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  1. Ian Fleming Bond Letters Sell For 14,000 Pounds

    By Devin Zydel on 2008-04-12
    Ian Fleming

    Ian Fleming

    Letters between Ian Fleming and his own ‘Miss Moneypenny’ have sold for £14,340 at a recent auction–almost five times more than expected, reports the BBC News.

    The entire collection of four letters signed by Fleming and an annotated invoice with his initials was expected to sell for £3,000.

    As first reported on CommanderBond.net last month, the letters between the 007 creator and typist Jean Frampton reveal the latter’s close relationship with the world of James Bond.

    In one of the letters to go up for sale, dated 31 March, 1960, Fleming asks Frampton to use her ‘keen mind’ to help get his then current Bond novel, Thunderball ‘into shape’.

    Anything your quick eye falls upon… would be endlessly welcome,’ he added.

    ‘You can look on Mrs Frampton as Ian Fleming’s Miss Moneypenny,’ said Amy Brenan of Duke’s auctioneers in Dorset. ‘The collection is interesting because it details how the James Bond books were put together in the early 1960s.’

    While Frampton is believed to have never actually met Fleming face to face, the letters reveal that she often offered pointers on plot and literary style while being hired to type the manuscripts of the author’s Bond adventures.

    Ian Fleming's 'Thunderball'

    Ian Fleming’s Thunderball

    ‘I still regret the end of Thunderball,’ she wrote in one of the letters. ‘What about Blofeld or does he live to fight another day?’

    ‘Your occasional comments on the work you have done for me have been so helpful,’ wrote Fleming.

    Besides her assistance on 1961’s Thunderball, the letters reveal that Frampton also correspondended with Fleming on Live and Let Die, You Only Live Twice and The Man with the Golden Gun as well.

    ‘Mrs Frampton was actually an intelligent lady who had a French degree which she kept secret from her family,’ said Ms. Brenan.

    ‘She had lots of attributes like that and she enjoyed reading the novels as she was typing them. Her interest led her to make suggestions to the plot, for her to make alterations, and Fleming actually welcomed it.’

    ‘As well as his typist she was an editor as such, and she was the first person to read the books.’

    Also included were letters written by Mrs Frampton and Fleming’s secretaries, Una Trueblood and Beryl Griffie-Williams.

    Stay tuned to CommanderBond.net for all the latest literary James Bond news.