COMMANDER JAMAICA The name James Bond is synonymous with exotic locales, beautiful femmes fatale, cool gadgets and sports cars and dastardly villains. He is the invention of a British journalist and World War II British navy spy, Ian Fleming, who from 1952 to 1964 wrote his classic novels depicting the adventures of British Secret Service Agent 007 at his beachfront vacation home in Jamaica, Goldeneye. In the late 1940s while serving after the war as head of foreign correspondents for London’s Sunday Times, Fleming wanted to settle in the Caribbean. He was looking for a suitable place where he could return every winter and write, and although he’d only briefly been to Jamaica during World War II, he loved it and decided he would one day make a home there. He once noted that if he had not moved to Jamaica, he would likely not have written Casino Royale, the first of his 14 James Bond books, in 1952. In the series, Fleming often showcased the people, scenery and culture of Jamaica. As Bond rose in popularity, first in the novels, then in the 1960s-era movies starring Sean Connery, so did Fleming and Jamaica. The first Bond film, Dr. No (based on a Fleming script for a prospective TV series called Commander Jamaica), released in 1962, was filmed in Jamaica, and the island has traded on the glamorous 007 image ever since. The iconic Jamaican soca band, the Dragonaires, led by Byron Lee, recorded and performed “Jamaica Jump Up” in the film and is on the first Bond soundtrack. (Roger Moore’s first Bond outing, Live And Let Die, was also filmed in part in Jamaica.) After Fleming’s death in 1964, Goldeneye was nearly bought by Bob Marley before it was eventually purchased by Chris Blackwell in 1976. Today it is a 21-room resort with a private beach and a major tourist attraction; the last Bond film, No Time To Die (2021), was partly filmed there. Mr. Fleming no doubt would be stirred but not shaken.
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FALL 2022
