Lewis Jones

James Bond’s secret: he’s Jamaican

A review of Goldeneye: Where Bond was Born, by Matthew Parker. This biography of Bond's creator reveals an Ian Fleming who was cruel, vain and racist

Ian Fleming on the beach near Goldeneye Photo: Getty 
issue 09 August 2014

Ian Fleming’s first visit to Jamaica was pure James Bond. In 1943, as assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence, he flew from Miami to Kingston to attend an Anglo-American naval conference and to investigate the rumour that Axel Wenner-Gren, a rich Swede and supposed Nazi, had built a secret submarine base at Hog Island, near Nassau.

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