127-500: Thunderball may refer to: Thunderball (novel) , 1961 James Bond novel by Ian Fleming Thunderball (film) , 1965 film adaptation of the novel starring Sean Connery Thunderball (soundtrack) , of the 1965 film Thunderball (comics) , comics character Thunderball (U.D.O. album) , also the title song Thunderball (band) , a band at one time signed to ESL Music Operation Thunderball, original name of Operation Entebbe ,
254-497: A Byronic hero , seen as "lonely, melancholy, of fine natural physique which has become in some way ravaged, of similarly fine but ravaged countenance, dark and brooding in expression, of a cold or cynical veneer, above all enigmatic, in possession of a sinister secret". Amis observes that Bond's character changes during the course of the novels, physically and emotionally declining through the series; he notes that On Her Majesty's Secret Service sees Bond's sharpest decline because of
381-495: A dragon and a toad, respectively—and notes that "Fleming puts damsels in distress in all the books". On Her Majesty's Secret Service is one of three Bond novels to deal with the disruption of markets and the economy. On Her Majesty's Secret Service deals with the food supply or, as the literary analyst Sue Matheson considers it, "the Cold War as a food chain ". Wartime rationing had only finished nine years before
508-484: A fable ; he considers Fleming also saw this, and subverted some aspects of the convention within the novel, such as when Bond thinks that "It would be amusing to reverse the old fable—first to rescue the girl, then to slay the monster". Panek sees aspects of fables in many of the Bond novels, often associated with the villains—Fleming describes Le Chiffre as an ogre , Mr Big as a giant , Drax and Kleb ( Moonraker ) as
635-477: A 1976 hostage-rescue mission Thunderball, a game (draw), introduced in 1999, in the United Kingdom's National Lottery Thunderball, fictional game in sketches by comedy troupe Upright Citizens Brigade See also [ edit ] Never Say Never Again , 1983 film adaptation of the novel. Mushroom cloud , a nuclear explosion effect, sometimes known as a 'thunderball' Ball lightning ,
762-465: A Bond story and much of his humour came through, while his incapacity, suffered in Live and Let Die , had not led to bitterness or to his being unable to join in with the underwater fight scene towards the end of the novel. Academic Christoph Linder sees Thunderball as part of the second wave of Bond villains: the first wave consisted of SMERSH , the second of Blofeld and SPECTRE, undertaken because of
889-405: A Norfolk farmer and a fellow member of Fleming's club Boodle's , who was a contemporary of Fleming's at Eton. Tom Blofeld's son is Henry Blofeld , a sports journalist, best known as a cricket commentator for Test Match Special on BBC Radio . When Largo rents his beachside villa, it is from "an Englishman named Bryce", whose name was taken from Old Etonian Ivar Bryce, Fleming's friend, who had
1016-491: A Significant Portent, and to accept him as a good, if rather vulgar thriller-writer, well suited to his times and to us his readers". Robert Kirsch , writing in the Los Angeles Times , considered Fleming's work to be a significant point in fiction, saying that the Bond novels "are harbingers of a change in emphasis in fiction which is important". The importance, Kirsch claimed, sprung from "a revolution in taste,
1143-465: A beachside property in Jamaica called Xanadu. Other names used by Fleming included a colleague at The Sunday Times , Robert Harling , who was transformed into Commissioner of Police Harling, whilst an ex-colleague from his stock broking days, Hugo Pitman, became Chief of Immigration Pitman and Fleming's golfing friend, Bunny Roddick, became Deputy Governor Roddick. The title Thunderball came from
1270-530: A bit above it". Richardson also thought that "in reforming Bond Mr. Fleming has reformed his own story-telling which had been getting very loose". Overall he thought that " O.H.M.S.S. is certainly the best Bond for several books. It is better plotted and retains its insane grip until the end". Mortimer, in The Sunday Times , thought the novel Fleming's best; despite innovations for the Bond formula, Mortimer noted that overall, "the pattern here ...
1397-477: A conversation Fleming had about a US atomic test . In mid-1958 Fleming and his friend, Ivar Bryce, began talking about the possibility of a Bond film. Later that year, Bryce introduced Fleming to a young Irish writer and director, Kevin McClory , and the three of them, together with Fleming and Bryce's friend Ernest Cuneo , formed the partnership Xanadu Productions, named after Bryce's Bahamian home, but which
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#17327647920251524-685: A daily cartoon strip in the Daily Express in 1964–1965. In 1969 the novel was adapted as the sixth film in the Eon Productions James Bond film series; this was the only film to star George Lazenby as Bond. For more than a year, the Secret Service agent James Bond has been involved in "Operation Bedlam": tracking down the criminal organisation SPECTRE and its leader, Ernst Stavro Blofeld , after they had hijacked two nuclear devices in an attempt to blackmail
1651-452: A deal to McClory, settling out of court. McClory gained the literary and film rights for the screenplay, while Fleming was given the rights to the novel, although it had to be recognised as being "based on a screen treatment by Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham and the Author". On settlement, "Fleming ultimately admitted '[t]hat the novel reproduces a substantial part of the copyright material in
1778-786: A deal with McClory, to undertake a joint production of Thunderball , which stopped McClory from making any further version of the novel for a period of ten years following the release of the Eon-produced version. Thunderball premiered in Tokyo on 9 December 1965, grossing $ 141.2 million at the global box office. In 1983 Kevin McClory produced a version of the Thunderball story, again with Sean Connery as Bond. The film premiered in New York on 7 October 1983, grossing $ 9.72 million ($ 30 million in 2023 dollars ) on its first weekend, which
1905-400: A delightful face, so lit with humour and mischief and magnetism that ... Bond could no more have killed him than he could have killed, well, Tracy". Sable Basilisk is another who fits the same mould, according to Synnott, as Fleming describes him as "rapier-slim, with a fine, thin, studious face that was saved from seriousness by wry lines at the edges of the mouth and an ironical glint in
2032-468: A dive team in a fight against Largo's crew and a battle ensues. Bond stops Largo from escaping with the bombs; Largo corners him in an underwater cave and is about to kill him, only to be killed by Domino with a shot from a spear gun. The fight leaves six American divers and ten SPECTRE men dead, including Largo, and the bombs are recovered safely. As Bond recuperates in hospital, Leiter explains that Domino told Largo nothing under torture and later escaped from
