For Your Eyes Only (short Story Collection) - Background

Background

In the summer of 1958, CBS television commissioned Fleming to write episodes of a television show based on the James Bond character. This deal came about after the success of the 1954 television adaptation of Casino Royale as an episode of the CBS television series Climax!. Fleming agreed to the deal, and began to write outlines for the series; however, CBS later dropped the idea. In January and February 1959 Fleming adapted four of television plots into short stories at his Goldeneye estate in Jamaica and added a fifth story he had written in the summer of 1958. The stories were originally titled The Rough with the Smooth, although this was changed to For Your Eyes Only for publication. Fleming biographer Andrew Lycett noted that at the time Fleming was writing both the television scripts, and the short story collection, "Ian's mood of weariness and self-doubt was beginning to affect his writing" and this can be seen in Bond's internal monologue of thoughts.

"From a View to a Kill"

"From a View to a Kill" was initially intended to be the backstory for Hugo Drax, the villain of the novel Moonraker. The story would have taken place during World War II, and featured Drax as the motorcycle assassin who crashes his bike and is taken to an American field hospital. Later, the hospital is bombed, leaving Drax with amnesia and a disfigured face. The story was one that Fleming had drawn up for the television series. The SHAPE head of security, Colonel Schreiber, was designed to be the antithesis of Bond, with greying hair, the air of a bank manager, desk with silver framed photographs of his family and a single white rose; the description shows Fleming using colour to show Schreiber's lack of colour and personality. The idea of the underground hideout was inspired by Fleming's brother Peter's band of Auxiliary Units who dug tunnel networks in Britain in 1940 as part of a resistance movement in advance of a German invasion.

"For Your Eyes Only"

The story was originally entitled Man's Work and was set in Vermont, where Fleming had spent a number of summers at his friend Ivar Bryce's Black Hollow Farm, which became the model for von Hammerstein's hideaway, Echo Lake. The name of the villain of the story, Von Hammerstein was taken from General Baron Kurt von Hammerstein-Equord (1878–1943), one of Hitler's opponents.

"Quantum of Solace"

"Quantum of Solace" was based on a story told to Fleming by his neighbour and lover Blanche Blackwell about a real-life police inspector, who Fleming turned into the civil servant, Philip Masters. As thanks for the story, Fleming bought Blackwell a Cartier watch. Fleming wrote the story in the style of W Somerset Maugham and this was Fleming's homage to a writer he greatly admired. "Quantum of Solace" was first published in Modern Woman's Magazine of November 1959.

"Risico"

In 1958 Fleming holidayed with his wife Ann in Venice and at the Lido peninsula; Fleming was a great admirer of Thomas Mann's work Death in Venice, which was based on the Lido and the Flemings visited it for that reason, using the location as the backdrop for "Risico". For the love interest in the story, Lisl, Fleming used the name of an ex-girlfriend from Kitzbühel in Austria, where he had travelled in the 1930s. For the name of Colombo, Fleming borrowed the first name of Gioacchino Colombo, the Ferrari engine designer.

"The Hildebrand Rarity"

In April 1958 Fleming flew to the Seychelles via Bombay to report for The Sunday Times on a treasure hunt: although the hunt was not as exciting as he hoped, Fleming used many of the details of the island for "The Hildebrand Rarity". Fleming combined the backdrop of the Seychelles with his experience he and Blanche Blackwell had undergone when they had visited Pedro Keys, two islands off Jamaica, and watched two scientists do something similar with poison to obtain samples. For the villain of the story, an abusive American millionaire, Fleming used the name Milton Krest: Milton was the code name of a Greek sea captain who ferried British soldiers and agents through German patrols and who received the Distinguished Service Order and an MBE, whilst Krest was the name of tonic and ginger beer Fleming drank in Seychelles. "The Hildebrand Rarity" was first published in Playboy in March 1960.