Now that Apple and Amazon are fighting for distribution rights to the James Bond franchise, it’s clear that Ian Fleming’s legacy is as rock solid today as it ever was. The author was adored by his fans for creating compelling fiction that had us lost in a world of spies and international intrigue, all while allowing us to believe that the fantastical plots were entirely possible. Just how did he do it? From an essay entitled “How to Write a Thriller,” which appeared in the May 1963 issue of Books and Bookmen, Fleming let us know in his own words:
“My plots are fantastic, while being often based upon truth. They go wildly beyond the probable but not, I think, beyond the possible. . . . Even so, they would stick in the gullet of the reader and make him throw the book angrily aside—for a reader particularly hates feeling he is being hoaxed—but for two further technical devices, if you like to call them that. First of all, the aforesaid speed of the narrative, which hustles the reader quickly beyond each danger point of mockery and, secondly, the constant use of familiar household names and objects which reassure him that he and the writer have still got their feet on the ground. This is where the real names of things come in useful. A Ronson lighter, a 4.5 litre Bentley with an Amherst-Villiers supercharger (please note the solid exactitude), the Ritz Hotel in London, the 21 Club in New York, the exact names of flora and fauna, even James Bond’s Sea Island cotton shirts with short sleeves. All these details are points de repère to comfort and reassure the reader on his journey into fantastic adventure.”
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