2159-515: A dragon-like creature, a basilisk , to come up with the name. Lanne-Mirrlees's ancestors were generally born without earlobes, and Fleming used this physical attribute for Blofeld. During his research, Lanne-Mirrlees also discovered that the line of the Bonds of Peckham bears the family motto "The World is Not Enough", which Fleming appropriated for Bond's own family. Fleming also used historical references for some of his names. Marc-Ange Draco's name
2286-506: A gaming table, where he saves her from dishonour by paying the gambling debt she is unable to cover. The next day Bond follows her and interrupts her attempted suicide, but they are captured by professional henchmen. They are taken to the offices of Marc-Ange Draco , head of the Unione Corse , the biggest European crime syndicate. Tracy is the only child of Draco, who believes the only way to save his daughter from further suicide attempts
2413-788: A good deal of fun in luxury surroundings", whilst "the usual beatings-up, modern style, are ingeniously administered to lady and gentleman like". As to why the novels were so appealing, Stead considered that "Mr. Fleming's special magic lies in his power to impart sophistication to his mighty nonsense; his fantasies connect with up-to-date and lively knowledge of places and of the general sphere of crime and espionage." Overall, in Stead's opinion, with Thunderball "the mixture, exotic as ever, generates an extravagant and exhilarating tale and Bond connoisseurs will be glad to have it." The critic for The Times wrote that Thunderball "relies for its kicks far less than did Dr. No or Goldfinger on sadism and
2540-400: A nice dagger in mind please let us use it." In 2023, Ian Fleming Publications—the company that administers all Fleming's literary works—had the Bond series edited as part of a sensitivity review to remove or reword some racial or ethnic descriptors. The rerelease of the series was for the 70th anniversary of Casino Royale , the first Bond novel. Thunderball was generally well received by
2667-514: A recovery for them to point out that "it is time, perhaps, to forget the much exaggerated things which have been said about sex, sadism and snobbery, and return to the simple, indisputable fact that Mr. Fleming is a most compelling story-teller". Writing in The Guardian , the critic Anthony Berkeley Cox , under the name Francis Iles, considered that On Her Majesty's Secret Service was "not only up to Mr. Fleming's usual level, but perhaps even
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#17327647920252794-403: A relationship with Tracy; Bond's pretence of being Sir Hilary Bray to enter Piz Gloria to investigate Blofeld is also a form of gamble, according to Benson. Jeremy Black sees an unformulaic structure to the novel with the romance aspect both opening and closing the novel, which was not something Fleming did elsewhere in the series. Hale analyses the novel from the point of view of individualism :
2921-587: A reported, but controversial, atmospheric electrical phenomenon Thunderbolt , a discharge of lightning, or a symbolic representation of it Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Thunderball . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thunderball&oldid=1164486851 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
3048-415: A return to qualities in fiction which [are] all but submerged in the 20th-century vogue of realism and naturalism" and the importance was such that they were "comparable ... only to the phenomenon of Conan Doyle 's Sherlock Holmes stories". Kirsch also believed that "with Fleming, ... we do not merely accept the willing suspension of disbelief , we yearn for it, we hunger for it". Following
3175-604: A slightly condescending sophistication." The upshot, in the critic's opinion, was that "the mixture—of good living, sex and violent action—is as before, but this is a highly polished performance, with an ingenious plot well documented and plenty of excitement." Writing in The Washington Post , Harold Kneeland noted that Thunderball was "Not top Fleming, but still well ahead of the pack", whilst Charles Poore, writing in The New York Times considered
3302-416: A square, brutal face with hard yellow eyes. Her smile was an oblong hole without humour or welcome, and there were sunburn blisters at the left corner of her mouth which she licked from time to time with the tip of a pale tongue. Wisps of brownish grey hair, with a tight, neat bun at the back, showed from under a skiing hat with a yellow talc visor that had straps which met under her chin. Her strong, short body
3429-573: A town near Las Vegas called "Spectreville", and for "spektor", the cryptograph decoder in From Russia, with Love . Others, such as continuation Bond author Raymond Benson , disagree, saying that McClory came up with the SPECTRE concept. Those elements which Fleming used which can be put down to McClory and Whittingham (either separately or together) include the airborne theft of a nuclear bomb, "Jo" Petachi and his sister Sophie, and Jo's death at
3556-505: A walloping climax." A comic strip adaptation was published daily in the Daily Express newspaper and syndicated worldwide, beginning on 11 December 1961. The owner of the Daily Express , Lord Beaverbrook , cancelled the strip on 10 February 1962 after Fleming signed an agreement with The Sunday Times for them to publish the short story " The Living Daylights ". Thunderball was reprinted in 2005 by Titan Books as part of
3683-482: A week, which puts him at the level of "over four times the advisable maximum alcohol consumption for an adult male", based on the UK's medical recommendations. Benson considers that the character of Tracy is not as well defined as some other female leads in the Bond canon, but points out that it may be the enigmatic quality that Bond falls in love with. Benson also notes that Fleming gives relatively little information about
3810-479: A week. The Prime Minister receives a communiqué from SPECTRE (Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion), a private criminal enterprise under the command of Ernst Stavro Blofeld . SPECTRE has hijacked a Villiers Vindicator and seized its two nuclear bombs, which it will use to destroy two major targets in the Western Hemisphere unless a ransom is paid. Lippe
3937-676: A year, from 29 June 1964 to 17 May 1965. The adaptation was written by Henry Gammidge and illustrated by John McLusky . The strip was reprinted by Titan Books in On Her Majesty's Secret Service , published in 2004, and again in The James Bond Omnibus Vol. 2 , published in 2011. In 1969 On Her Majesty's Secret Service was adapted into the sixth film in the James Bond film series by Eon Productions . It starred George Lazenby in his only appearance in
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4064-403: Is "still irresistible to women, still handsome in a menacing way, still charming. He has nerves of steel and thews of whipcord", even if "he's starting to look a little older". The critic for The Times considered that after The Spy Who Loved Me , " On Her Majesty's Secret Service constitutes a substantial, if not quite a complete, recovery". In the view of the reviewer, it was enough of
