Books from the man who may have been James Bond
By Marjorie Kehe | 09.04.08
A full set of Ian Fleming’s 007 books was sold for more than $55,000, the Telegraph reported yesterday. But the most interesting thing about the sale was not the price.
The books have a particular value because they come from the library of the late Maj. Gen. Sir Fitzroy Maclean, a former soldier, diplomat, member of Parliament, and (perhaps) the real-life model for James Bond.
Included in the deal for the books were some personal items belonging to Maclean. These included a 1938 passport listing Maclean’s address as the British embassy in Moscow, invitations to cocktail parties at the home of the French ambassador, and photographs of Maclean with Yugoslavian dictator Josep Broz Tito.
Maclean joined the diplomatic service in 1933. He served throughout World War II and the cold war and lived a real-life saga of secret missions, double agents, and narrow escapes. He finally retired to Scotland where he died at the age of 85 in 1996.
He and Fleming became friends sometime before World War II.
The purchaser of Maclean’s Bond books and other paraphernalia was John Gilbert, who says the books will be useful background for a biography of Fleming he is writing.
Comments
2. Paul Atkinson | 12.14.08
Concerning Rev. Nelson French comments on Conrad O’Brien ffrench.
I have every confidence that ffrench was the principle inspiration for Bond. There were others of course Ian put a lot of himself into the Bond character; the “kiss kiss bang bang” womanizer is all Ian. I would dispute though the claim that Conrad was a “double agent” to my knowledge he was not. His espionage career is detailed on my site and had he been a double agent it seems inconceivable that the British Secret Service would have allowed HRH Princess Margaret to use his Canadian home Fairholme as a temporary residence during her tour of Canada in 1953? Let alone allow him an audience with the Princess! If Rev. French has evidence of ffrench’s duplicity I would be very interested to see it?
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1. Rev. Nelson French | 09.05.08
While Maj.Gen.Sir Fitzroy Maclean might very well have been an inspiration for Ian Fleming’s 007 novels, author John Gilbert in writing his planned biography of Fleming might be interested to know that another contemporary of that era, also a tall handsome and mysterious veteran of the wars, (cold and hot), and a double agent,was Conrad O’Brien-ffrench. He was a close friend of Fleming and held to his dying day that his life was at least a major influence upon the creation of the fictional Bond character.