Christmas with Ian Fleming

Here's a section from the Atticus column of the Sunday Times dated December 20, 1959. If memory serves, Fleming was no longer writing the column, but it might have been in John Pearson's hands. This installment of Atticus asked several luminaries what they would be doing for Christmas and what they thought of the holiday. Here's what Fleming said:
Thriller-writer Ian Fleming has more positive ideas on Christmas: "Ideally, the only possible place to spent it is Monte Carlo. You don't have to eat turkey--a detestable bird. There aren't any people there you know at this time of year, and it's perfectly easy to play a little golf and avoid over-eating." But even for the creator of James Bond, the ideal is not always attainable, and Mr. Fleming will in fact be spending his Christmas near Belfast, reading three good American thrillers, including the latest Rex Stout, and "going to church in a long crocodile with the rest of the family" on Christmas morning. His one way of simplifying Christmas is to give the same present year after year to all and sundry. It consists of a dozen snuff handkerchiefs from Fribourg and Treyer.

The Irish location was Shane's Castle, which contained the estate of Ann Fleming's first husband Shane O'Neill, a wealthy Baron killed in World War II. The Flemings spent many Christmases there. Rex Stout was one of Fleming's favorite thriller writers and received a shout-out in OHMSS. According to the foreword to a Nero Wolfe anthology, "Stout considers the late Ian Fleming to have been a good storyteller too, but he turned down Fleming's suggestion that M, James Bond, Nero Wolfe, and Archie Goodwin should all appear together in the same novel. 'Bond would have gotten all the girls,' Stout admits ruefully."

Besides Fleming, the Atticus Christmas column also interviewed Bertrand Russell, John Betjeman, Christopher Fry, John Osborne, Alec Guinness, and C.S. Lewis. Let me know if you'd like to read any of their answers.

Oh, and let me take this opportunity to wish everyone a merry Christmas, with goodwill to all board members (and secret agents).
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