4191-533: Is a contradiction in terms". As with all his Bond books, Fleming used events or names from his life in his writing. In the 1930s Fleming often visited Kitzbühel in Austria to ski; he once deliberately set off down a slope that had been closed because of the danger of an avalanche. The snow cracked behind him and an avalanche came down, catching him at its end: Fleming used the incident as the model for Bond's escape from Piz Gloria. Fleming would occasionally stay at
4318-420: Is a silly and tedious novel". Boucher went on to bemoan that although On Her Majesty's Secret Service was better than The Spy Who Loved Me , "it is still a lazy and inadequate story", going on to say that "my complaint is not that the adventures of James Bond are bad literature ... but that they aren't good bad literature". Laski considered, however, that "it really is time to stop treating Ian Fleming as
4445-414: Is again shown with Bond asking Tracy to marry him. The author Val McDermid considers that both professionally and personally, Bond is a more emotionally rounded character than in previous novels in the series. Disillusioned with his job at the start of the novel he progresses through the plot to the point where, for McDermid, "his reactions are complex, far more three-dimensional than the films". In 1963
4572-581: Is also present in Bond's allies, particularly Draco, who is prepared to help Bond attack Piz Gloria in part because of their shared rejection of authority. Lars Ole Sauerberg sees the assistance Draco gives Bond as a manner of distinguishing SPECTRE from other criminal organisations in what he calls "the struggle of order against chaos"; while Draco and the Unione Corse are conventional criminals, SPECTRE pursues—and represents—what Sauerberg calls "absolute criminal anarchy". On Her Majesty's Secret Service
4699-692: Is an immensely powerful organisation armed by ex-members of SMERSH, the Gestapo, the Mafia, and the Black Tong of Peking, which is placing these bombs in NATO bases with the objective of then blackmailing the Western powers for £100 million or else. Ian Fleming: memo to Whittingham and McClory Cork also noted that Fleming used the word "spectre" previously: in the fourth novel, Diamonds Are Forever , for
4826-501: Is based upon that of El Draco , the Spanish nickname for Sir Francis Drake . For Tracy's background, Fleming used that of Muriel Wright, a married wartime lover of his who died in an air-raid. Bond's grief for the loss of his wife echoes Fleming's at the loss of Wright. Fleming made some mistakes in the novel, such as Bond ordering a half-bottle of Pol Roger champagne; Fleming's friend Patrick Leigh Fermor pointed out that Pol Roger
4953-538: Is broken, it is at the visit to the College of Arms and at the meeting at M's house; in both these parts, journalistic background provides necessary detail to enable the plot to proceed. The hooks combine with what the novelist Anthony Burgess calls "a heightened journalistic style"; this, says Fleming, produces "a speed of narrative, which hustles the reader past each danger point of mockery". The literary analyst LeRoy L. Panek sees On Her Majesty's Secret Service as
5080-501: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Thunderball (novel) Thunderball is the ninth book in Ian Fleming 's James Bond series, and the eighth full-length Bond novel . It was first published in the UK by Jonathan Cape on 27 March 1961, where the initial print run of 50,938 copies quickly sold out. The first novelisation of an unfilmed James Bond screenplay, it
5207-493: Is expected of the author of this kind of thriller". Peter Duval Smith, writing in Financial Times , also took the opportunity to defend Fleming's work against negative criticism and specifically named Johnson and his review: "one should not make a cult of Fleming's novels: a day-dream is a day-dream; but nor should one make the mistake of supposing he does not know what he is doing." Duval Smith thought that Thunderball
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5334-578: Is for Bond to marry her. To facilitate this, he offers Bond a dowry of £1 million; Bond refuses the offer but agrees to keep in contact with Tracy after she has medical assistance. At Bond's request, Draco uses his contacts to establish that Blofeld is somewhere in Switzerland. Bond returns to England to be given another lead: the College of Arms in London has discovered that Blofeld has assumed
5461-455: Is in SPECTRE's pay to hijack the bomber in mid-flight by killing its crew and flying it to the Bahamas , where he ditches it in the ocean and it sinks in shallow water. SPECTRE crew members kill Petacchi, camouflage the wreck, and transfer the nuclear bombs onto the cruiser yacht Disco Volante for transport to an underwater hiding place. Emilio Largo , second-in-command of SPECTRE, oversees
5588-631: Is killed. By January 1962 the author Ian Fleming had published nine books in the preceding nine years: eight novels and a collection of short stories. A tenth book, The Spy Who Loved Me , was being edited and prepared for production; it was released at the end of March 1962. Fleming travelled to his Goldeneye estate in Jamaica in January 1962 to write On Her Majesty's Secret Service . He followed his usual practice, which he later outlined in Books and Bookmen magazine: "I write for about three hours in
5715-466: Is living on board the Disco Volante and believes Largo is on a treasure hunt, although Largo makes her stay ashore while he and his partners supposedly survey the ocean for treasure. After seducing her, Bond informs her that Largo arranged her brother's death, and Bond recruits her to spy on Largo. Domino re-boards the Disco Volante with a Geiger counter disguised as a camera, to ascertain if
5842-536: Is referred to throughout the novel, with Bond's meals and drinks being described in detail. On Her Majesty's Secret Service received broadly positive reviews in the British and American press with some reviewers pleased at the return to the more traditional form of Bond storyline. The novel was adapted as a three-part story in Playboy in 1963, serialised in eleven parts in the Daily Express and then developed as
5969-460: Is still an extravagant adventure". The critic for the Daily Herald implored "Hey!—that man is taking his clothes off again. So is the girl ... Can anybody stop this? Unfortunately not. Not this side of the best-seller lists. I don't envy Mr Bond's wealthy creator, Ian Fleming. I wish I could pity him", whilst L.G. Offord considered Thunderball to be "just about as wild as ever, with
6096-536: Is traditional". The New York Herald Tribune thought On Her Majesty's Secret Service to be "solid Fleming", and the Houston Chronicle considered the novel to be "Fleming at his urbanely murderous best, a notable chapter in the saga of James Bond". Gene Brackley, writing in The Boston Globe about the fantastic nature of the plots, suggested that "Fleming's accounts of the half-world of
