Courtesy of Isegoria, the correspondence of Geoffrey Boothroyd, 31, English, unmarried, and member of the National Rifle Association, Great Britain, English Twenty Club, National Rifle Association of America (nonresident member), West of Scotland Rifle Club, and Muzzle Loaders Association of Great Britain and Ian Fleming, author, journalist, and birdwatching enthusiast.
5 thoughts on “When Europe was civilized…”
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Awesome correspondence at the link. I incorrectly thought that Bond had always carried a Walther PPK.
Lex – admittedly I haven’t read any of Flemings books but I do believe the movie version and literary version – are very different. In the movie version Bob drove, of course, and Aston Martin
DB5.
Fleming’s Bond drove, I believe, a Bentley. And had a PPK in the movie.
How he came to the DB5 was a story – before Goldfinger’s production the fabulous Jaguar E=Type had just been introduced – maybe a year or so earlier (introduced in 1961).
The movie producers were just starting this franchise and were on a low budget.
They asked Sir Wm Lyons, the head of Jaguar – to loan them 2 E-Types for filming.
Lyons told them to buy the cars just like everyone else.
So they turned to Aston, who was on the verge of bankruptcy. They are a fascinating company but because of their low volumes. were always on the edge of bankruptcy.
Well the rest was history. This was before the concept of “product placement” – where producers get the manufacturer to pay them
Good story. A Jag kitted out by Q would have been most excellent.
But the world is a good place as it is, with Bond driving the Aston Martin.
Tinker with the past at your peril.
“Boothroyd provided Richard Chopping, the illustrator of the first edition cover of From Russia, With Love, with his own .38 Smith & Wesson snubnosed revolver modified with one third of the trigger guard removed to coincide with Fleming’s wishes of a design of a pistol with a rose.” from Wikipedia link to Boothroyd’s name above.
“rose” ?????
Rose.