‘A Whisper of Love, A Whisper of Hate’

Despite her second marriage, during the early 1950s Ian and Ann’s relationship flourished and by 1951 she was pregnant with his child.  Lord Rothermere issued a divorce and Ian and Ann prepared to marry.  Ian always joked that it was an attempt to distract himself from his looming nuptials that inspired him in January 1952 to sit down at his desk at Goldeneye and in no more than two months, write a novel.  The product of his labour was the first story about British secret agent James Bond, a name which Fleming had borrowed from his ‘Jamaican bible’, A Field Guide to the Birds of the West Indies, by American ornithologist James Bond.  He called the novel Casino Royale and to celebrate completing the manuscript, Fleming rewarded himself with the gift of a gold-plated Royal de Luxe typewriter.  He passed the manuscript to his friend, the poet William Plomer who was a reader for publishing house Jonathan Cape, and thus James Bond’s journey began.  Every January afterwards until his death in 1964, Fleming spent the first two months of every year writing James Bond adventures at Goldeneye.

Fleming’s ‘Jamaican bible,’ Field Guide of Birds of the West Indies by James Bond