Affairs of the Heart

Ian Fleming had many girlfriends as a young man and began to acquire a reputation as a womaniser.  A friend from his Tennerhof days, Ralph Arnold, remembered Ian as being ‘irresistible to women’, and during his time in Geneva he became engaged.  The object of his affection was Monique Panchaud de Bottones, the daughter of a Swiss landowner whom he had met at a Genevese ball.  Throughout the summer of 1931 Ian and Monique were inseparable but after returning to London, distance and his mother’s disapproval contributed to the decline and eventual severance of their relationship.  However, it is likely Ian always carried her memory with fondness as he was later to provide James Bond with a Swiss mother named Monique.

Ian Fleming by the sea