From mother with love: James Bond creator Ian Fleming was doomed to never the marry the woman he really loved – so made her 007’s mother instead, biographer says
From mother to love: James Bond creator Ian Fleming was doomed to never marry the woman he truly loved – so he made her 007’s mother, says biographer
- New biography of the Bond creator says doomed love sculpted the spy’s family structure
A new biography of James Bond creator Ian Fleming claims he based the super spy’s mother on a lover with whom he had a failed engagement.
Monique Panchaud de Bottens was today named as the inspiration for the parent of the fictional MI5 womanizer.
In Fleming’s novels, Bond’s mother is called Monique Delacroix and has the same nationality as the real Mrs. de Bottens.
And Ian Fleming’s biography: Nicholas Shakespeare’s The Complete Man – that’s his serialized in The Times – says that failed love made Bond so callous.
The book claims that Fleming’s mother Eve did not approve of her son’s three-year engagement to Mrs. de Bottens.
She is said to have fought to have it demolished and succeeded in October 1933 after threatening to cut off his allowance.
Shakespeare tracked down Mrs. Bottens’ son for his book and found Charles de Mestral.
He said: ‘We bought the Bond books in a bookshop, nothing came from him.
Ian Fleming crossed the road with his mother Evelyn St. Croix Fleming in November 1957
In Fleming’s novels, Bond’s mother is called Monique Delacroix and has the same nationality as the real Mrs. de Bottens
“The way Fleming handled the relationship was to have her become James Bond’s mother.”
Ernest Cuneo, a close friend of Fleming, is also mentioned by Shakespeare in his new book.
He says: ‘It seems to me that James Bond embodies Ian’s revenge for the terrible pain.
“Bond throws them into bed and leaves them with the memory of a wild delight that leaves them, gods, pining for Bond and forever bereft without him.”
These are theories that Shakespeare considers reliable and credible.
He says: “She gives birth to Bond, that’s what Cuneo believed.
Daniel Craig played Fleming’s spy James Bond in the Hollywood blockbuster Casino Royale
Nicholas Shakespeare’s Ian Fleming: The Complete Man biography makes the revelations
“This is his first adult love affair and he is ready to commit. In any case, he didn’t fall in love with her.
‘It’s clear that Fleming fell for her and she fell for him. But his horrible mother doesn’t want him to marry a Swiss girl.’
Mrs. de Botten, who later married and became de Mestral, went to work as an interior designer in Switzerland.
Her son believes it was she who broke off the relationship with Fleming after becoming enraged by his mother.
It is believed that Eve Fleming banned the pair from sleeping in the same bed under her roof.
And she allegedly refused to light the fire in Mrs. de Botten’s room, causing her to become cold.
It is said that the final straw came when she complimented her one morning for never having tasted caviar for breakfast.
Her son, Mr de Mestral, added: ‘The theory here is that Monique is the one who broke off the engagement.
“I don’t think we’ll ever know for sure, but we can say that Monique was perfectly capable of doing that.”