Goldeneye

Amid the lush beauty of Jamaica's northern coast lies thetrue story of Ian Fleming's iconic creation: James Bond.

For two months every year, from 1946 to his death eighteenyears later, Ian Fleming lived at Goldeneye, the house he built on a point ofhigh land overlooking a small white-sand beach on Jamaica's stunning northcoast. All the James Bond novels and stories were written here.

This book explores the huge influence of Jamaica on the creationof Fleming's iconic… (more)

Amid the lush beauty of Jamaica's northern coast lies thetrue story of Ian Fleming's iconic creation: James Bond.

For two months every year, from 1946 to his death eighteenyears later, Ian Fleming lived at Goldeneye, the house he built on a point ofhigh land overlooking a small white-sand beach on Jamaica's stunning northcoast. All the James Bond novels and stories were written here.

This book explores the huge influence of Jamaica on the creationof Fleming's iconic postwar hero. The island was for Fleming part retreat fromthe world, part tangible representation of his values, and part exotic fantasy.Goldeneye also examines Fleming's Jamaicanfriendships--his extraordinary circle included Errol Flynn, the Oliviers,international politicians, and British royalty, as well as his close neighbor Noël Coward--and traces his changing relationship with Ann Charteris (and herswith Jamaica) and the emergence of Blanche Blackwell as his Jamaican soul mate.

Goldeneye alsocompares the real Jamaica of the 1950s during the buildup to independence withthe island's portrayal in the Bond books, to shine a light on the attitude ofthe likes of Fleming and Coward to the dramatic end of the British Empire.