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Explore
James Bond’s Kent
invitation? The author Ian Fleming had a holiday home here and when he wrote ‘the spy story to end all spy stories’ he drew inspiration locally – even the 007 tag came from the number of the London to Dover coach, now a National Express service. Track down locations behind the most
A some of famous
re you surprised that this tranquil county extends such a racy
Bond novels and fi lms: it’s your licence to thrill. Ian Lancaster Fleming (1908-64), writer, journalist, naval intelligence commander, spy and traveller, was also a bon viveur and sportsman – and he loved to escape to Kent to indulge his passions.
Come with him, fi rst to Royal St George’s Golf Club, Sandwich, many-times host to the British Open Golf Championship. From the 1930s, Fleming liked nothing more than to spend weekends on the links while staying at the now-demolished Guilford Hotel, Sandwich Bay. After the war, he often motored down from London in his Thunderbird Friday, in for nine
Ford
on a time
or 18 holes before tea
and, of course, a dry martini in the clubhouse – ‘Shaken, not stirred’. Tee off for a treat
and relive the classic match between Bond and Auric Goldfi nger, played on a beautiful day in May with larks singing over ‘the greatest seaside
golf-course in the world’: Royal St Mark’s in Goldfi nger was none other than Fleming’s real-
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life club and it has changed little since his time. It was also to be the stage for the author’s fi nal curtain call. Elected captain of the club 1964/5, he was present for a committee meeting on August 11, 1964, and suffered a heart attack. He died in Canterbury the following day. After browsing the historic charms of Sandwich so familiar to Fleming, head south along the coast to St Margaret’s. This one-time little fi shing village became a seaside resort of the rich and renowned from late Victorian times. Fleming would stay in the Granville Hotel, the same place to which Bond and Gala Brand repair in Moonraker after they have escaped the cliff-fall. Following several drinks, they enjoy ‘delicious fried soles and Welsh rarebits and coffee.’ These days a block of fl ats occupies the site of the Granville at the end of Granville Road, but why not lunch on fresh seafood at The Coastguard pub and restaurant in the spectacular setting of St Margaret’s Bay? Then stroll to the north
end of the shingle beach and pick out the white house with green shutters: Fleming’s former weekend and holiday home, White Cliffs, which he bought in 1952 from his friend, Noel Coward. Throughout the next decade, during which he wrote his Bond blockbusters, Fleming and his wife Ann visited White Cliffs and entertained famous pals like Somerset Maugham and Evelyn Waugh. Fleming loved to gaze through his telescope at shipping in the Channel – the very stretch where the evil Drax fl ees in his submarine after the Moonraker
rocket has been launched. Our expedition now ventures inland for an unexpected turn of events. Fleming owned the Old Palace at Bekesbourne, near Canterbury from 1960-62, and nearby are two very different sources of inspiration. Higham Park (not open to visitors) on the edge of Bridge was once home to the fl amboyant motor-racing driver Count Louis Zborowski, who designed and built cars fi tted with aero engines – he named three Chitty Bang Bang. Zborowski was killed, aged just 29, racing at Monza in 1924. But Fleming, a later visitor to Higham Park, was so fi red by the romance of the cars that he wrote the children’s tale, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (published 1964) for his son Caspar. No doubt Bond, a sophisticated motorhead, would have appreciated the vehicle’s magical technology. Travel a short distance
south from Bridge to Pett Bottom and we’re fully back in 007 territory. The Duck Inn was one of Fleming’s favourite ‘locals’ – fi nd his preferred seat, marked with a plaque, in the picturesque gardens. In You Only Live Twice it is revealed that James Bond spent his early years, under the guardianship of an aunt, in a small cottage beside ‘the attractive Duck Inn’ at the ‘quaintly named hamlet of Pett Bottom.’ That very cottage is now part of the pub. Relax over a drink or lunch and let your imagination picture the youth that became the iconic special agent.
Bond famously journeys
through East Kent to and from London, in both Moonraker and Goldfi nger. Relive the routes on your very own 007 short break!
www.indexmagazine.co.uk
Daniel Craig
Photograph by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
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