Dr No

Following the poor reception of The Spy Who Loved Me, Fleming decided to visit Jamaica in July 1962, where he worked on the short story Octopussy. The story is set in Kitzbuhel and Jamaica, two places close to Fleming’s heart, and centres around a figure suffering the ill effects of a lifetime of smoking and drinking heavily who seems distinctly autobiographical.

Following his heart attack, Ian Fleming spent a month convalescing in the London Clinic followed by the Dudley Hotel in Hove and while recuperating started to write down a story he’d been telling Caspar about a magic flying car – Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The opinions expressed in the article are those of the author. […]