Towards the end of
Fleming’s penultimate full-length novel, YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE (1964), Bond
is missing presumed dead while on a ‘diplomatic’ mission to Japan. An
obituary appears in The Times which explains that Bond, being
orphaned as a child after a climbing accident claims the lives of his
parents, Andrew and Monique, he goes to live under the guardianship of his
aunt, a Miss Charmian Bond, who lives in the quaintly named hamlet of Pett
Bottom at Bridge, between Canterbury and Hythe. Her cottage was close to
the attractive Duck Inn, an excellent pub/restaurant that lies at the foot
of a beautiful small valley, and where Ian Fleming was often found sitting
in the garden making copious notes for his books, and where it is claimed
he wrote YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE. |