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3C THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2016 BOOKS WHAT ARE THEY READING? /LFHQVHWRUHDG'LGKDYHDKLGGHQDJHQGD" James Bond novels work to keep the ‘great’ in Britain By PATRICK WEBB For The Daily Astorian I was a lone child. Don’t misunderstand: I am nev- er lonely, but my only brother was four years older, a gap which widened as the 1960s blurred and the 1970s dawned. So I grew up in a solo fan- tasy world inside my head, in Surrey, a rural county south of England’s capital. I was either at the library or in the bookstore. Yes, I paid attention throughout all seven grades of high school, just as, years later, I jumped through the hoops needed to earn my two degrees. But most of my true education has been my own. Books. More books. And more books. Every school day I had 38 minutes to wait in the market town of Leatherhead between the two-station train journey and the Route 462 bus ride to my village. Time enough to wander into those beloved brick cathedrals of knowl- edge, where I found myself by losing myself in dusty pages of adventurous prose. A bond with Bond At the Bookworm in North Street, just yards from the bus stop, I spent my allowance collecting all 14 of the James Bond books. At the time, it seemed I read them as fast as Ian Fleming could churn them out. Checking the dates, I discovered the author actu- ally died when I was seven, entering second grade. Like many childhood memories, it’s skewed. But “The Man with the Golden Gun” and “Octopussy” (including “The Living Daylights”), were pub- lished posthumously during my later school years. I remember starting to read each one, squatting in the dusty corner to the right of the entrance, one eye on the window for the big green bus. The Bond shelf was chest height for me, knee for others. A sickly child, that dust never made me sneeze. The store was rich in hard- backs, with shiny leather-like covers in muted green, blue Photo courtesy Paul Messerschmidt The Bookworm bookstore in Leatherhead, Surrey, south of London, is long gone, re- placed by a bed store (see red storefront facade at right of photo). Schoolboy Patrick Webb spent his allowance in the bookstore, mostly on James Bond novels, while waiting for his bus home from the train station. BOOK REVIEW Patrick Webb/For The Daily Astorian “The Man Who Saved Britain: A Personal Journey into the Disturbing World of James Bond,” by Simon Winder, ex- amines the history of Ian Fleming’s novels and their cor- relation with the era in which they appeared. and brown hues. Classics about Admiral Nelson or by the Brontes. The paperback covers I sought showed a fear- less Sean Connery shoulder- ing his pistol with barely-clad females draped around his leg, in the shadow of a villain or with a shark swimming off the page. “Good living, sex and vi- olent action ...” was a tagline that the London Times Liter- ary Supplement gave “Thun- derball.” That triumvirate provided a feast of spycraft, glamour, danger. Card games, pistols, food, drink. Bond taught me baccarat, canasta and, in “Moonraker,” even bridge. Bond taught me about Moët champagne and pâté de foie gras. A little about Wal- ther PPKs and Beretta 418s. And, there was the sex. It certainly sounded enjoyable, though it didn’t seem to treat ladies entirely nicely. 3HUVRQL¿HGHYLO Fleming’s villains personi- ¿ed evil, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Oddjob, Rosa Klebb — no au- thor drew them better. “Live and Let Die,” which spawned my brief fascination with voodoo, has the best chapter heading ever written (“He disagreed with something that ate him”). Even “The Spy Who Loved Me,” Fleming’s lone venture into ¿rst-per- son female narrative, offered dubious attractions for a boy who had no sisters to answer those kind of questions. For birthday presents, I favored experience over gifts, so my parents obliged me with London trips to see the Harlem Globetrotters or James Stewart onstage in “Harvey.” One blissful year, the Odeon cinema at nearby Epsom offered a double bill of “Gold¿nger” and “Thun- derball.” Four hours and 2 minutes of Bond! Years later, I learn that Cmdr. J.H. Bond, R.N. (ret.), was not merely a ¿ctional hero saving the world from the Russian atomic nightmare. There was another agenda: salvaging Britain’s tarnished reputation as the nation of my birth faded from the world stage. Perpetuating an LQYLQFLEOHLPDJH This theme is highlighted in “The Man Who Saved Brit- ain: A Personal Journey into the Disturbing World of James Bond,” by Simon Winder. Winder is a Briton a couple of years my junior who shared my experience growing up fascinated, nay obsessed, with Bond. He writes how Flem- ing’s best, “From Russia With Love,” “Dr. No” and “Gold- ¿nger,” set the standard for every spy novel that followed. But the former wartime in- “The Man Who Saved Britain: A Personal Journey into the Disturbing World of James Bond,” by Simon Winder Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 312 pages, 2006. telligence of¿cer had anoth- er agenda, too: perpetuating Britain’s invincible image. Despite postwar bloodshed as India and Pakistan achieved independence, Great Britain’s stand against the Nazis in World War II gave it a strong position for about 10 years as the devastated world rebuilt. Although food rationing con- tinued well beyond the war, the era saw the creation of the National Health Service, guaranteeing free care for all, and the splendor of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation; in- creases in car and television ownership signaled regained prosperity. The sun sets on an (PSLUH But everything changed mid-decade. Winder reminds readers of the extraordinary convulsions throughout Brit- ain after a 1956 crisis. When Egypt’s leader nationalized the Suez Canal, British, French and Israeli troops para- chuted in with riÀes blazing. The invasion — condemned by U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower — was a ¿asco. The prime minister resigned in disgrace. Britain’s clout in world affairs has never again been so high. “Here was a country whose ideology had been based around telling much of the world what to do, whose raison d’rtre had been to Àick through newspapers seeing who this week had been in- vaded and incorporated into the Empire, who now found itself after enduring a decade of steady humiliation being howled down by virtually ev- ery country, ally or enemy,” Winder writes. “It was the end of Britain as an independent actor. Most of the world breathed a sigh of relief, but for a traditional patriot it was not an appealing time to be alive.” Winder says Fleming’s literary talents don’t match contemporaries like Wil- liam Golding and Kingsley Amis (who would write the ¿rst Bond sequel, “Colonel Sun,” after Fleming’s death). But he praises the author, an uppercrust friend of the dis- graced political leaders, for capturing the essence of his nation. “I can think of no writer — and it doesn’t matter if it is accidentally or deliberately that Fleming does this — who comes close to bringing to life the neuroses, panics, highs, dreams and disappointments of a Britain that has now van- ished and whose death throes he romanced.” 6DOYDJHGDVSURSV Times continue to change. Leatherhead Public Library remains open, a shell of its old self. The desktop comput- ers that ¿ll its busiest room had not been invented when I lurked there. Across town, Hamsey’s Bed Centre ¿lls the Bookworm’s old storefront plus two adjacent shops. The Bookworm’s ¿rst owner, old Mr. Starr, was such a nice bloke. But he and his trendy grandson, Rowland, died; sadly, their heirs committed the sacrilege of closing it. On return visits to my hometown, I wondered where all those books went. I learned the answer sitting — alone — at London’s Apollo Theatre. Something seemed strangely recognizable to my subconscious as I watched Peter Bowles (an English actor you would recognize if you saw his photo) starring in a revival of Terrance Rat- tigan’s “After Lydia,” a play about Rex Harrison’s actress wife, Kay Kendall, dying of leukemia. The acting was ¿ne, but the set gave me chills. Mocked-up living-room shelves were rich in books, polished, yet worn. Blues and browns, mostly. Some subdued greens. I checked the program at intermission: “Books courte- sy The Bookworm, Leather- head.” I was shaken and stirred. North Coast writer Patrick Webb is a former managing editor of The Daily Astorian. Mystery of missing men in Hong Kong takes a twist Activists worry about crackdowns on free expression By KELVIN CHAN Associated Press HONG KONG — Five men associated with a Hong Kong publisher known for books critical of China’s leaders have vanished one by one in the last three months, alarming activists and deep- ening suspicions that main- FREE PUBLISHED THE FIRST FRIDAY OF EACH MONTH January 2015 land authorities are squeezing free expression in the enclave. The mystery took another turn Tuesday when the wife of the latest man to disap- pear said she now believes he went to China voluntarily and has canceled a missing person’s report for him. Lee Bo, a British citi- zen who vanished Dec. 30, purportedly wrote to say he went to mainland China to help with an investigation. His case has sparked fears that he was seized in Hong Kong by security agents from the mainland and taken there in violation of an agreement ess Chronicling the Joy of Busin in the Columbia-Pacific Region giving Hong Kong a high de- gree of control over its own affairs. Lee’s wife said she be- lieved the letter showed he wasn’t acting under pressure. “I believe that it was vol- untarily written, so that’s why I retracted the case,” Choi Ka-ping told reporters in brief comments. A Mighty Current Lee and the other four missing men are associated with the publisher Mighty Current, which specializes in gossipy books on political scandals involving China’s striverbusinessjournal crbizjournal.com • facebook.com/coa Volume 10 • Issue 1 stry spo allenges Inside: Indu copes with ch Shellfish farm an conditions oce nging s optimistic despite cha tlight: Taylor remain NEWS County makes a splash Communist leaders and oth- er sensitive topics that are banned in the mainland. The disappearance of the ¿ve all since October has raised concerns Beijing is eroding the “one country, two systems” principle that’s been in place since Britain ceded control of Hong Kong to China in 1997. The princi- ple maintains civil liberties in Hong Kong that are nonexis- tent on the mainland, includ- ing freedom of the press. British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, on a visit to Beijing, said he pressed of¿- cials for information on Lee. “We have urgently en- quired, both of the Hong Kong authorities and of the mainland Chinese authori- ties, what if anything they know of his whereabouts,” Hammond said. He added that if Lee is involved in any investigation, it should be settled by the Hong Kong ju- dicial system. Warnings against µDVVXPSWLRQV¶ Chinese Foreign Minis- ter Wang Yi, speaking at the same press briefing, warned against making “assump- tions or meaningless spec- Now inserted into The Daily Astorian and Chinook Observer For more information call 503-325-3211 PacifIc in the pot biz page 10 NEWS Seaside Muffler and Off-Road 21 revs up its reputation page BOAT OF THE MONTH The Sadie out of South Bend, Wash. page 24 ulations” about Lee, saying that “above all, he is a Chi- nese citizen.” When Lee vanished, he reportedly did not have a travel permit for mainland China with him, an indication he didn’t plan to go there that triggered speculation about Chinese security agents ab- ducting him. The four others were last seen either in main- land China or Thailand. An image of Lee’s hand- written letter was published by Taiwan’s government-af- ¿liated Central News Agency late Monday and subsequent- ly by Hong Kong media. crbizjou rn a l.com
