very large and bulky equipment for a new communications centre. The top floor is now the eighth.
f) Yours also truly puzzled and I must talk to Bond about this.
You will realise, of course, that in writing James Bond’s biography I am entirely dependent on what he tells me, and if he is occasionally equivocal, particularly in the matter of dates, I assume that he has some sound security reason for confusing me.
So far as your general comments are concerned, I should mention that Felix Leiter is by no means incapacitated, as you will have seen from ‘Diamonds are Forever’. He reappears in excellent health in the next volume of the biography entitled ‘Thunderball’, which will be published here next April.
Mathis is in good health and spirits and Bond tells me he is almost certain to run into him again in the near future.
Thank you also very much for the suggested plot (Bentley please, not Bently!) but I am not sure that Bond is as keen as all that on Miss Ponsonby. She has recently shown signs of withering through over long protection of her virginity, and even Bond has complained to me that she is becoming neurotic.
Finally, in exchange for a letter which has given me a vast amount of pleasure and entertainment, I am sending you a copy of my last book which, it appears from your letter, you have not yet read. I am sorry it consists of short stories, but I can only write what Bond tells me. These were fragmentary adventures between his longer assignments.
Again with my warmest thanks for your deep analysis of my opuscula.
‘It’s “me” again’, Mrs Frewin replied. While thanking him for the copy of For Your Eyes Only, she felt it wouldn’t go amiss if she said that he had a poor grasp of Canadian idiom, knew little about Quebec’s linguistic niceties, had obviously never visited Canada in October and on her side of the Atlantic ‘installment’ was spelled with two ‘l’s.
TO MICHAEL HOWARD
31st August, 1960
Dear Michael,
“Thunderball”
One or two points while I remember them.
I think readers, and certainly reviewers, must be getting rather fed up with our paeans of reviewing praise, on the back of the jacket. Can you think of any new way to say what a splendid chap I am without all these quotations? Anyway, the reviews of “For Your Eyes Only” weren’t all that hot though there is a good one in the New Yorker which my secretary has if you want it.
The other suggestion is that this book should have a very good sale in the whole of the Caribbean area4 and particularly Nassau, where it should arrive at the height of the season. Would you like to consider taking the trouble to have one of those paper bands, or whatever they are called, across the jacket of your consignment to those parts, saying, for instance, “The thriller set in the Bahamas”?
TO MICHAEL HOWARD
Howard had enquired about a detail in Thunderball where the hijacker released cyanide gas to kill the plane’s crew. Also about Fleming’s possible promotion of Booth’s gin.
5th December, 1960
My Dear Michael,
Many thanks for your letter and for the proof of the jacket which I think is quite excellent although the cards look a bit dirty and frayed at the edges. I suppose we can’t brighten them up a little.
I agree that the re-write of my blurb is no great improvement. I have amended the one in the proof copy you sent me and you may even think that this is better.
I have corrected my proof to date but have had one or two suggestions from Vikings which I shall incorporate.
I am not quite sure what you mean about the film “North by North West”, but anyway I am checking whether it was released on the Odeon circuit. I think the Cyanide capsule was far enough away from the murderer not to have affected him. 100% oxygen is essential, as if the air bleed was left on he would suck in some of the cyanide gas. The distinguished Wing Commander from the Air Ministry, who briefed me in all this, seemed quite happy about Pettachi breathing it in, and if 25 minutes is bad for him I am afraid we must just fudge it.
I don’t know how the gin thing is going, but I couldn’t bear shirts. I don’t mind James Bond’s name being used but I’m afraid I don’t want my name to appear in promotional stuff.
I am getting on with the Kuwait book, and will get in touch with you as soon as I surface.
Heaven knows how I am going to get around to having a bash at the Thrilling Cities book, and I am afraid we must postpone any more work on it until the spring, I simply cannot squash it in.
By the way, please congratulate your printers on their proofs [of Thunderball] – very clean indeed with only a very few of the tiniest of literals etc.
I shall be sending you my corrected proof in a day or two. Could you please marry it up with your own corrections to save me time and worry, and if there are differences of opinion perhaps we can settle them over the telephone.
Kuwait was hell!
TO ADMIRAL J. H. GODFREY, Florence Ward, St. Thomas’ Hospital, London, S.E.1.
Fleming’s old boss at Naval Intelligence, Admiral Godfrey, was in poor health and had sent his now-famous assistant a note from hospital.
6th December, 1960
Sorry for the delay but I am completely submerged in Kuwait.
I saw the soothsayer during the last week of October, but, alas, I haven’t kept a note of the exact date. He held my wrist watch and after discussing various other problems he said, more or less, “I see a naval officer friend of yours, he is in some kind of parental position towards you and you are friends. I can quite clearly see a naval cap badge. This friend of yours is not well and I think he would appreciate a letter from you. I advise you to write to him.”
