Book News
Ian Fleming’s secret weapon
It turns out that James Bond creator Ian Fleming got a little help from an unexpected source — a real life Miss Moneypenny to whom he turned for advice on plot points and character development.
A series of letters between Fleming and Jean Frampton, a typist-turned-adviser, was sold to an anonymous private collector recently for more than $28,000, far more than had been expected.
The novelist and the typist never met, but over time she became a trusted aide to Fleming, who was working in London as a newspaper editor in the 1950s when he dreamed up Agent 007. At first, Frampton limited her advice to spelling mistakes and minor inconsistencies, but over time she took a more assertive role and gave Fleming substantial guidance on plot and character development, said auctioneer Amy Brenan.
“They had an intellectual relationship on a very literary level,” said Brenan, “and she provided some inspiration, and he put her into the character of Miss Moneypenny. I think actually Miss Moneypenny is quite intelligent.” She said Frampton was primarily a housewife who took typing jobs in her spare time. The Associated Press
First Line
Hold Tight by Harlen Coben
“Marianne nursed her third shot of Cuervo, marveling at her endless capacity to destroy any good in her pathetic life, when the man next to her shouted, ‘Listen up, sweetcakes: Creationism and evolution are totally compatible.’
“His spittle landed on Marianne’s neck. She made a face and shot the man a quick glance. He had a big bushy mustache straight out of a seventies porn flick. He sat on her right. The overbleached blonde with brittle hair of straw he was trying to impress with this stimulating banter was on her left. Marianne was the unlucky luncheon meat in their bad-pickup sandwich.
“She tried to ignore them. She peered into her glass as if it were a diamond she was sizing up for an engagement ring. Marianne hoped that it would make the mustache man and straw-haired woman disappear. It didn’t.
” ‘You’re crazy,’ Straw Hair said.
” ‘Hear me out.’
” ‘Okay, I’ll listen. But I still think you’re crazy.’
“Marianne said, ‘Would you like to switch stools, so you can be next to one another?’
“Mustache man put a hand on her arm. ‘Just hold on, little lady, I want you to hear this too.’ ”
BookSense hardcover
Best sellers
Fiction
1. Unaccusomed Earth, by Jhumpa Lahiri
2. The Appeal, by John Grisham
3. Lush Life, by Richard Price
4. A Thousand Splendid Suns, by Khaled Hosseini
5. Change of Heart, by Jodi Picoult
Nonfiction
1. Armageddon in Retrospect, by Kurt Vonnegut
2. In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto, by Michael Pollan
3. Home: A Memoir of My Early Years, by Julie Andrews
4. The Secret, by Rhonda Byrne
5. The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century, by Steve Coll
booksense.com
