BONDLIST for January 2025
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Matt Sherman
Jan 3, 2025, 12:36:49 PM1/3/25
to The James BONDLIST
WELL, OO7 . . .
Our MISSION DOUBLE-O SIETE event was a blast! Janine Sherman and I are so grateful for the many friends and helpers who made 2024's Mexico Bond Tours possible. Event highlights from MISSION DOS included:
* Mexico City sightseeing and shopping for the fan group (cathedrals, ancient temples and archaeology, the city's Centro Historico, and much more)
* Locations tours featuring dozens of scenes plus deleted scenes, and private visits to closed locations, from A VIEW TO A KILL, LICENCE TO KILL and SPECTRE
* A half-day inside Churubusco Studios to watch live production, and to see filming sites and crew from LICENCE TO KILL and SPECTRE
* In-person visits with Alejandro Bracho, "Perez" in LICENCE TO KILL, and Colin Thurston, legendary EON PRODUCTIONS PROP MASTER, the men who gunned (and rocketed) James Bond!
* Daily trivia challenges and games over tea, coffee and cookies, with Bond prizes and giveaways
* Group lodging and dining at the GRAN HOTEL, used by top cast and crew from LICENCE TO KILL and SPECTRE
* Mexico City's regional cuisine, from dollar tacos to Michelin star dining, and also Argentinian, Italian, and Japanese cuisine, and phenomenal Spanish food--inside the museum used as the casino for LICENCE TO KILL! Plus there was fabulous food at the Gran Hotel (think ice cream desserts set on fire at your table or chilaquiles verdes and made-to-order quesadillas for breakfast)!
THANK YOU to the fans in attendance in Mexico, as always, enthusiastic people, and so helpful with video, photos, games and more! Some excellent event photos are now at www.bondfanevents.com/osiete . . .
Speaking of one of our very special guests in Mexico, visit https://media.artistfirst.com/ArtistFirst_FlashBack_2025-01-04_Alejandro_Bracho.mp3 for an in-depth, brand-new interview, and do enjoy the rest of SPY WISE's James Bond files, they are EXTENSIVE at https://www.spywisesecretdossier.com/jamesBond.html
Next year's tours are filling fast! See Jeff Marshall's artwork (thanks, Jeff!) and get the "full scoop" at our new site, https://bondfanevents.com/ciao
Janine Sherman and I were sad to hear of the passing of our dear friend, music legend Vic Flick, following a long illness. Nearly everyone reading this eZine knows Vic played on the Original Signature Bond Theme for DR. NO and on numerous other Bond and Barry recordings. But did you also know Vic was one of just two people responsible for starting artist music unions (meaning Taylor Swift owes him a billion dollars!) and was also one of only two guitarists who represented Stratocaster in the USA? Or that he was one of (you guessed it, only two!) rock guitarists who could sightread music back in the day, and so was demanded to accompany nearly every rock and pop legend of the 60s? Did you also know that Vic was Paul McCartney's fave guitarist, invited by Paul for a legendary album appearance? There's MUCH more to be said, but Vic said it all well in his biography, so get your copy ASAP: https://www.amazon.com/Vic-Flick-Guitarman/dp/1593933088
A BONDLIST'er is selling a complete 1965 Multiple Toys OO7 Attaché Case, at a discounted price! https://tinyurl.com/qsattache
**
Here's a heckuva article, shared by BONDLIST'er Garry Goodwin, that has me drunk with excitement! https://glassofbubbly.com/a-complete-guide-to-james-bonds-champagne-moments
I loved appearing on THERE WILL BE BOND recently. Have you heard this program yet? https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show/therewillbebond/episodes/Just-Hang-on-James-Mins-4950--Matt-Sherman-talks-Bond-in-America-e2me5aa
**
BONDLIST'er Paul Dorman sent a great link that will be of interest to all Q and Fleming fans: https://apple.news/ApSiktr9YRY6IafTr10A3AQ
The Wall Street Journal posted a review of BONDLIST'er Oliver Buckton's latest volume, COUNTERFEIT SPIES (below). Think of it this way--did you know Ian Fleming was part of a small list of remarkable heroes who helped win WWII before they fictionalized their real-life spy work in "pulp thrillers" . . . thrillers that few people understood for the masterworks they are? Buy your copy today at https://tinyurl.com/BondCounterfeit . . .