6223-481: The Bahamas to work with his friend Felix Leiter , seconded back into the CIA for the investigation. Thunderball also introduces SPECTRE's leader Ernst Stavro Blofeld , in the first of three appearances in Bond novels, with On Her Majesty's Secret Service and You Only Live Twice being the others. Thunderball has been adapted four times, once in a comic strip format for the Daily Express newspaper, twice for
6350-402: The Disco Volante to get revenge on him. Learning that she is also recovering from injuries, Bond crawls into her room and falls asleep at her bedside. According to continuation Bond author Raymond Benson , there was further development of the Bond character in Thunderball , with glimpses of both his sense of humour and his own sense of mortality. Felix Leiter had his largest role to date in
6477-456: The Dr. No anthology that also includes Diamonds Are Forever and From Russia, with Love . In 1965 the film Thunderball was released, starring Sean Connery as James Bond. The film was produced as the fourth Eon Productions film and, as well as listing Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman as producers, Kevin McClory was also included in the production team: Broccoli and Saltzman made
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#17327647920256604-475: The Soviet Union . Blofeld occupies his own classification as the only one of whom it is not possible to distinguish between a criminal act as a means or an end. Sauerberg considers that Blofeld's motives are "in his general nihilism and destructive urge". Synnott notes that not only are nearly all Bond's enemies foreign, they are " doubly foreign". Blofeld's ancestry shows he is Polish and Greek and, during
6731-417: The Unione Corse . On Her Majesty's Secret Service was written in January and February 1962, while the first Bond film, Dr. No , was being filmed nearby; Fleming visited the film set several times and met the cast, even inviting them to dine at Goldeneye with one of his friends and neighbours, Noël Coward . Fleming was attracted to the film's female lead, Ursula Andress , and included a mention of her in
6858-465: The 1980s and 1990s and the foot-and-mouth outbreak in 2001 . With the plot to render the UK agriculturally infertile, Mills considers On Her Majesty's Secret Service to have the most terrorist-centred plot in the series. Benson states that gambling is a key theme of the novel, as it is in Casino Royale and Goldfinger . The gambling scene at the beginning of the novel leads to Bond entering
6985-692: The Bond novels to be "post-Dostoevskian ventures in crime and punishment". Thunderball he found to be "a mystery story, a thriller, a chiller and a pleasure to read." Poore identified aspects of the author's technique to be part of the success, saying "the suspense and the surprises that animate the novel arise from the conceits with which Mr. Fleming decorates his tapestry of thieving and deceiving". The critic from The Sunday Times considered Fleming to have "a sensational imagination, but informed by style, zest and—above all—knowledge". Anthony Boucher wrote: "As usual, Ian Fleming has less story to tell in 90,000 words than Buchan managed in 40,000; but Thunderball
7112-574: The Bond novels who undertake activities closer to those of the traditional villains, but who act on the side of good in support of Bond; others of this type include Darko Kerim ( From Russia, with Love ), Tiger Tanaka ( You Only Live Twice ) and Enrico Colombo (the short story " Risico "). The historian Jeremy Black notes the connection between Draco and the Second World War; Draco wears the King's medal for resistance fighters . The reference to
7239-409: The Bond role, with Diana Rigg as Tracy. With the films being produced in a different order to the books, the continuity of storylines was broken and the films altered accordingly. Even so, Bond had met Blofeld in the previous film, You Only Live Twice : this previous meeting was ignored for the plot of On Her Majesty's Secret Service . Only minor changes to the novel's plot were made. In 2014
7366-601: The College of Arms assisted Fleming with the background and also designed a coat of arms for Bond. On Her Majesty's Secret Service is the second book in "the Blofeld trilogy", sitting between Thunderball (1961), where SPECTRE is introduced, and You Only Live Twice (1964), where Bond finally kills Blofeld. Although Blofeld is present in Thunderball , he directs operations from a distance and so he and Bond never meet. On Her Majesty's Secret Service constitutes his and Bond's first meeting. Although Fleming did not date
7493-663: The Second World War, he had betrayed Poland by working with the Abwehr , the Nazi military-intelligence service. Fleming later said of his work, "while thrillers may not be Literature with a capital L, it is possible to write what I can best describe as 'thrillers designed to be read as literature'." He used well-known brand names and everyday details to produce a sense of realism , which Amis called "the Fleming effect". Amis describes it as "the imaginative use of information, whereby
7620-653: The Secret Service have the ring of authenticity" because of his previous role with the Naval Intelligence Division. Doolittle considered that "Fleming's new book will not disappoint his millions of fans". The critic for Time magazine referred to previous criticism of Fleming and thought that "in Fleming's latest Bond bombshell, there are disquieting signs that he took the critics to heart" when they complained about "the consumer snobbery of his caddish hero". The critic mourned that even worse
7747-480: The Thunderball incident. Bond finds Blofeld in Switzerland and attacks the centre where he is based, although Blofeld escapes in the confusion. Bond meets and falls in love with Contessa Teresa "Tracy" di Vicenzo during the story. The pair marry at the end of the novel, but hours after the ceremony, Blofeld and his partner, Irma Bunt, attack the couple and Tracy is killed. Fleming developed Bond's character within
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#17327647920257874-482: The UK. Artist Richard Chopping once again provided the cover art for the novel. On 20 July 1960 Fleming wrote to Chopping to ask if he could undertake the art for the next book, agreeing on a fee of 200 guineas , saying that "I will ask [Jonathan Cape] to produce an elegant skeleton hand and an elegant Queen of Hearts. As to the dagger, I really have no strong views. I had thought of the ordinary flick knife as used by teenagers on people like you and me, but if you have
8001-565: The US—Fleming met with McClory and Ivar Bryce in New York; McClory told Fleming that Whittingham had completed a full outline, which was ready to shoot. Back in Britain in December 1959, Fleming met with McClory and Whittingham for a script conference and shortly afterwards McClory and Whittingham sent Fleming a script, Longitude 78 West , which Fleming considered to be good, although he changed
