The Man with the Golden Typewriter (19 page)

However, if you would care to read his next adventure, “Doctor No”, you will see that he managed, but only just, to survive Rosa Klebb's poison, though incurring the wrath of M.

It is most encouraging when readers take the trouble to write, as you have done, even if on a mildly critical note, and I greatly enjoyed getting your letter.

TO W. ROSS NAPIER, ESQ., Findhorn, Gladney Road, Ceres, Cupar, Fife

Having fielded one criticism about his description of Moscow, Fleming hit a more serious obstacle when a Scottish fan provided pictures of No. 13 Sretenka Ulitsa, where the headquarters of SMERSH were meant to be placed. It looked perfectly ordinary, not at all as Fleming had described it, and definitely not the headquarters of anything.

11th October, 1961

Thank you very much for your fascinating letter of September 30th which has just reached me.

It was wonderfully zealous of you to do this detective work, and I am fascinated by your account, from which it is quite clear, and from your photograph, that no such building as I described could have existed at No. 13.

This upsets me very much.

The position is that Smersh, as an organisation, did very much exist and for the purposes I described, but I am under the impression that it has been closed down by Khrushchev, though obviously, vide the Khoklov
⁹
case, some department of M.W.D. [Ministry for the Interior] still carries on its duties.

When I was writing “From Russia with Love” I was fortunate enough to be in touch with a Colonel of the M.W.D. As a result of his description of the headquarters of Smersh I boldly put in the authentication note at the beginning of the book, and I can only hope he didn't also misinform me regarding the individuals whose real names I used, though the interior of the department doesn't matter so much.

So, all I can plead in view of your evidence, is that I was not being intentionally misleading.

Anyway, thank you very much indeed for your fascinating letter and for the photograph, both of which I shall keep in my files.

 

7

Conversations with the Armourer

‘Some reviewers of my books about James Bond have been generous in commending the accuracy of the expertise which forms a considerable part of the furniture of these books. I may say that correspondents from all over the world have been equally enthusiastic in writing to point out errors in this expertise, and the mistakes I have made, approximately one per volume, will no doubt forever continue to haunt my In-basket.'

Ian Fleming: ‘The Guns of James Bond', 1962.

From out of the blue in May 1956 a letter arrived from Geoffrey Boothroyd, a gun expert living in Glasgow. It contained a critique of James Bond's sidearms that caused Fleming a small amount of alarm. Hitherto, he had armed Bond with a .25 Beretta, a slim weapon little larger than a man's hand, which he wore in a chamois leather holster under his left armpit. Given a clear eye and a steady hand it could send a nugget of lead to deadly effect. The concept was stylish but, as Boothroyd pointed out, completely impractical. Nobody with any sense – not to mention a licence to kill – would use such a puny thing. And he went on to explain why. From holster to grip, chamber to bullet, he parsed the mechanics of short-range death.

It was disheartening for Fleming, who prided himself on the accuracy of his research, to have such a hole blown in his credibility. All the same, he was fascinated by Boothroyd's lore. He himself had handled a number of guns in his time and for a journalist owned a surprisingly large arsenal. He had a .25 Browning automatic, left over from his time in Naval Intelligence, plus a .38
Police Special Colt revolver given to him as a memento by General Bill Donovan, head of the American Secret Service. In a cupboard somewhere he kept a pair of Holland & Holland 12-bore shotguns, as well as a .275 Rigby for larger game. In addition he used a .22 Browning rifle for pest control at Goldeneye. But he was a novice compared to Boothroyd.

Their correspondence started in 1956 while Fleming was correcting the manuscript of
From Russia with Love
, and continued intermittently until his death. It was an unusual relationship. Boothroyd kept Fleming informed about his personal circumstances, while advising him on a variety of weapons that Bond might find useful. Fleming, meanwhile, anointed Boothroyd as Bond's fictional armourer and charged him, in real life, with answering the many queries that came in about his guns. Strangely, they did not meet until March 1961, when a public relations event brought them together in Glasgow.

In 1962, when their letters were published under the title ‘The Guns of James Bond', it caused a minor sensation. Nowadays it is de rigueur for writers to specify a particular agent of mayhem: Glock, Sig Sauer, Ithaca – the names resound to anyone familiar with the formulaics of thrillerdom. In the 1950s, however, the world was more innocent. When British policemen chased a suspect they blew whistles or, more dashingly, rang a little bell at the front of their car. Guns were uncommon currency and if they were fired in anger it was a major event. All of this has changed, and the transition – at least in literary terms – can perhaps be traced to, or at least mirrored by, the correspondence between Ian Fleming and Geoffrey Boothroyd.