COUNTERFEIT SPIES REVIEW: CRAFTIER THAN FICTION:
Spy fiction is a British invention. So is its less well-traveled sibling, the detective novel. A
third entertainment that the British elevated into an artform is the class system. This too is
a game played by rules that only insiders understand. Its strength—its assumption of ingroup
loyalty—is also its weakness, a susceptibility to insider-dealing and imposture. The
pioneers of spy fiction were outsiders on their way up: the Indian-born Rudyard Kipling
(“Kim”), the Irish nationalist Erskine Childers (“The Riddle of the Sands”), the Scottish
workhorse John Buchan (“The Thirty-Nine Steps”) and Somerset Maugham (“Ashenden”),
who was bisexual and born in one of the first places where the English practiced espionage,
the Paris embassy.
third entertainment that the British elevated into an artform is the class system. This too is
a game played by rules that only insiders understand. Its strength—its assumption of ingroup
loyalty—is also its weakness, a susceptibility to insider-dealing and imposture. The
pioneers of spy fiction were outsiders on their way up: the Indian-born Rudyard Kipling
(“Kim”), the Irish nationalist Erskine Childers (“The Riddle of the Sands”), the Scottish
workhorse John Buchan (“The Thirty-Nine Steps”) and Somerset Maugham (“Ashenden”),
who was bisexual and born in one of the first places where the English practiced espionage,
the Paris embassy.
A secret is useless unless it is shared. Novelists study motive, character and plotting. No
wonder so many spies become novelists. Agatha Christie was never a detective, but
Maugham spied in Russia in 1917. Compton Mackenzie was Britain’s man in Greece during
World War I and was prosecuted in 1933 for writing about his experience. The same year,
Mackenzie wrote the first spy spoof, “Water on the Brain.” The overnight expansion of the
intelligence services in 1939 was almost as much a gift to literature as it was to the Soviet
Union. Apart from the Cambridge Five, the new recruits included Ian Fleming (codename “17F,”
Naval Intelligence Division) and Graham Greene (who worked for the Secret Intelligence
Service, also known as MI6, in Sierra Leone). In “Counterfeit Spies,” Oliver Buckton shows that confusing fact and fiction is the first task of spies and second nature for novelists. Spy novels are procedurals. They create plausibility as much from their control of bureaucratic detail as from their probing of the human factor. Mr. Buckton, a professor of English at Florida Atlantic University and a skilled archival detective, augments the contexts of the big three (Fleming, Greene, John le Carré) with well-researched reports on the literary spooks Helen MacInnes, Dennis Wheatley and John Bingham.
Fleming suffered the double frustration of sailing a desk during the war and being unable
to talk about it afterward. His compensation, James Bond, is restricted neither by his liver
nor by the Official Secrets Act. Fleming’s fantasy exaggerates the prosaic elements of
Bond’s style, but the Bond novels’ ostensibly fantastical plots and gadgetry rework the
prosaic scheming of Fleming’s intelligence work. It was a Basil Thomson novel that gave
Fleming the idea that became Operation Mincemeat. In 1943, to mislead the Germans about
the imminent Allied invasion of Sicily, the British dropped a vagrant’s corpse, dressed in a
Royal Marines uniform and carrying counterfeit plans, into the sea off Spain. The Germans
took the bait, and “thousands of lives” were saved. Mr. Buckton traces the Mincemeat
motif further back to “The Thirty-Nine Steps,” then forward to Graf Hugo von der Drache,
who returns from the (nearly) dead as the deceiver Hugo Drax in “Moonraker” (1955).
“My plots are fantastic, while being often based upon truth,” Fleming explained. Greene’s
plots expose incompetence behind a cut-glass accent, but they too rework real secrets as
stories. In “The Ministry of Fear” (1943), the accidental spy Arthur Rowe attends a charity
fête and wins a cake containing microfilm of British military secrets. This seemingly
unlikely setup had been one of the actual ruses used by the “Garbo” network to feed
Germans false information in wartime Portugal. Greene probably heard about “Garbo”
from his wartime supervisor, the traitor Kim Philby. Mr. Buckton suspects that Greene
hinted at Philby’s treason in his screenplay for “The Third Man” in 1949—14 years before
Philby’s exposure as “the most notorious double agent of the twentieth century.”
to talk about it afterward. His compensation, James Bond, is restricted neither by his liver
nor by the Official Secrets Act. Fleming’s fantasy exaggerates the prosaic elements of
Bond’s style, but the Bond novels’ ostensibly fantastical plots and gadgetry rework the
prosaic scheming of Fleming’s intelligence work. It was a Basil Thomson novel that gave
Fleming the idea that became Operation Mincemeat. In 1943, to mislead the Germans about
the imminent Allied invasion of Sicily, the British dropped a vagrant’s corpse, dressed in a
Royal Marines uniform and carrying counterfeit plans, into the sea off Spain. The Germans
took the bait, and “thousands of lives” were saved. Mr. Buckton traces the Mincemeat
motif further back to “The Thirty-Nine Steps,” then forward to Graf Hugo von der Drache,
who returns from the (nearly) dead as the deceiver Hugo Drax in “Moonraker” (1955).
