The Love Story of Ian Fleming and Blanche Blackwell
The Jamaican heiress was nothing like any of the Bond Girls
The life of writer Ian Fleming has fused somewhat with the lethal swagger of his overwhelmingly successful fictional character, James Bond, and that assumption carries over to those who were close to him. When Blanche Blackwell, his longtime mistress, died on August 8, 2017, certain obituaries suggested she had been the ultimate Bond girl, even claiming she was the inspiration for Pussy Galore of Goldfinger.
The truth was Blackwell personified a Bond girl no more than Fleming did a British secret agent with a license to kill. Her life, and their love affair, was much more subtle than that.
Fleming bought property in Jamaica in 1946 and rehabilitated a house that he dubbed Goldeneye. “As has been the case since the days of the sugar barons, Jamaica provided a home for British aristocrats, second and third sons of the aristocracy and rich misfits,” wrote Matthew Parker in his book Goldeneye: Where Bond Was Born: Ian Fleming’s Jamaica.
The category Fleming belonged in was perhaps the third, though he was not as yet rich. The middle son of a prosperous banker and politician, Fleming had floundered after Eton, overshadowed by a brilliant older brother. He poured his energy into the playboy life, drinking and seducing as many…
