The Man with the Golden Typewriter : Ian Fleming's James Bond Letters

On 16 August 1952, Ian Fleming wrote to his wife, Ann, My love, This is only a tiny letter to try out my new typewriter and to see if it will write golden words since it is made of gold . He had bought the gold-plated typewriter as a present to himself for finishing his first novel, Casino Royale. It marked in glamorous style the arrival of James Bond, agent 007, and the start of a career that saw Fleming become one of the world s most celebrated thriller writers. And he did write golden words. Before his death in 1964 he produced fourteen bestselling Bond books, two works of non-fiction and the famous children s story Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang. Fleming s output was matched by an equally energetic flow of letters. He wrote constantly, to his wife, publisher, editors, fans, friends and critics, charting 007 s progress with correspondence that ranged from badgering Jonathan Cape about his quota of free copies a coin was tossed; Fleming lost to apologising for having mistaken a certain brand of perfume and for equipping Bond with the wrong kind of gun. His letters also reflect his friendships with contemporaries such as Raymond Chandler, No l Coward and Somerset Maugham. Before the world-famous films came the world-famous novels. This books tells the story of the man who wrote them and how he created spy fiction's most compelling hero.