FROM G. BOOTHROYD, 17 Regent Park Sq., Glasgow, S.1.

May 23rd, 1956

I have, by now, got rather fond of Mr. James Bond. I like most of the things about him, with the exception of his rather deplorable taste in firearms. In particular I dislike a man who comes into contact with all sorts of formidable people using a .25 Beretta. This sort of gun is really a lady's gun, and not a really nice lady at that. If Mr. Bond has to use a light gun he would be better off with a .22 rim fire and the lead bullet would cause more shocking effect than the jacketed type of the .25.

May I suggest that Mr. Bond is armed with a revolver? This has many advantages for the type of shooting that he is called upon to perform and I am certain that Mr. Leiter would agree with this recommendation. The Beretta will weigh, after it has been doctored, somewhere under one pound. If Mr. Bond gets himself an S. & W. .38 Special Centennial Airweight he will have a real man-stopper weighing only 13 ozs. The gun is hammerless so that it can be drawn without catching in the clothing and has an overall length of 6½”. Barrel length is 2”, note that it is not ‘sawn off.' No one who can buy his pistols in the States will go to the trouble of sawing off pistol barrels as they can be purchased with short 2” barrels from the manufacturer. In order to keep down the bulk, the cylinder holds 5 cartridges, and these are standard .38 S&W Special. It is an extremely accurate cartridge and when fired from a 2” barrel has, in standard loading, a muzzle velocity of almost 860 ft./sec. and muzzle energy of almost 260 ft./lbs. This is against the .25 with M.V. of 758 ft./sec. but only 67 ft./lbs. muzzle energy. So much for his personal gun. Now he must have a real man stopper to carry in the car. For this purpose the S. & W. .357 Magnum has no equal except the .44 Magnum. However with the .357, Bond can still use his .38 S.W. Special cartridges in the Magnum but not vice versa. This can be obtained in barrel lengths as follows: 3½”, 5”, 6”, 6½” and 8¾” long. With a 6½” barrel and adjustable sights Bond could do some really effective shooting. The .357 Magnum has a MV of 1515 ft/sec. and a ME of 807 ft./lbs. Figures like these give an effective range of 300 yards, and it's very accurate, too, 1” groups at 20 yards on a machine rest.

With these two guns our friend would be able to cope with really quick draw work and long range effective shooting.

Now to gun harness, rigs or what have you. First of all, not a shoulder holster for general wear, please. I suggest that the gun is carried in a Berns Martin Triple Draw holster. This type of holster holds the gun in by means of a spring and can be worn on the belt or as a shoulder holster. I have played about with various types of holster for quite a time now and this one is the best. I took some pictures of the holster some time ago and at present can only find the proofs but I send them to you
to illustrate how it works. I have numbered the prints and give a description of each print below.

‘A' Series. Holster worn on belt at right side. Pistol drawn with right hand.

1.
Ready position. Note that the gun is not noticeable.

2.
First movement. Weight moves to left foot. Hand draws back coat and sweeps forward to catch butt of pistol. Finger outside holster.

3.
Gun coming out of holster through the split front.

4.
In business.

This draw can be done in 3/5ths of a second by me. With practice and lots of it you could hit a figure at 20 feet in that time.

‘B' Series. Shoulder holster. Gun upside down on left side. Held in by spring. Drawn with right hand.

1.
First position.

2.
Coat drawn back by left hand, gun butt grasped by right hand, finger outside holster.

3.
Gun coming out of holster.

4.
Bang! You're dead.

‘C' Series. Holster worn as in A, but gun drawn with left hand.

1.
Draw commences. Butt held by first two fingers of left hand. Third finger and little finger ready to grasp trigger.

2.
Ready to shoot. Trigger being pulled by third and little finger, thumb curled round stock, gun upside down.

This really works but you need a cut away trigger guard.

‘D' Series. Holster worn on shoulder, as in ‘B' Series, but gun drawn with left hand.