8128-400: The Western world. Convinced SPECTRE no longer exists, Bond is frustrated by his service's insistence that he continue the search and by his inability to find Blofeld. He mentally composes a letter of resignation for his superior, M . While driving across northern France to Britain, Bond encounters a beautiful young woman named Contessa Teresa "Tracy" di Vicenzo . He subsequently meets her at
8255-410: The book has been re-issued in hardback and paperback editions, translated into several languages and, as at 2024, has never been out of print. In 2023 Ian Fleming Publications—the company that administers all Fleming's literary works—had the Bond series edited as part of a sensitivity review to remove or reword some racial or ethnic descriptors. Although many of Fleming's racial epithets were removed from
8382-529: The book to be published, although the door was left open for McClory to pursue further action at a later date. He did so and on 19 November 1963 the case of McClory v Fleming was heard at the Chancery Division of the High Court. The case lasted three weeks, during which time Fleming was unwell—suffering a heart attack during the case itself —and, under advice from his friend Ivar Bryce, offered
8509-461: The book, showing an emotional side that was not present in the previous stories. As he had done in previous novels, Fleming used his past experiences and details of people he met during his work to provide details in On Her Majesty's Secret Service . The novel is one of three Bond stories to deal with the disruption of markets and the economy, in this case Blofeld's planned disruption to the food supply by bioterrorism . The theme of food and drink
8636-413: The character, only how Bond reacts to her. The literary critic Dan Mills observes that with two strong female characters in the novel—Tracy and Irma Bunt— On Her Majesty's Secret Service subverts the conventions of the genre by having characters that are equally or more integral to and involved in the plot than their two counterparts, Bond and Blofeld. Despite Tracy's independent and assertive character,
8763-544: The cinema and once for the radio. The Daily Express strip was cut short on the order of its owner, Lord Beaverbrook , after Ian Fleming signed an agreement with The Sunday Times to publish a short story. On screen, Thunderball was released in 1965 as the fourth film in the Eon Productions series, with Sean Connery as James Bond. The second adaptation, Never Say Never Again , was released as an independent production in 1983 also starring Connery as Bond and
8890-529: The clinic Bond encounters Count Lippe, a member of the Red Lightning Tong criminal organisation from Macau . When Bond learns of the Tong connection, Lippe tries to kill him by tampering with a spinal traction table on which Bond is being treated. Bond is saved by nurse Patricia Fearing and later retaliates by trapping Lippe in a steam bath, causing second-degree burns and sending him to hospital for
9017-478: The concept of SPECTRE; Fleming biographer Andrew Lycett and John Cork both note Fleming as the originator of the group, Lycett saying that "[Fleming] proposed that Bond should confront not the Russians but SPECTRE ..." while Cork produced a memorandum in which Fleming called for the change to SPECTRE: My suggestion on (b) is that SPECTRE, short for Special Executive for Terrorism, Revolution and Espionage,
9144-409: The critic Raymond Mortimer described Bond as having "values [that] are both anti-humanist and anti-Christian". Bond is the greedy and predatory id to M's "pleasure-hating and grumpy" superego . Mortimer went on to say that "James Bond is what every man would like to be, and what every woman would like between her sheets". The novelist and critic Kingsley Amis —in his examination of Bond—finds Bond
9271-476: The critics; Francis Iles , wrote in The Guardian that it "is a good, tough, straightforward thriller on perfectly conventional lines." Referring to the negative publicity that surrounded Dr. No —in particular the article by Paul Johnson in the New Statesman entitled, "Sex, Snobbery and Sadism"—Iles was left "wondering what all the fuss is about", noting that "there is no more sadism nor sex than
9398-481: The deal, or file suit in court. Fleming wrote the novel Thunderball at Goldeneye over the period January to March 1960, based on the screenplay written by himself, Whittingham and McClory. In March 1961 McClory read an advance copy of the book and he and Whittingham immediately petitioned the High Court in London for an injunction to stop publication. The plagiarism case was heard on 24 March 1961 and allowed
9525-417: The death of Tracy, leading him to be in a form of neurosis at the start of the next book, You Only Live Twice . The cultural historians Janet Woollacott and Tony Bennett agree, and note that the darkness in Bond becomes more pronounced with the murder of his wife. Bond drinks far more alcohol in On Her Majesty's Secret Service than he does in previous books, and this reflected Fleming's alcohol intake in
9652-400: The description in the novel of " Pinaud Elixir, that prince among shampoos" as evidence of this. Within the text Benson identifies what he described as the "Fleming Sweep", the use of "hooks" at the end of chapters to heighten tension and pull the reader into the next. In On Her Majesty's Secret Service the sweep "moves with confidence and readability" to build the tension. Where the sweep
9779-424: The early 1960s. Near the beginning of the novel, one work-day evening, Bond has four double vodkas and tonics and some seconal , a barbiturate ; at other points Bond "was aching for a drink" and his urine "showed traces of an excess of uric acid ... due to a super-abundance of alcohol in the blood-stream". One study, undertaken by doctors, estimated Bond's alcohol intake at between 65 and 92 units of alcohol
9906-419: The events within his novels, John Griswold and Henry Chancellor —both of whom wrote books for Ian Fleming Publications —have identified timelines based on episodes and situations within the novel series as a whole. Chancellor put the events of On Her Majesty's Secret Service in 1961; Griswold is more precise and considers the story to have taken place between September 1961 and 1 January 1962. Although he
10033-504: The fifty-two days covered in the novel, eight meals are described, Bond's drinks are enumerated and his thoughts on modern cooking and the standard in French restaurants are outlined. Writing in 2006, Val McDermid thought the threat in the novel had even more resonance for contemporary British readers than it would have done at the time of publishing, with public awareness of the BSE outbreak in
10160-458: The film scripts'; '[t]hat the novel makes use of a substantial number of the incidents and material in the film scripts'; and '[t]hat there is a general similarity of the story of the novel and the story as set out in the said film scripts'." On 12 August 1964, nine months after the trial ended, Fleming suffered another heart attack and died aged 56. When the script was first drafted in May 1959, with
