Ian Fleming first set foot on Jamaican soil in 1943 during World War II as Assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence, sent to assist in the problem of German U-boats sinking shipping vessels in the Carribean.
After the war had ended, he returned and, for eighteen years from 1946 until his death, Ian Fleming spent two months each year at Goldeneye - his home built overlooking a small white sand beach on Jamaica's north coast. It was during these months that all of the James Bond novels and stories were written.
While quite a few of the Bond stories had Jamaica as the setting, the influence of the area - the music, the people, his circle of friends - can be felt throughout the series including the creation of the character of Bond himself.
Matthew Parker mixes Jamaican history and culture with the times and circumstances that shaped Ian Fleming's viewpoints. He not only covers the life of Mr. Fleming following the war, but the decline of the British Empire and the effects that had on Jamaica as one of the remaining outposts of that Empire. He also covers not only the Bond stories but also the films that were made from them. Both Sean Connery and Roger Moore took their first turns as Bond on Jamaica, with Roger Moore actually visiting Fleming's Goldeneye while on Jamaica to film 'Live and Let Die'.
Part Fleming biography, part study of the genesis of James Bond and part Jamaican tour guide of days past, Parker's book appeals on many fronts, but will likely be most interesting to fans of 007 lore.
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