It was also equally
inconceivable in the circumstances that he did not inform his publishers
of the situation. During the famous 1963 trial the publishers swore in
an affidavit that they had no knowledge of any of the matters relating
to the question of copyright. It was a fact they knew very well.
Months prior to the publication of THUNDERBALL, George Wren Howard, the
director and chairman of Jonathan Cape, was alerted to McClory’s
connection with the Bond story and that he claimed ownership of the
material and intended to sue. But Jonathan Cape’s plans for publishing
THUNDERBALL were so far advanced Howard saw it as nothing short of,
“disastrous if anything occurred to oblige us to postpone publication.”
In fact the decision to halt publication rested on the shoulders of only
one man, Fleming himself. And he quickly made it plain that he had no
intention of stopping THUNDERBALL from hitting bookshelves. In the view
of Philip McNair, a lawyer at Fleming’s American agent MCA, it was a
case now, with the threat of possible injunctions hanging over their
heads, “of taking a calculated risk as to which way McClory can or
will jump.” It was then a massive gamble publishing THUNDERBALL.
Of course McClory sued and at the trial Jonathan Cape’s George Wren
Howard, in his sworn affidavit, said that he knew nothing of McClory’s
claims of ownership in the THUNDERBALL story. Of course he knew. In
other words, one of Britain’s biggest and most respected publishers of
the time lied under oath.
8:
Many people have claimed that Ivar Bryce, after days of wrestling with
his conscience during the trial, finally decided to settle rather than
watch his beloved friend Ian Fleming, already desperately ill, endure
the days to come. There is evidence that Fleming’s health was in an even
worse state than previously thought. In a family letter dated 1967 Jack
Whittingham wrote that Bryce had revealed to him that, “…Fleming had
two very bad heart attacks during the court case.”
Another and much more controversial, and previously never revealed,
reason for the quick settlement is the revelation that McClory may have
had in his personal possession an incriminating letter against his
opponents. Bryce’s sudden decision to settle, so this theory goes, was
to prevent the letter seeing daylight and causing public embarrassment
both to Fleming and himself. Significantly, at the close of the trial,
Bryce’s QC handed a letter to the judge saying, “I think it would be
unwise for me to comment publicly on this letter.” After reading it
the judge observed, “All I can say about this is that I am very
surprised to see it.” The contents and author of the letter were
never made public, and its whereabouts, if indeed it even still exists,
is a mystery.
As a side-note to this mysterious letter, Bryce, when writing to
Fleming, would sometimes begin his correspondence with the endearment
“Dear Boy.” Even more strangely, in one letter to McClory, Bryce
signed off with the words “love and kisses.” Hardly the language
one would use in a letter to another man?
