Ending of FRWL

AlphaOmegaSin

Was Flemming planning to end the Series with FRWL, but changed his Mind and later wrote Dr No?

Sir Miles

I think that was the idea...wasn't he running out of ideas and starting to get ill ? So he gave himself the option to stop....

JamesBondBlog

He was uncertain as to whether he wanted to continue at that point. He was getting tired of having to come up with the plots, and FRWL was sort of meant to be his "masterpiece" - an answer to the friends of his wife who would make fun of his writing, I believe he once walked in on them reading aloud and laughing.

I can't remember exactly, I think he might've definitely killed Bond off on his first draft, and later changed it to be more open-ended to leave himself some wiggle-room if he decided he wanted to continue, which thankfully, he did.

Thunderpussy

I agree Fleming left himself some room to bring Bond back.

Golrush007

I always got the impression that it was never meant to be as definitive a 'killing-off' as was originally intended to be the case with Sherlock Holmes in 'The Final Problem' for example, but Fleming was rather leaving his options open. I wonder how seriously Fleming was actually considering ending the series there.

Thunderpussy

Just reading R Benson's The James Bond bedside companion, where it is stated that
Fleming did indeed ( as said by Barbel ) intend to kill off Bond.