Bond's Roots
CmdrAtticus
United StatesPosts: 1,102MI6 Agent
Now that (according to box office success) a large portion of the planet knows that Bond's roots are in Scotland, I always wondered about Fleming's reveal of this in Bond's YOLT obit.
It is has been stated with absolute certainty that Fleming only gave Bond his Scots roots because of Connery and the success of the first films. However, I wonder....
Fleming's father - Valentine - was a Scots born in Newport-on-Tay, Fife, Scotland, and was the son of wealthy Scottish banker Robert Fleming, founder of merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co. He lived in Arnisdale House, Loch Hourn, Inverness-shire, Scotland.
Now, given the fact that from time to time I've read that Fleming was very proud of his Scots ancestry, though he was born in London and lived and died as an Englishman - did he really give Bond Scots roots because of Connery, or did it in fact have more to do with his family and his father? Or...might it just be a strange coincidence that Connery being Scots together with Fleming's worship of his father is what gave him the idea of making Bond a product of the Highlands? Anyway, the fact that Fleming's Scots father is never mentioned in press coverage when it comes to Bond's heritage is very interesting.
It is has been stated with absolute certainty that Fleming only gave Bond his Scots roots because of Connery and the success of the first films. However, I wonder....
Fleming's father - Valentine - was a Scots born in Newport-on-Tay, Fife, Scotland, and was the son of wealthy Scottish banker Robert Fleming, founder of merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co. He lived in Arnisdale House, Loch Hourn, Inverness-shire, Scotland.
Now, given the fact that from time to time I've read that Fleming was very proud of his Scots ancestry, though he was born in London and lived and died as an Englishman - did he really give Bond Scots roots because of Connery, or did it in fact have more to do with his family and his father? Or...might it just be a strange coincidence that Connery being Scots together with Fleming's worship of his father is what gave him the idea of making Bond a product of the Highlands? Anyway, the fact that Fleming's Scots father is never mentioned in press coverage when it comes to Bond's heritage is very interesting.
Comments
I agree that Bond would have always had a Scotish background, Fleming spent
loads of time up there. As already stated the family were scottish so I'd say
it was a Given that Bond would also have Scottish roots.
I really wonder what Fleming had planned. Does that mean Monique Delacroix was not Bond's birth mother? Or that she wasn't really Swiss? We will never know.
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Maybe it was May!
The problem is that Fleming had no regard for continuity. In FRWL, his mother is English!
11- TB. 12- OP. 13- LALD. 14- TMWTGG. 15- FYEO. 16- YOLT. 17- TND. 18- QoS.
19- TWINE. 20- AVTAK. 21- MR. 22- DAF. 23- DAD.
Ah ha! So the Bond movies really are Flemingesque!
I'm rereading all the Fleming novels now, Blackleiter. If anything, they're worse with continuity than the films! We have a fairly detailed two page description of Bond killing two people in cold blood to gain his Double O number in CR but then he's repulsed by Darko Kerim killing Krilencu in FRWL because Bond's "never killed in cold blood"!
And the dates are all over the place...
11- TB. 12- OP. 13- LALD. 14- TMWTGG. 15- FYEO. 16- YOLT. 17- TND. 18- QoS.
19- TWINE. 20- AVTAK. 21- MR. 22- DAF. 23- DAD.
I'm basically pasting below an older post of mine on another thread:
I'm begining to think that anecdote about Fleming honoring Connery by giving Bond a Scottish heritage is becoming a really sore example of Bond urban legends running amok. Charles Helfenstein in his book, The Making of On Her Majesty's Secret Service documents Fleming's earliest intention to incorporate a Scottish background into Bond's backstory when he commissioned research with the College of Arms for OHMSS, which predates the EON production of Dr. No, which is the earliest time possible when Fleming could have seen Connery in character before the film's release.
It's also known that Fleming was very kind and even gregarious with the press when he was asked about the film adaptations of his novels, including what he thought of Sean Connery's portrayal by stating that "it was hard to imagine anyone but Connery in the role." But nonetheless, Fleming did not change his character's own history in reaction to Bondmania, since afterall, Fleming was said to be very proud of his own Scottish roots.
And Charles' reasearch notwithstanding, Fleming did not utilise any background work that may, or may not, have been undertaken until.... the publication of the novel after the release of Dr NO.
James Bond himself always believed his was English, said as much, until Mr Connery BECAME James Bond, so go figure. However nice it might be to recontruct Fleming as a romantic Scotsman, if he'd originally intended JB to be Scottish it wouldn't have taken Sir Sean's casting and huge impact on the role to make him finally reveal it, surely?
there are many Scottish/English and Irish/English Families. Who
sit in the House of Lords but is the Lord of "Ochmagoolie" outside
Dublin., and his family have been born in Ireland for Centurys But
He'd still call himself English.
The Duke of Wellington for example was Born In Dublin but I don't
think anyone would call him Irish.
So as a life long Yorkshireman do you think it'd be believeable if I woke up one morning and decided I really felt I was a Lancastrian just because me Dad was from there, 'cos that's the equivalent of what Fleming's JB - apparently - does.
secretly wanted to be a Lancastrian. {:)
Personally, I am delighted to be from God's Country, nor would wish to be from anywhere else.
And I say what I like, and I like what I say.
-{
Yes, though he famously said that "Just because one is born in a stables it does not make one a horse".
Roger Moore 1927-2017
I re-read FRWL recently, SJM, and I don't remember any reference to Bond's mother being English. Perhaps you could give the exact quote to back this claim up?
I think you may have misremembered the line where Kerim states that his mother came from Somerset.
It's possible she was born Swiss, but became an English citizen.
It's more likely there's no such quote in FRWL.
Yes i would also go along with Barbel,you cannot become an English citizen,
you can become a British citizen,
I am an anarchist,
Don't know what I want
But I know how to get it.
I wanna destroy the passerby
'Cos I wanna be anarchy,
No dogs body #
Would Bond Have Been a Punk?, English, Scottish who cares so long as he wasn't American. {:)
Monique Delacroix's Swiss nationality is canon.
Hey, when Ray Benson was chucking out his stuff I was terrified he was going to throw in a Bostonian set of grandparents for JB....
As for Deaver, chuff knows where HIS creation was meant to be from. Certainly, not the mind of Ian Fleming.
The problem with that was that Fleming, at the time of that remark, was already a severely ill man in more than one regard. And possibly not exactly what you'd call sober.
Monique Panchaud de Bottens, one of Fleming's more serious girlfriends during his time in Switzerland (autumn '29 to late summer '31) was the model for Monique Delacroix. Fleming met her in 1930 and they became a serious issue during the subsequent time until Fleming returned to England for his Foreign Office exam. Fleming was passable, but missed nonetheless. Panchaud followed him to England in December 1931 and was met by Eve Fleming's cold and relentless hatred, for Fleming's mother regarded her as the reason her son failed for the third time after Eton and Sandhurst. Monique Panchaud was an easy target for the old dragon and Fleming himself not man enough to stand up against his 'Em'. Panchaud did the decent thing and returned home in January '32. Fleming's mother had once more put her stamp on her son's life.
In the summer of '63 Fleming went on a personal time journey in Europe, visiting all the places of the golden days of his youth. He also tried to see Monique again. Alas she refused to see him, with a certain degree of justification I daresay. Fleming had a mind to reveal to her how he included her into his work and made her the mother of James Bond.
Could well be after being rejected he may have changed his mind.
By the way: Panchaud apparently learned about her role in James Bond's life and supposedly used to say to her own son he had a brother: James Bond.
Wilde