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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, JANUARY 8, 2016
BOOKS
WHAT ARE THEY READING?
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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
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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
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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
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Chinese Foreign Minis-
ter Wang Yi, speaking at the
same press briefing, warned
against making “assump-
tions or meaningless spec-
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The Daily Astorian and
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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.
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