Octopussy and The Living Daylights - Background

Background

On the morning of 12 August 1964, Fleming died of a heart attack; eight months later, The Man with the Golden Gun was published. The rights to Fleming's works were held by Glidrose Productions (now Ian Fleming Publications) and it was decided by the company that two short stories, "Octopussy" and "The Living Daylights", would be published in 1966.

"Octopussy"

The story "Octopussy" was written in early 1962 at Fleming's Goldeneye estate in Jamaica. The story is told in the manner of "Quantum of Solace", with Bond as catalyst for story told in flashback, rather than as a main character for action. The topics chosen for Fleming were familiar ground for him to cover, with hidden gold, tropical fish and the wartime exploits of commandos all coming from elements of his past. Also from the past, or from his acquaintance, were other references used in the story and Miscellaneous Objectives Bureau was a fictional version of Fleming's 30 AU unit. One of Fleming's neighbours in Jamaica, and later his lover, was Blanche Blackwell, mother of Chris Blackwell of Island Records. Fleming had previously used Blackwell's name as the guano-collecting ship in Dr. No, calling it Blanche. Blackwell had given Fleming a coracle called Octopussy, the name of which Fleming used for the story.

"The Living Daylights"

Fleming originally titled "The Living Daylights" as "Trigger Finger", although when it first appeared, in the The Sunday Times colour supplement of 4 February 1962, it was under the title of "Berlin Escape". It was also published in June 1962 issue of the American magazine Argosy under the same name. For The Sunday Times, Fleming had commissioned Graham Sutherland to undertake the artwork to accompany the piece, at a cost of 100 guineas, although the artwork wasn't used in the published edition.

As background research to the story, Fleming corresponded with Captain E.K. Le Mesurier, secretary of the National Rifle Association at Bisley for information and to correct some of the more specialist areas of knowledge required for sniper shooting. Part of the background to the plot, of using the noise of the orchestra to cover the crossing over no man's land, was inspired by Pat Reid's escape from Colditz prisoner of war camp, with two escapers having to run across a courtyard under the cover of the noise from an orchestra. The conductor of the Colditz orchestra was Douglas Bader, who played golf with Fleming on a number of occasions. The assassin, Trigger, was partly based on Amaryllis Fleming, Ian's half-sister, a concert cellist with blonde hair, and Fleming managed to get a passing reference to her in the story, saying: "Of course Suggia had managed to look elegant, as did that girl Amaryllis somebody."

"Property of a Lady"

"Property of a Lady" was commissioned by Sotheby's for use in their annual journal, The Ivory Hammer, and was published in November 1963 and later in Playboy. The story was written in early 1963, and Fleming was so unhappy with the final piece he refused payment from Sotheby's for something he considered so lacklustre.

"007 in New York"

In 1959 Fleming was commissioned by The Sunday Times to write a series of articles based on world cities, material for which later became the Thrilling Cities book; whilst travelling through New York for material, Fleming wrote "007 in New York" from Bond's point of view. "007 in New York" was originally titled "Reflections in a Carey Cadillac" and it contains a recipe for scrambled eggs which came from May Maxwell, the housekeeper to friend Ivar Bryce who gave her name to Bond's own housekeeper, May. The story was first published in the New York Herald Tribune in October 1963 as "Agent 007 in New York", but was subsequently renamed as "007 in New York" for the 1964 US editions of Thrilling Cities.