10287-438: The hands of Sophie's boss. The remainder of the screenplay was a two-year collaboration among Fleming, Whittingham, McClory, Bryce and Cuneo. The title of the book will be Thunderball. It is immensely long, immensely dull and only your jacket can save it! Ian Fleming, in a letter to cover artist Richard Chopping Thunderball was published on 27 March 1961 in the UK as a hardcover edition by publishers Jonathan Cape ; it
10414-580: The hardback first edition and Cape did an immediate second impression of 15,000 copies, selling over 60,000 by the end of April 1963. By the end of 1963 it had sold in excess of 75,000 copies. The novel was published in America in August 1963 by the New American Library , after Fleming changed publishers from Viking Press following The Spy Who Loved Me ; On Her Majesty's Secret Service
10541-404: The level eyes" Synnott considers that just as Bond's allies are good looking, his enemies are, on the whole, unattractive and often grotesque. Irma Bunt—described by Mills as "Blofeld's asexual second in command" —is evil and therefore ugly, according to Synnott. When the character first appears in the book, Fleming describes her as looking: ... like a very sunburnt female wardress. She had
10668-651: The media historian James Chapman observes that part of her role in the book is to act as "a traditional ... male fantasy of women's sexuality". This he asserts, is "culturally problematic" for readers of the 2010s. In doing do, he says, Tracy is fulfilling the same role as some of the women in the other Bond novels, including Jill Masterton in Goldfinger , Domino Vitali in Thunderball and Viv in The Spy Who Loved Me . The cultural critic Umberto Eco lists Marc-Ange Draco among those characters in
10795-431: The morning ... and I do another hour's work between six and seven in the evening. I never correct anything and I never go back to see what I have written ... By following my formula, you write 2,000 words a day." For On Her Majesty's Secret Service he "took as much trouble as ever with the plot", according to his biographer, John Pearson . Fleming experimented with his format in The Spy Who Loved Me , writing
10922-553: The naturalist cure Bond undergoes. Bond's examination of the hull of Disco Volante was inspired by the ill-fated mission undertaken on 19 April 1956 by the ex- Royal Navy frogman "Buster" Crabb on behalf of MI6, as he examined the hull of the Soviet cruiser Ordzhonikidze that had brought Nikita Khrushchev and Nikolai Bulganin on a diplomatic mission to Britain. Crabb disappeared in Portsmouth Harbour and
11049-428: The novel at Goldeneye , his holiday home in Jamaica, while Dr. No , the first entry in the James Bond film series by Eon Productions , was being filmed nearby. On Her Majesty's Secret Service is the second book in what is known as the "Blofeld trilogy", which begins with Thunderball and concludes with You Only Live Twice . This episode centres on Bond's ongoing search to find Ernst Stavro Blofeld after
11176-647: The novel he was writing. The first draft of the novel was 196 pages long and called The Belles of Hell . Fleming later changed the title after being told of a nineteenth-century sailing novel called On Her Majesty's Secret Service , seen by his friend Nicholas Henderson in Portobello Road Market . Fleming thought his draft was the best book he had yet written. Sections were later added in England after he undertook further research on heraldry and biological warfare. Robin de La Lanne-Mirrlees of
11303-540: The novel was published, and many readers still remembered the scarcity of food; Hugh Gaitskell , the Leader of the Labour Party , told Fleming in 1958 "The combination of sex, violence, alcohol and—at intervals—good food and nice clothes is, to one who leads such a circumscribed life as I do, irresistible." The novel is "one of the more food-oriented Bond books", according to the literary analyst Elizabeth Hale. Within
11430-772: The novel, the reference to "homosexual tendencies" being one of the "stubborn disabilities" treatable by hypnosis was retained in the new release. The release of the bowdlerised series was for the 70th anniversary of Casino Royale , the first Bond novel. In The Observer , Maurice Richardson pondered if there had been "a deliberate moral reformation" of Bond, although he noted Bond still had his harder side when needed. Marghanita Laski , writing in The Times Literary Supplement , thought that "the new James Bond we've been meeting of late [is] somehow gentler, more sentimental, less dirty ". Writing for The Washington Post , Jerry Doolittle thought that Bond
11557-654: The operations. The Americans and the British launch Operation Thunderball to foil SPECTRE and recover the two atomic bombs. On a hunch, M assigns Bond to the Bahamas to investigate. There, Bond meets Felix Leiter , who has been recalled to duty by the CIA from the Pinkerton detective agency because of the Thunderball crisis. While in Nassau , Bond meets Dominetta "Domino" Vitali , Largo's mistress and Petacchi's sister. She
11684-455: The pervading fantastic nature of Bond's world ... [is] bolted down to some sort of reality, or at least counter-balanced". The literary critic Meir Sternberg observes that Fleming went to great lengths to research the background of various items used in the novels to give readers an impression of the lifestyle or background of the characters. Fleming would occasionally overreach with his descriptions, according to Jerry Palmer, who considers
11811-402: The plan to capture Blofeld and thwart his plot. Helped by Draco's Unione Corse, Bond mounts an air assault against the clinic and Blofeld. The clinic is destroyed, but Blofeld makes off down a bobsled run and—pursued by Bond—he escapes. Bond flies to Germany where he marries Tracy. The two of them drive off on their honeymoon but, a few hours later, Blofeld and Bunt attack the car and Tracy
11938-410: The plot starts with Bond alone, voluntarily, prior to meeting Tracy; it ends with him alone, involuntarily, after her murder. For most of the novel, Bond is a solo agent, cut off from the support of his service and reliant only on his abilities; this is in contrast to Blofeld who has a large organisation to support and protect him but still ends up on the losing side. For Black, the individualist tendency
12065-550: The police and security services who are tracking him down. Bond learns that Blofeld has apparently been curing a group of young British and Irish women of their allergies to food and livestock. In truth, Blofeld and his aide, Irma Bunt, have been brainwashing them into carrying biological warfare agents back to Britain and Ireland to destroy the agricultural economy, upon which post–Second World War Britain depends. Believing himself discovered, Bond escapes by ski from Piz Gloria, chased by SPECTRE operatives, some of whom he kills in
12192-467: The process; Blofeld sets off an avalanche, which narrowly misses Bond. Afterward, in a state of total exhaustion, he encounters Tracy. She is in the town at the base of the mountain after being told by her father that Bond may be in the vicinity. Bond is too weak to take on Blofeld's henchmen alone and she helps him escape to the airport. Smitten by the resourceful, headstrong woman, he proposes marriage and she accepts. Bond then returns to England and works on
