When he has finished writing Casino Royale, the first in the James Bond series, Ian Fleming treated himself to a gold-plated typewriter. It was on this glittering machine that he typed not only his bestselling novels, but also his letters. Though Fleming was not an especially reflective or literary man - he preferred action to analysis - his correspondence is energetic, engaging and direct, and full of wry remarks, succinct comments and insightful observations...
WC Ian Fleming wrote to publishers, fans, critics and friends. Whether dealing with his editor's concerns about the title of Moonraker or badgering his publisher Jonathan Cape about his quota of free copies (they tossed a coin: Fleming lost), replying to a reader who feared for 007's attention to perfume and another who worried about Bond's influence on the assassination of JFK, his letters were always charming and often witty. A few of the letters he received marked the beginning of lengthy exchanges.
One day, out of the blue, came a letter from one Geoffrey Boothroyd taking issue with James Bond's choice of sidearm (the Beretta was a 'ladies' gun'), and despite Fleming's perturbation at being caught out, the correspondence that followed developed into a relationship that lasted until Fleming's death. Boothroyd was appointed Bond's fictional armourer and kept the author up to date on a huge variety of weapons that might be useful to Bond. On another occasion a book dealer advised him rather forcefully about American slang, while one of his most affecting exchanges was with the another great thriller writer, Raymond Chandler - the man who created Philip Marlowe.
