For Your Eyes Only (21 page)

Lois Maxwell played the role of Miss Moneypenny, ‘Britain's last line of defence' in the first fourteen James Bond films.

Courtesy of EON Productions

Ursula Andress on the beach in
Dr No
, wearing that bikini or, technically speaking, a black and white frontgather underwire bra with widely spaced shoulder straps and nombril bikini. And a knife.

Courtesy of EON Productions

Fleming smoked custom-made Morland Specials, each one decorated with three gold bands in memory of the rings on the sleeves of the wartime naval uniform. He smoked elegantly, constantly and fatally.

Used with permission of Getty Images

Ernst Stavro Blofeld (played by Donald Pleasence), Fleming's arch-villain, pictured here with his white Persian cat, an accoutrement that never appears in any of the books.

Courtesy of EON Productions

Aleister Crowley, occultist, mystic, drug addict and sexual omnivore, was the ‘wickedest man in England', according to his detractors. He may also have been the inspiration for Le Chiffre, the villain of
Casino Royale
.

Courtesy of Times Newspapers Ltd

Ernö Goldfinger, the modernist architect, who was so enraged to see his name appropriated by Fleming and attached to a gold-obsessed super-crook that he threatened to sue.

Used with permission of the Solo Syndication

Commander Lionel ‘Buster' Crabb, the naval war hero whose headless body was found more than a year after he was sent by MI6 to inspect the hull of a Soviet cruiser – provoking a political furore and inspiring the plot of
Thunderball
.

Used with permission of Getty Images

Nikolai Khokhlov, still hairless from the effects of radioactive poisoning caused when his coffee was laced with thallium – a revenge attack eerily reminiscent of the more recent murder of former KGB officer Aleksandr Litvinenko.

Courtesy of Times Newspapers Ltd

Geoffrey Boothroyd (
left
), the firearms expert who advised Fleming to re-arm James Bond with something more manly than his Beretta. He was rewarded by having his name attached to ‘Major Boothroyd', Fleming's fictional secret service armourer.

Courtesy of Times Newspapers Ltd

Sean Connery and Ian Fleming in the film set of
Dr No
, 1962.

Courtesy of Times Newspapers Ltd

Eva Green and Daniel Craig as Vesper Lynd and James Bond in the 2006 film of
Casino Royale
, the biggest box-office hit for Bond so far.

Courtesy of EON Productions

Roger Moore with film producers Cubby Broccoli (
right
) and Harry Saltzman on the roof of the Dorchester Hotel in London.

Courtesy of Times Newspapers Ltd