1.
Coat swept back with left hand and gun grasped.

2.
Gun is pushed to the right to clear holster and is ready for action.

I'm sorry that I couldn't find the better series of photographs but these should illustrate what I mean. The gun used is a .38 S.W. with a sawn off barrel to 2¾”. (I know this contradicts what I said over the page but I can't afford the 64 dollars needed so I had to make my own.) It has
target sights, ramp front sights, adjustable rear sight, rounded butt, special stocks and a cut away trigger guard.

If you have managed to read this far I hope that you will accept the above in the spirit that it is offered. I have enjoyed your four books immensely and will say right now that I have no criticism of the women in them, except that I've never met any like them and would doubtless get into trouble if I did.

FLEMING TO BOOTHROYD

31st May, 1956

I really am most grateful for your splendid letter of May 23rd.

You have entirely convinced me, and I propose, perhaps not in the next volume of James Bond's memoirs but in the subsequent one, to change his weapons in accordance with your instructions.

Since I am not in the habit of stealing another man's expertise, I shall ask you in due course to accept remuneration for your most valuable technical aid.

Incidentally, can you suggest where I can see a .38 Airweight in London? Who would have one?

As a matter of interest, how do you come to know so much about these things? I was delighted with the photographs and greatly impressed by them. If ever there is talk of making films of some of James Bond's adventures in due course, I shall suggest to the company concerned that they might like to consult you on some technical aspects. But they may not take my advice, so please do not set too much store by this suggestion.

From the style of your writing it occurs to me that you may have written books or articles on these subjects. Is that so?

Bond has always admitted to me that the .25 Beretta was not a stopping gun, and he places much more reliance on his accuracy with it than in any particular qualities of the gun itself. As you know, one gets used to a gun and it may take some time for him to settle down with the Smith & Wesson. But I think M. should advise him to make a change; as also in the case of the .357 Magnum.

He also agrees to give a fair trial to the Berns Martin holster, but he is inclined to favour something a little more casual and less bulky. The well-worn chamois leather pouch under his left arm has become almost part of his clothes, and he will be loath to make a change, though, here again, M. may intervene.

At the present moment Bond is particularly anxious for expertise on the weapons likely to be carried by Russian agents, and I wonder if you have any information on this.

As Bond's biographer I am most anxious to see that he lives as long as possible and I shall be most grateful for any further technical advices you might like to pass on to him.

Again, with very sincere thanks for your extremely helpful and workmanlike letter.

BOOTHROYD TO FLEMING

1st June, 1956

I was truly delighted to receive your charming letter. This is the first time I have had either the inclination or the temerity to write to the author of any books that pass through my hands; quite frankly in many cases the rest of the material is not worth backing up by correct and authentic ‘gun dope.' You have, incidentally, enslaved the rest of my household, people staying up to all hours of the night in an endeavour to finish a book before some other interested party swipes it.

If I am to be considered for the post of Bond's ballistic man I should give you my terms of reference. Age 31, English, unmarried. Employed by I.C.I. Ltd. as Technical Rep in Scotland. Member of the following Rifle Clubs: N.R.A., Gt. Britain, English Twenty Club, National Rifle Association of America, non-resident member. St. Rollox Rifle Club, West of Scotland Rifle Club, Muzzle Loading Association of Gt. Britain. I shoot with shotgun and rifle, target, clay pigeon, deer, but, to my deep regret, no big game. (I cherish a dream that one day a large tiger or lion will escape from the zoo or a travelling circus and I can bag it in Argyle St., or Princes St., Edinburgh.) I do both muzzle loading and breech loading shooting,
load my own shotgun and pistol ammunition. Shoot with pistol mainly target and collect arms of various sorts. My present collection numbers about 45, not as many as some collections go but all of mine go off and have been fired by me. Shooting and gun lore is a jolly queer thing, most people stick to their own field, rather like stamp collectors who specialise in British Colonials. Such people shoot only with the rifle and often only .303 or only .22. There are certain rather odd types like myself who have a go at the lot, including Archery. It's a most fascinating study if one has the time, and before long it's given up and you collect old Bentleys or it becomes an obsession. We all have a pet aspect of our hobby, and mine is this business of ‘draw and shoot', or the gun lore of close-combat weapons. On reflection it is pretty stupid as it's most unlikely that I shall ever do this sort of thing in earnest but it has the pleasant advantage of not having very many fish in the pond and however you look at it you are an authority. In Scotland I have the space to do this sort of thing, and have two friends who are not 150 miles away to talk to. I seem to have taken up a lot of space on this, must want to impress you!