Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
Bond creator and thriller writer, a former naval intelligence officer whose wartime experiences inspired his bestselling spy novels.
On the island
Eight records
The keepsakes
No book or luxury recorded for this episode.
In conversation
Presenter asks
0:08Where were you born?
I was born in London.
Presenter asks
0:11You went to Eton. Your main distinction there was in athletics, I believe?
Yes, it was. I'm afraid I wasn't terribly good at my body. Victor Lodorum twice and public schools hurdles.
Presenter asks
1:17How long did you stay with Reuters?
I stayed on for three years. … I wanted to earn some more money, and Reuters weren't very keen on paying large sums in those days… And so I went into the city, but I didn't get on very well there because I'm not very good at making money as such.
Presenter asks
3:11Had you had this character [James Bond] growing in mind for a long time?
No, I can't say I had, really. He sort of developed when I was just on the edge of getting married and I was frenzied at the prospect of this great step in my life after having been a bachelor for so long. And I really wanted to take my mind off the agony. And so I decided to sit down and write a book.
Presenter asks
3:49Is there much of you in [James Bond]?
I hope not. I mean people do connect me with James Bond simply because I happen to like scrambled eggs and short sleeved shirts and some of the things that James Bond does. But I certainly haven't got his guts nor his very lively appetites.
Presenter asks
6:19Some of the press notices haven't been all that glowing. They've accused you of being sadistic and too much sex. How do you respond to the charge of sadism, particularly your torture scenes?
I don't know how many of you have read, but they're nothing to what they really are in real life, and I think the old days of the hero getting a crack over the head with a cricket stump have rather gone out. I mean we all have become considerably wiser since the last war. And I've tried to bring very similitude into these books.
“I took part in the Dieppe Raid, which is a very bloody affair. And I had some exciting adventures round the world, and altogether I had an extremely I couldn't have had a more interesting war, if one can have an interesting war.”
“I work for about three hours in the morning and one hour in the evening, and I find unless I stick to a routine, if I just wait for genius to arrive from the skies, it just doesn't arrive.”
“With the exception of the last one, which was The Spy Who Loved Me. Well I try to break away from my normal formula. But the readers were so furious that James Bond didn't appear until about three quarters of the way through, and that it was written ostensibly by a girl in the first person that I must confess that it wasn't a success, and it took a quite a beating from the critics.”
“I was brought up on what we used to call fourpenny horrors, and I can't remember that any of the excitements ever did me any harm.”
“I take a lot of trouble not to [slip up], but inevitably things slip past me and past my publishers. … I find that the other people make mistakes. Shakespeare, for instance, had clocks chiming in ancient Rome.”