I’m afraid that is all I can remember, but you can imagine that your postcard came as something of a shock!
I do hope you are getting along all right. I shall do my best to come in and see you again this week or next, but this blasted book is making a terrible turmoil out of my life. And, just at this moment, another close friend of mine, Duff Dunbar, whom I think I have talked to you about, has had some kind of a stroke and is getting near the danger list, so that is also piling on the pressure.
Anyway get well as soon as you can, and then take it easy – useless piece of advice for someone with your lively mind!
TO MISS ANN MARLOW, Apartment 15C, 1160 Park Avenue, New York 28, N.Y.
In March 1961 Fleming suffered a heart attack. While recuperating he wrote to assure Marlow that he would soon be up and about.
1st May, 1961
My dear Ann,
A thousand thanks for your fragrant good wishes, but I can assure you that I shall be firing on all
cylinders in a very short while indeed. I have spent the last three weeks in this prison writing a children’s book, so the time has not been wasted.5
My arrangement with M.C.A. is simply that they are my agents for television, film and radio, and also, in America only, for books and magazine articles etc.
Here is a copy of my agreement with them which please return in due course as it is my only one.
I only met Sandford once but he seemed to me quite bright. I expect all they are worrying about is getting their 10% and this, if anything happens, I suppose they will do.
Thunderball is going great guns over here and I see that Boucher in the New York Times was fairly kind to me the other day after insulting me for many years.
It was lovely to hear from you and I pray you won’t also burn too many candles at too many ends.
TO JACK WHITTINGHAM, The White House, Oxshott, Surrey
Whittingham, the scriptwriter for McClory’s project, suffered a heart attack at much the same time as Fleming and wrote to exchange news.
10th May, 1961
Dear Jack,
I am horrified to hear that you have been on morphine and not only that, but that you are already contemplating your next stint at Whitsun. Is this really wise, or can you take the new thing on in a fairly leisurely fashion? It seems to me that you are getting back into your professional stride a bit quickly!
I am so glad that your legal advisor is now in touch with my solicitor. I don’t wish to sound ominous or to pre-judge anything, but I do think from what I hear from the legal cohorts on our side, that a graceful composure of such differences as you and I may have between us might be wisdom.
However, as I say, this is all on the “Old Boy” wave and the main thing is that we should both be in good heart (!) again as soon as possible.
Again, with warm thanks for your kindly letter
TO ANN MARLOW
1st June, 1961
My dear Ann,
I am now back in business and this is just to thank you very much for your letter of May 12th and to hope that you do in fact come over to London during June.
I have had a sharp squawk out of Phyllis Jackson about your and my financailles, but she arrives here on Sunday and when I see her next week I shall calm her down.
The point, as I see it, is that our arrangement is that you would like to have a shot at seeing if you can get a James Bond series going in much the same way as you dealt with Willie Maugham.
This option will obviously not be in perpetuity and the scribble I gave you over the scrambled eggs was simply to give you freedom of action with sponsors, agents, etc., for a reasonable time to test the market.
If you see no prospect of getting the property off the ground presumably you will tell me so and the responsibility will then revert to M.C.A, and you will return the engagement ring!
Personally, of course, I am hoping very much that it will be you and not some Mr. Finkelstein who becomes commère of James Bond on television, and I hope, when you have time, to hear if you have had any result, positive or negative, from your preliminary sniffing around.
But the main object of this letter is simply so that I can tell M.C.A. with a clear conscience that the James Bond properties are not in escrow to Marlow in Perpetuity, which is, in their legal minds, what they seem to think, under the spell of your beauty, has happened.
In American show-biz, and indeed in all show-biz, it seems to be just no good saying “she is just not that kind of person” or that you and I and Bill happen to be friends, this is not the language of show-biz.
So will you be an angel and write me a note covering these points in some fair and sensible way, so that I can tell M.C.A to shut-up and stop interfering in our “affaire”.
Willie Maugham passed through here while I was in the London Clinic during siesta hour and was not allowed in! I wrote to tell him that at my age one needed rest after lunch and that he really ought to follow my example and not go traipsing around London at three o’clock in the afternoon! It was a shame as I had greatly looked forward to talking to him about you.
Forgive this letter which seems to have got dreadfully long and verbose.
TO ANN MARLOW
14th June, 1961
My dear Ann,
You really are an angel to have been so swift and kind with your cable and letter.
The position is that a large and worthwhile producer wishes to make a full feature film of James Bond with an option on the rest of the books. The condition, of course, is that I will not dispose of the radio and television rights during the continuance of this agreement.
