March 11, 2015

GOLDENEYE tells the true story of Ian Fleming’s life in Jamaica, the place where James Bond was born.

For two months every year --- from 1946 to his death 18 years later --- Ian Fleming lived at Goldeneye, the house he built on a point of high land overlooking a small white sand beach of Jamaica’s stunning north coast. It was here that Fleming immersed himself in a Bond-like life of tropical oblivion fueled by vodka and cigarettes (of which, like 007, Fleming smoked 70 a day). All of Fleming’s Bond novels and stories were written there.

GOLDENEYE explores the huge influence of Jamaica on the creation of Fleming’s iconic post-war hero. The island was for Fleming part retreat from the world, part tangible representation of his own values, and part exotic fantasy. It examines his Jamaican friendships --- his extraordinary circle included Errol Flynn, the Oliviers, international politicians and British royalty, as well as his close neighbor Noel Coward --- and trace his changing relationship with Ann Charteris (and hers with Jamaica) and the emergence of Blanche Blackwell as his Jamaican soulmate. GOLDENEYE also compares the real Jamaica of the 1950s during the build-up to independence with the island’s portrayal in the Bond books, to shine a light on the attitude of the likes of Fleming and Coward to the dramatic end of the British Empire.

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