“My plots are fantastic, while being often based upon truth,” Fleming explained. Greene’s
plots expose incompetence behind a cut-glass accent, but they too rework real secrets as
stories. In “The Ministry of Fear” (1943), the accidental spy Arthur Rowe attends a charity
fête and wins a cake containing microfilm of British military secrets. This seemingly
unlikely setup had been one of the actual ruses used by the “Garbo” network to feed
Germans false information in wartime Portugal. Greene probably heard about “Garbo”
from his wartime supervisor, the traitor Kim Philby. Mr. Buckton suspects that Greene
hinted at Philby’s treason in his screenplay for “The Third Man” in 1949—14 years before
Philby’s exposure as “the most notorious double agent of the twentieth century.”
Then again, Eric Ambler had anticipated the setup for “The Third Man” (a writer
investigates a shady figure who fakes his own death) a decade earlier in “A Coffin for
Dimitrios” (1939). The traffic between fiction and deception runs in both directions. Mr.
Buckton’s techniques for directing it include scene-setting fictional interludes, confusing
to the reader but accurate in spirit. Dennis Wheatley’s novels of the spy Gregory Sallust
and his controller Sir Pellinore Gwaine-Cust sold well in the 1930s. When Wheatley entered
the secret world, one of his first tasks was planning for a defense against a German
invasion—a motif, Mr. Buckton notes, straight from the pages of Buchan and Childers.
Wheatley continued writing spy fiction during the war. Afterward, he said he felt “so
stuffed full of secrets that I feared that to write another spy story would land me in the
Tower.”
investigates a shady figure who fakes his own death) a decade earlier in “A Coffin for
Dimitrios” (1939). The traffic between fiction and deception runs in both directions. Mr.
Buckton’s techniques for directing it include scene-setting fictional interludes, confusing
to the reader but accurate in spirit. Dennis Wheatley’s novels of the spy Gregory Sallust
and his controller Sir Pellinore Gwaine-Cust sold well in the 1930s. When Wheatley entered
the secret world, one of his first tasks was planning for a defense against a German
invasion—a motif, Mr. Buckton notes, straight from the pages of Buchan and Childers.
Wheatley continued writing spy fiction during the war. Afterward, he said he felt “so
stuffed full of secrets that I feared that to write another spy story would land me in the
Tower.”
When Helen MacInnes’s first novel, “Above Suspicion,” appeared in 1941, her husband, the
scholar Gilbert Highet, was serving in MI6. The account of a parachute-jump into Occupied
France in MacInnes’s second novel, “Assignment in Brittany” (1942), was so accurate that
agents were issued with the novel before being sent on missions. Mr. Buckton finds it
“improbable” that Highet did not confide in his wife. MacInnes’s male-female partnerships
introduced gender roles into spy fiction before Fleming dramatized the battle of the sexes
as a hot war.
scholar Gilbert Highet, was serving in MI6. The account of a parachute-jump into Occupied
France in MacInnes’s second novel, “Assignment in Brittany” (1942), was so accurate that
agents were issued with the novel before being sent on missions. Mr. Buckton finds it
“improbable” that Highet did not confide in his wife. MacInnes’s male-female partnerships
introduced gender roles into spy fiction before Fleming dramatized the battle of the sexes
as a hot war.
John Bingham, the 7th Baron Clanmorris, ran wartime agents in MI5 under Maxwell Knight
(“M”). After rejoining the service in 1950, Bingham wrote crime novels and encouraged the
writing of his protégé, David Cornwell (John le Carré). Le Carré admired Bingham as an
interrogator (a “master of many fictions”) and used him as the model for the spymaster
George Smiley. The first Smiley novel, “Call for the Dead,” appeared in 1961, the same year
as Bingham’s wartime thriller “Night’s Black Agent.”
(“M”). After rejoining the service in 1950, Bingham wrote crime novels and encouraged the
writing of his protégé, David Cornwell (John le Carré). Le Carré admired Bingham as an
interrogator (a “master of many fictions”) and used him as the model for the spymaster
George Smiley. The first Smiley novel, “Call for the Dead,” appeared in 1961, the same year
as Bingham’s wartime thriller “Night’s Black Agent.”
Bingham felt betrayed by implication in Smiley’s “seedy world of corrupt bureaucracy and
cynical realpolitik” and le Carré’s moral equivalence between the West and the Soviets. In
his foreword to “The Double Agent” (1966), Bingham insisted that British spies were more
than “double-crossing cynics” or “bumbling broken-down layabouts.” Mr. Buckton’s
research suggests that this may be true. Some of them were also skilled writers.
cynical realpolitik” and le Carré’s moral equivalence between the West and the Soviets. In
his foreword to “The Double Agent” (1966), Bingham insisted that British spies were more
than “double-crossing cynics” or “bumbling broken-down layabouts.” Mr. Buckton’s
research suggests that this may be true. Some of them were also skilled writers.
--Dominic Green (not Greene!) is a Journal contributor and a fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Best, Matt Sherman 007
Bacon 3 - Connery 1 - YM 0
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