In fact my scribble to you over the scrambled eggs was I now see from reading my contract with M.C.A. as you will have seen, a definite transgression on my relationship with M.C.A. which has always been pleasant and fruitful.
So what I would now like to ask you is to send me back that paper and in exchange I will ask M.C.A. to grant you on my behalf some sensible option rights as and if this present deal peters out as I have found so often happens in show biz.
I do hope that you will think this sensible and reasonable and, above all, friendly and fair.
If and when you agree I can tell you that if this present rather major project comes off and the property gets rolling, I shall do my best to see that you get a seat on the bandwagon – if any!
I will tell you more about all this when I see you in New York and in the meantime thank you again for being such a darling.
TO ANN MARLOW
3rd July, 1961
You really are an angel and I am not in the least surprised that you should feel rather ‘miffed’ by the way things have worked out. But the point is, as I told you, that there is a considerable film deal pending which, greatly depends, of course, on absolute cleanliness of copyright which, according to M.C.A., could not be achieved while my blank cheque to you was outstanding.
All I can do at the moment is to order you a small memento from Cartiers in token of my esteem and affection, and I shall bring this over in the Queen Elizabeth leaving on the 20th. So please keep some minutes for me for delivery and further explanations.
Mark you, all this film business may be just talk in which case our financailles can go forward undisturbed. But in all this I have simply had to be guided by M.C.A. and when I hold your hand again it will simply have to be M.C.A. who slips on the ring, as this property is now so extensive and has so many facets that if I am to milk it successfully the campaign will have to be pretty masterly.
But, as you say, we have the rest of our lives and I now once again assure you that if and when television comes into the picture your interests will be paramount with me.
Meanwhile, of course, I am longing to see you again, though by doctor’s orders it can’t be scrambled eggs this time!
TO ANN MARLOW
12th July, 1961
Alas, the medical brains of Britain have forbidden me to visit America next week, so those minutes I was going to steal from you will have to go to somebody else.
The small token from Cartier will have to reach you by other means and anonymously, but when it turns up you will know it is from me, it is ‘From London with Love’.
It’s all very maddening and I pray that fate and the doctors will be kinder later in the year.
TO ANN MARLOW
15th August, 1961
Your re-addressed letter of July 18th nearly brought about a divorce as it found its way into my wife’s mail, and although I had explained to her my deep admiration and affection for you when I got back from America, quite a lot of explaining had to be explained.
(I refrain from vulgarly suggesting to you, “you’ve got the name let’s have the game”!)
First of all, I am terribly sorry that this MM business had gone awry.6 It is really very silly of her as this was a wonderful piece of casting that would have vastly added to her prestige. I do hope you scramble out all right with some equally splendid girl.
I haven’t seen Saltz
man’s announcement in the New York Times, but in fact, as is usual with show biz, nothing has yet been signed, and anyway if they go ahead with their film programme it will be many years before television comes into the picture.
When and if it does, I shall press your suit, if you see what I mean, with vigour.
But I am sure you will agree that if Saltzman makes a success of the films the value of any television series will be vastly enhanced.
Meanwhile I am pestiferated by doctors and lawyers and am rapidly becoming a shadow of the scrambled eggs man you know.
Have just had a cable from Bill Stephenson, please explain the situation to him as sympathetically as you can.
TO HARRY SALTZMAN, ESQ., 16, South Audley Street, London, W.1.
Producers Harry Saltzman and Cubby Broccoli soon discovered, as Cape had before them, that Fleming liked to become involved in the minutiae of production.
31st August, 1961
Dear Harry,
While I remember it, I met last night an extremely intelligent and attractive coloured man called Paul Dankwa,7 who is studying law here but has been very much taken up by the bohemian set, and I have met him on and off for several years.
He told me he had just finished appearing in the film ‘A Taste of Honey’.
I think it would be worthwhile you tracking him down and having a look at him for the role of Quarrel in Dr. No. His address is, 9 Overstrand Mansions, Prince of Wales’s Drive, Battersea, telephone Macaulay 5212.
I told him I would mention his name to you and he was very excited at the prospect.
He has all the qualities this role demands and, in particular, a most pleasing personality and good looks.
TO MRS. BLACKWELL, Bolt, Port Maria, Jamaica
Apart from suggesting possible cast members, Fleming decided to organise accommodation in Jamaica for the film crew of ‘Doctor No,’ and to arrange a recording studio for the soundtrack. Writing to his neighbour (and mistress) Blanche Blackwell he wondered if her musically inclined son Christopher might like the job.8
25th October, 1961
Forgive the typing but a lot of this is going to be boring stuff for you to pass on to Christopher.
The Company has written to Christopher giving him most of the dope and asking him to be their local contact and production assistant on ‘Dr. No’.
The Man with the Golden Typewriter Page 25