12319-586: The series, according to academic Jeremy Black . Black argues that SPECTRE represents "evil unconstrained by ideology" and it partly came about because the decline of the British Empire led to a lack of certainty in Fleming's mind. This is reflected in Bond's using US equipment and personnel in the novel, such as the Geiger counter and nuclear submarine. As with the previous novels in the series, aspects of Thunderball come from Fleming's own experiences:
12446-558: The ship's bell for HMS Repulse , M's last command: it was Godfrey's ship too. Godfrey was Fleming's superior officer in the Naval Intelligence Division (NID) during the war and was known for his bellicose and irascible temperament. Fleming also used the name of Donald McLachlan , a former colleague of both his and Godfrey's in the NID. The name "Hilary Bray" was that of an old Etonian with whom Fleming worked at
12573-568: The sports club of Schloss Mittersill in the Austrian Alps ; in 1940 the Nazis closed down the club and turned it into an institute for research into so-called " race science ". It was this pseudo-scientific research centre that inspired Blofeld's own centre of Piz Gloria. The connection between M and the inspiration for his character, Rear Admiral John Godfrey , was made apparent with Bond visiting Quarterdeck, M's home. There, Bond rings
12700-460: The stockbroking firm Rowe & Pitman. "Sable Basilisk" was based on the title of "Rouge Dragon" in the College of Arms. Rouge Dragon was Lanne-Mirrlees's title at the college; he asked Fleming not to use his real title in the book, although it did appear in the manuscript and typescripts. In a play on words, Fleming used Lanne-Mirrlees's address, a flat in Basil Street , and combined it with
12827-459: The story changed, there were ten outlines, treatments and scripts. Several titles were proposed for these works, including SPECTRE , James Bond of the Secret Service and Longitude 78 West . Much of the attraction Fleming felt working alongside McClory was based on McClory's film, The Boy and the Bridge , which was the official British entry to the 1959 Venice Film Festival . When the film
12954-553: The story in the first-person narrative of a Canadian woman whom Bond rescues from rape at the hands of two thugs. He reverted to his usual formula for On Her Majesty's Secret Service . He had undertaken some research in Britain before he left for Jamaica, and he contacted the Writers and Speakers Research Agency to ask about "which parts of the United Kingdom would be the best targets for which bacteria, etc", and to find someone who could speak Corsican and provide information about
13081-550: The storyline of an aeroplane of celebrities in the Atlantic, it included elements from Fleming's friend Ernie Cuneo, who included ships with underwater trapdoors in their hulls and an underwater battle scene. The Russians were originally the villains, then the Sicilian Mafia , but this was later changed again to the internationally operating criminal organisation, SPECTRE. Both McClory and Fleming claim to have come up with
13208-526: The success of the publication of the short story " The Hildebrand Rarity " in Playboy in March 1960, Fleming chose to serialise On Her Majesty's Secret Service in the magazine in the April, May and June 1963 issues. The novel was also serialised in the Daily Express between 18 and 29 March 1963, and adapted as a daily comic strip for the Daily Express and syndicated worldwide; the strip ran for nearly
13335-580: The thawing of relations between East and West, although the cold war escalated again shortly afterwards, with the Bay of Pigs Invasion , the construction of the Berlin Wall and the Cuban Missile Crisis all occurring in an eighteen-month period from April 1961 to November 1962. The introduction of SPECTRE and its use over several books gives a measure of continuity to the remaining stories in
13462-609: The title and name of Comte Balthazar de Bleuville and, wanting formal confirmation of the title, has asked the College to declare him a count. On the pretext that an inherited minor physical abnormality (a lack of earlobes) needs a personal confirmation, Bond impersonates a College of Arms representative, Sir Hilary Bray, to visit Blofeld's lair atop Piz Gloria, a fictional mountain in the Swiss Alps . He finally meets Blofeld, who has lost weight and undergone plastic surgery, partly to remove his earlobes, but also to disguise himself from
13589-403: The title to Thunderball . In January 1960 McClory visited Fleming's Jamaican home Goldeneye , where Fleming explained his intention of delivering the screenplay to MCA , with a recommendation from him and Bryce that McClory act as producer. Fleming also told McClory that if MCA rejected the film because of McClory's involvement, then McClory should either sell his services to MCA, back out of
13716-537: The visit to the health clinic was inspired by his own 1955 trip to the Enton Hall health farm near Godalming and Bond's medical record, as read out to him by M, is a slightly modified version of Fleming's own. The name of the health farm, Shrublands, was taken from that of a house owned by the parents of his wife's friend, Peter Quennell . Fleming dedicates a quarter of the novel to the Shrublands setting and
13843-595: The war is a method used by Fleming in several novels to differentiate good from evil; those who fought for the Allies—particularly Britain—were considered "good", while Germans or those who supported them were "bad". Draco's medal for valour from Britain cements him as one of Bond's core allies, despite his criminal activities. The sociologist Anthony Synnott observes that many of the men who assist Bond are either handsome or striking looking; this includes Draco, about whom Fleming writes: "The man had such
13970-469: The yacht has been used to transport the bombs. However, she is discovered and Largo tortures her for information. Bond and Leiter alert the Thunderball war room of their suspicions of Largo and join the crew of the American nuclear submarine Manta as the ransom deadline nears. The Manta chases the Disco Volante to capture it and recover the bombs en route to the first target. Bond and Leiter lead
14097-469: Was "an exciting story [...] skilfully told", with "a romantic sub-plot ... and the denouement involves great events" He also considered it "the best written since Diamonds Are Forever , four books back. It has pace and humour and style. The violence is not so unrelenting as usual: an improvement, I think." He also expressed concern for the central character, saying "I was glad to see him [Bond] in such good form. Earlier he seemed to be softening up. He
14224-476: Was 253 pages long and cost 15 shillings . 50,938 copies were printed and quickly sold out. Thunderball was published in the US by Viking Press and sold better than any of the previous Bond books. Publishers Jonathan Cape spent £2,000 (£56,233 in 2023 pounds ) on advance publicity. Cape sent out 130 review copies to critics and others and 32,000 copies of the novel had been sent to 864 UK booksellers and 603 outside
