Goldfinger (novel) - Background

Background

Goldfinger was written in Jamaica at Fleming's Goldeneye estate in January and February 1958 and was the longest typescript Fleming had produced to that time. He initially gave the manuscript the title The Richest Man in the World. Fleming had originally conceived the card game scene as a separate short story but instead used the device for Bond and Goldfinger's first encounter. Similarly, the depressurisation of Goldfinger's plane was another plot device he had intended to use elsewhere, but which found its way into Goldfinger. Some years previously a plane had depressurised over the Lebanon and an American passenger had been sucked out of the window and Fleming, who was not a comfortable airline passenger, had made note of the incident to use it.

As usual in the Bond novels, a number of Fleming's friends or associates had their names used in the novel; the Masterton sisters having their names taken from Sir John Masterman, an MI5 agent and Oxford academic who ran the double cross system during World War II; Alfred Whiting, the golf professional at Royal St George's Golf Club, Sandwich, becoming Alfred Blacking; whilst the Royal St George's Golf Club itself became the Royal St Mark's, for the game between Bond and Goldfinger. In the summer of 1957 Fleming had played in the Bowmaker Pro-Am golf tournament at the Berkshire Golf Club, where he partnered the Open winner Peter Thomson: much of the background went into the match between Bond and Goldfinger. One of Fleming's neighbours in Jamaica, and later his lover, was Blanche Blackwell, mother of Chris Blackwell of Island Records; Fleming used Blanche as the model for Pussy Galore, although the name "Pussy" came from Mrs "Pussy" Deakin, formerly Livia Stela, an SOE agent and friend of his wife's.

Fleming's golf partner, John Blackwell, (a cousin to Blanche Blackwell) was also a cousin by marriage to Ernő Goldfinger and disliked him: it was Blackwell who reminded Fleming of the name. Fleming also disliked what Goldfinger was doing destroying Victorian buildings, replacing them with the architect's modernist designs, particularly a terrace at Goldfinger's own residence at 2 Willow Road. Goldfinger threatened to sue Fleming over the use of the name and, in retaliation, Fleming threatened to add an erratum slip to the book changing the name from Goldfinger to Goldprick and explaining why; the matter was settled out of court after the publishers, Jonathan Cape, agreed to ensure the name Auric was always used in conjunction with Goldfinger. Fleming's golfing friend John Blackwell then became the heroin smuggler at the beginning of the book, with a sister who was a heroin addict.

There were some similarities between Ernő and Auric: both were Jewish immigrants who came to Britain from Eastern Europe in the 1930s and both were Marxists, although they were physically very different. The likely model for Goldfinger was American gold tycoon Charles W. Engelhard, Jr., who Fleming had met in 1949. Englehard had established a company, the Precious Metals Development Company, which circumvented numerous export restrictions, selling gold ingots directly into Hong Kong. Fleming had reinforced his knowledge of gold by sending a questionnaire to an expert at the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, one of the Livery Companies of the City of London with a list of queries about gold, its properties and the background of the industry, including smuggling. Fleming himself liked gold enough to commission a gold-plated typewriter from the Royal Typewriter Company, although he never actually used it. In 1995, this machine was purchased by the Bond actor, Pierce Brosnan.