The Man Who Was "Bond...James Bond"

The Imperial War Museum London has an interesting special exhibit right now on the life and works of writer Ian Fleming. The exhibit is irresistibly entitled For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond. Being a major James Bond fan I could not help but go.

I knew the basic facts about Fleming's life and, as some of you know, I've been working my way through the James Bond novels, but this exhibit gave me a much fuller vision of the man.

Fleming had a lot of love affairs--a real playboy. He preferred older, married women with no strings attached. There were numerous photos of him with these women on the beach, on the ski slopes and at cocktail parties. He didn't marry until he was over 40.

Despite coming from a well-connected family (his father was a close friend of Winston Churchill), Fleming lacked direction in his life until World War II. His work in British naval intelligence was the making of him, and the making of James Bond, as it turned out.

The exhibit has great JamesBondania within. Original manuscripts of the novels, hundreds of examples of the novels translated into other language, posters of the movies, original movie production sketches, guns, gadgets and on and on. I particularly enjoyed seeing the shoes with the poisoned knife in the toe that Lotte Lenya tried to stab Sean Connery with in From Russia With Love.

The rest of the Imperial War Museum is amazing and daunting. I hadn't been there since 1995 and the place has been improved so much. The main hall displays airplanes, armor (armour), missiles, weapons, bombs and all that good stuff. There are extensive exhibits on the World Wars and conflicts post-1945. There is also a very sobering Holocaust exhibit. The place is worth a visit if you make it to London.

In the museum shop I was sorely tempted to relive my childhood by buying a Corgi model of the Q Branch Aston Martin with the ejector seat or the Corgi model of Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang (which Fleming wrote) with the wings that spring out when you move the gear lever forward...but I didn't.

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