14351-489: Was 299 pages long. It was the first of Fleming's novels listed in The New York Times Best Seller list , and topped it for over six months. In September 1964—after Fleming's death in May that year— Pan Books published a paperback version of On Her Majesty's Secret Service in the UK that sold 125,000 copies before the end of the year and 1.8 million in 1965. Since its initial publication
14478-472: Was born from a collaboration by five people: Ian Fleming, Kevin McClory , Jack Whittingham , Ivar Bryce and Ernest Cuneo , although the controversial shared credit of Fleming, McClory and Whittingham was the result of a courtroom decision. The story centres on the theft of a pair of nuclear weapons by the crime syndicate SPECTRE and the subsequent attempted blackmail of the Western powers for their return. James Bond, Secret Service operative 007, travels to
14605-404: Was dispatched to the clinic to oversee Giuseppe Petacchi, an Italian Air Force pilot stationed at a nearby bomber squadron base, and post the communiqué once the bombs were in SPECTRE's possession. Although Lippe has accomplished his tasks, Blofeld considers him unreliable because of his childish clash with Bond and has him killed. Acting as a NATO observer of Royal Air Force procedure, Petacchi
14732-565: Was dressed in unbecomingly tight vorlage trousers topped by a grey wind-jacket ornamented over the left breast with a large red G topped by a coronet. Irma La not so Douce , thought Bond. Blofeld differs from other villains in the Bond series, according to the literary historian Lars Ole Sauerberg. Sauerberg identifies Le Chiffre ( Casino Royale ) and Mr Big ( Live and Let Die ) as criminals with large ambitions and Hugo Drax , Doctor No and Goldfinger as those who commit crimes in order to complete their larger plans; all five are connected with
14859-437: Was first published in the United Kingdom by Jonathan Cape on 1 April 1963. Fleming changed the formula and structure from the previous novel, The Spy Who Loved Me , and made a determined effort to produce a work that adhered to his tried and tested format. The initial and secondary print runs sold out quickly, with over 60,000 copies sold in the first month, double that of the previous book's first month of sales. Fleming wrote
14986-509: Was having bad hangovers on half-a-bottle of whisky a day, which I don't call a lot, unless he wasn't eating properly." Writing in The Times Literary Supplement , Philip John Stead thought that Fleming "continues uninhibitedly to deploy his story-telling talents within the limits of the Commander Bond formula." Stead saw that the hijacking of the two bombs "gives Bond some anxiety but, needless to say, does not prevent him from having
15113-406: Was never actually formed into a company. In May 1959 Fleming, Bryce, Cuneo and McClory met first at Bryce's Essex house and then in McClory's London home as they came up with a story outline which was based on an aeroplane full of celebrities and a female lead called Fatima Blush. McClory was fascinated by the underwater world and wanted to make a film that included it. Over the next few months, as
15240-655: Was never seen again. As well as having Buster Crabb in mind, Fleming would also recall the information about the 10th Light Flotilla , an elite unit of Italian navy frogmen who used wrecked ships in Gibraltar to launch attacks on Allied shipping . The specifications for Disco Volante herself had been obtained by Fleming from the Italian ship designer, Leopold Rodriguez. As often happened in Fleming's novels, several names were taken from those of people he had known. Ernst Stavro Blofeld's name partially comes from Tom Blofeld,
15367-469: Was often a formulaic writer, with the death of Bond's new wife at the end of the novel Fleming showed he was prepared to break the formula of a popular writer by avoiding a happy ending , according to the writer John Atkins . The communications academic Jerry Palmer believes Fleming was adopting a different convention of a thriller : that the hero should be alone. Palmer states that conventions determined Tracy needed to die, adding "James Bond happily married
15494-455: Was produced by Kevin McClory. BBC Radio 4 aired an adaptation in December 2016, directed by Martin Jarvis . It starred Toby Stephens as Bond and Tom Conti as Largo. During a meeting with his superior, M , Bond learns that his latest physical assessment is poor because of excessive drinking and smoking. M sends Bond to a health clinic for a two-week treatment to improve his condition. At
15621-454: Was published on 1 April 1963 in the UK as a hardcover edition by Jonathan Cape ; it was 288 pages long. A limited edition of 285 copies was also printed; 250 were for sale, having been numbered and signed by Fleming, and the remainder were signed and marked "For Presentation". The artist Richard Chopping undertook the cover illustration for the first edition, as he had done for all the previous Bond books. There were 42,000 advance orders for
15748-592: Was released in July 1959, it was poorly received, and did not do well at the box office; Fleming became disenchanted with McClory's ability as a result. In October 1959, with Fleming spending less time on the project, McClory introduced experienced screenwriter Jack Whittingham to the writing process. In November 1959 Fleming left to travel around the world on behalf of The Sunday Times , material for which Fleming also used for his non-fiction travel book, Thrilling Cities . On his travels—through Japan, Hong Kong and into
15875-454: Was reported to be "the best opening record of any James Bond film" up to that point. In the 1990s McClory planned to make another adaptation of the Thunderball story, Warhead 2000 AD , with Timothy Dalton or Liam Neeson in the lead role, but this was eventually dropped. On Her Majesty%27s Secret Service (novel) On Her Majesty's Secret Service is the tenth novel and eleventh book in Ian Fleming 's James Bond series . It
16002-449: Was the only champagne at the time not to be produced in half-bottles. On Her Majesty's Secret Service contains what the writer Raymond Benson —who later wrote a series of Bond novels—calls "major revelations" about Bond's character and habits. These start with Bond's showing an emotional side, visiting the grave of his former lover Vesper Lynd ; it is revealed that he has been doing this every year since her death. This emotional side
16129-438: Was to follow, when "Bond is threatened with what, for an international cad, would clearly be a fate worse than death: matrimony". Writing in The New York Times , Anthony Boucher —later described by John Pearson as "throughout an avid anti-Bond and an anti-Fleming man" —was again critical, although he wrote that "you can't argue with success". He went on to say that "simply pro forma , I must set down my opinion that this
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