Free The James Bond Bedside Companion by Raymond Benson Page A

Villiers had designed superchargers (James Bond had an Amherst Villiers supercharger in his Bentley), and had taken up painting as a hobby. Fleming bought the portrait, and it was used as a frontispiece in a limited edition of ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE.
    On October 7, Dr. No premiered in London, and was a resounding success. Sean Connery was immediately accepted by the public as James Bond, and Ian Fleming seemed to like it as well. His words were, "Those who've read the book are likely to be disappointed, but those who haven't will find it a wonderful movie." Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman began planning the next film.
     
    I n January and February of 1963, Fleming wrote YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE at Goldeneye. The original manuscript was 170 pages long, and was the least revised of the novels. The book ended with another cliffhanger: James Bond has amnesia and is lost somewhere in Russia after leaving Japan.
    In April, ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE was published. There was a limited edition of 250 copies, each numbered and signed by the author. The regular edition featured yet another Richard Chopping painting on the jacket, which showed an artist's hand completing a design of Bond's coat of arms (complete with the Bond family motto, "The World is Not Enough"). Reviews were ecstatic. The Times called it "perfectly up to snuff, well-gimmicked, well-thrilled, well-jacketed." New American Library published the book a few months later, and it topped the New York Times best seller list for over six months. R. M. Stem called it "Solid Fleming. . . Mr. Fleming is a story teller of formidable skill."
    In May, Dr. No was released in the United States. Bosley Crowther in the New York Times thoroughly recommended the film, and it looked as though Eon Productions, in winning the American audience, truly had a successful investment. The second film, From Russia With Love , was almost complete, and Fleming had visited the set in Istanbul. He went mostly to see his friend Nazim Kalkavan again, but also because he was curious about what they were doing to his favorite book. From Russia With Love premiered in October in England, again to very favorable reviews. Ian and Anne Fleming threw a party for the cast and crew, but the author felt too ill to enjoy himself properly. He finally went upstairs to his room while the party continued.
    In November, a James Bond short story entitled "The Property of a Lady" was published in a book called The Ivory Hammer: The Year at Sotheby's. Sotheby's specially commissioned Fleming to do a story concerning an auction. It later appeared in Playboy magazine. Jonathan Cape finally published THRILLING CITIES that November as well, with a surrealistic painting of Monte Carlo by Paul Davis on its jacket. The book received mixed reviews in both England and America (the American edition was published by NAL).
    On November 19, the THUNDERBALL court case finally began. Not only was Fleming being sued by McClory for plagiarism and false attribution of authorship (Whittingham had dropped out as plaintiff due to financial difficulties), but Ivar Bryce was accused of injuring McClory as a false partner in Xanadu Productions. It was an extremely complicated case and the details are still controversial today. The attorneys for Bryce and Fleming felt that they had a case, as did their friend, Ernest Cuneo. In an affidavit on file in London, Fleming stated that Cuneo had "scribbled off" the basis of a suggested plot for the film. This draft was dated May 28, 1959 and Cuneo assigned all rights in the document to Bryce for the sum of one dollar. Fleming acknowledged this original source in the published copies of THUNDERBALL—the book is dedicated to Ernest Cuneo, "Muse." But it was soon apparent that McClory had a strong case, and Jack Whittingham's testimony would be in his favor. Additionally, a letter dated November 14, 1963, from Fleming's solicitors admitted that the THUNDERBALL novel did reproduce a substantial