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An auction of letters from Ian Fleming to his secretaries
will go under the auction hammer this month, revealing
some new Literary Bond insight...
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Ian Fleming Letters Auction
3rd April 2008
The month of May this year will be feverish with everything
007 as 2008 marks the centenary
of the birth of James Bond creator Ian Fleming. Duke Auctioneers will be adding to the celebrations
with the sale of a collection of letters between Ian
Fleming,
his secretaries Una Trueblood and later Beryl Griffie-Williams
and Fleming’s typist Mrs. Frampton. The correspondences
were kept by a Mrs. Frampton, a lady local to the South Coast,
who was also typist for other authors such as Lawrence Whistler,
glass engraver and brother of the famous artist Rex Whistler
and David Garnett.
The relationship between Mrs. Frampton
and Fleming was such that Fleming often called on her editorial
skills and asked her to pick out flaws in his plots and
characters.
In one modest letter, Fleming writes; ‘I have written
a full length James Bond story provisionally called “Thunderball” … I’m
afraid this is not a good typescript and I would be deeply
obliged if you would apply your usual keen mind to any points – absolutely
any – that might help the book get in shape.”
The collection of letters offered for sale
at Duke’s
documents Mrs. Frampton’s suggestions for the storyline
of some of Fleming's best Bond works, namely ‘Thunderball’ as
well as her deep involvement in the adventures of Bond. In
one letter she writes, ‘I still regret the end of ‘Thunderball’,
as my naïve and literal mind would like to know exactly
what happened…what about Blofeld (or does he live to
die another day?).’ |
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Amy Brenan who has been researching the collection says, ‘Not
only do the letters carry Fleming’s original signature,
a valuable thing on it’s own, they also demonstrate that
the plots of some of the most famous Bond books were perfected
as a result of another person.’ The collection makes fascinating
retrospective reading for the Bond enthusiast not just because
of the contents of each letter but for the original typed Bond
manuscripts that some of the letters are duplicated on!
Many of the letters also act as an invaluable reference to Fleming’s
life as an author making note of his many trips abroad particularly
to Jamaica where he built his home ‘Goldeneye’ and
wrote ‘Casino
Royale’. Fleming famously said, ‘Would
these books have been born if I hadn’t been living in the
gorgeous vacuum of a Jamaican holiday? I doubt it.’
The letters from Frampton to Fleming also refer to the other
Bond books Fleming was writing such as ‘Man
with the Golden Gun’, ‘You
Only Live Twice’ and ‘From
A View to a Kill’.
The entire collection which comprises 4 signed letters by Fleming
in addition to letters from Griffie-Williams, Una Trueblood and
Frampton will be offered at auction on 10th April at an estimate
of £2,000-3,000. Amy Brenan says, ‘We have definitely
chosen the right time to sell the collection as it corresponds
with the release of the new James Bond book by Sebastian Faulks
and as it is the year of the centenary, we hope that the Bond
enthusiasts will be in abundance at the sale.’
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