25. Fleming’s last Bond novel was published after his death
In March 1964, Ian Fleming returned to London from his Jamaica estate much the worse for wear. He was in the advanced stages of heart disease, and during his stay at Goldeneye, he was too weak to work at his former pace. The manuscript he brought back and submitted was the first draft of The Man with the Golden Gun. As with all of his past works, he used the names of acquaintances and events which had occurred to individuals he knew or had known. The novel also included Bond and the villains using devices much more than in the previous books, an idea absorbed from the two Bond films which had been released.
Fleming suffered yet another heart attack after a day of golf and dinner with friends in Canterbury. He died the following day, August 12, 1964. It was his twelve-year-old son’s birthday. His final novel and another collection of short stories, Octopussy and The Living Daylights, and the three volumes of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang were published after his death. Fleming left an estate valued at the equivalent of £6 million pounds today, and to date, his books have sold over 30 million copies. The character he created in his own image, James Bond, is among the most famous literary and film characters of all time.
Where do we find this stuff? Here are our sources:
“The James Bond Dossier”. Kingsley Amis. 1966
“Ian Fleming”. Andrew Lycett. 1996
“James Bond: The Man and His World”. Henry Chancellor. 2005
“Ian Flemings Commandos”. Nicholas Rankin. 2011
“T-Force: The Race for Nazi Secrets”. Sean Longden. 2010
“Dark side of 007 author Ian Fleming”. Neil Clark, Daily Express. December 21, 1013
“The man behind Bond”. BBC News. November 19, 1999. Online
“The Life of Ian Fleming”. John Pearson. 1967
“Bottoms Up”. Christopher Hitchens, The Atlantic. April, 2006
“Ian Fleming’s Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to fly again”. Mark Brown, The Guardian. March 22, 2011
“Letter to Geoffrey Boothroyd”. Ian Fleming, Letters of Note. May 31, 1956. Online
“Sean Connery: Snob Ian Fleming didn’t want me to play Bond”. The Express, October 19, 2008