18 replies to this topic

[Krilencu]

I seem to remember that Fleming stated it to have happened at 16.
Hovewer, I stumbled across a line in Brokenclaw, when Chi Chi tells Bond she lost her virginity at 16, to which Bond replies "Beat you by almost 18 months", which implies he was 14 years and 10 months old.
Can anyone give me the correct information on that vital subject ?

Edited by Krilencu, 05 January 2005 - 12:13 PM.

[Mr. Somerset]

Yes, he was 16, and lost it in Paris along with his notecase, as explained in "From a View To A Kill". I'd take Fleming's word over Gardner's anyday. I think John Pearson actually goes into more detail in his James Bond biography, but it's been awhile since I read it.

[Jim]

It was probably buggered out of him at Eton.

Well, mine was.

[Qwerty]

Depends who you read as you've pointed out already. 16 with Fleming, 14 with Gardner.

[Krilencu]

Somehow I don't think we gonna read about it in the second or the third book of Young Bond series, when he reaches that age.

[Cesari]

According to Fleming he was 16.
Gardner, who doesn't know "his bond" made as usually another mistake.

[Jim]

Somehow I don't think we gonna read about it in the second or the third book of Young Bond series, when he reaches that age.

As you say. Can really see parents going for that one; although if Mr Higson does do that, by gum and flippin' jiminy the books will become well-known. The Daily Mail will go ape.

Hasn't young Bond also got to fiddle with a maid at some point and get himself expelled?

Regardless of whatever adventure stories these things tell, if they stick to the supposed "biography" the books could be very...umm...challenging.

[Qwerty]

According to Fleming he was 16.
Gardner, who doesn't know "his bond" made as usually another mistake.

Well didn't Fleming often contradict himself sometimes with his later books compared to certain events or statements made in his first books as well?

[David Schofield]

Somehow I don't think we gonna read about it in the second or the third book of Young Bond series, when he reaches that age.

As you say. Can really see parents going for that one; although if Mr Higson does do that, by gum and flippin' jiminy the books will become well-known. The Daily Mail will go ape.

Hasn't young Bond also got to fiddle with a maid at some point and get himself expelled?

Regardless of whatever adventure stories these things tell, if they stick to the supposed "biography" the books could be very...umm...challenging.

Absolutely, and this really typifies the problem with the concept of the yound Bond series of novels - Fleming's Bond is something of a bastard and his ruthless individuality developed from losing his parents at a young age and the harshness of life at an English boarding school. From what one reads in Fleming, Bond grew up very quickly and was not necessarily the model school boy.

Keeping Bond "boyish" and innocent AND Fleming's Bond will be quite a challenge for Higson.

[Jim]

Another thought strikes (not too harshly, but it strikes nonetheless).

If these books mention Roland Marquis or Draco Malfoy or whatever the chap from High Time to Kill is called, then this means that approximately sixty-five years pass between these books and High Time to Kill, which is patently set in 1999 or thereafter. That's very old people up that mountain.

If these books don't mention Roland Marquis, then IFP have put Mr Benson in the bin.

It's all a bit of a problem, innit?

(Although, admittedly, only if one takes any of this twaddle seriously).

[David Schofield]

Another thought strikes (not too harshly, but it strikes nonetheless).

If these books mention Roland Marquis or Draco Malfoy or whatever the chap from High Time to Kill is called, then this means that approximately sixty-five years pass between these books and High Time to Kill, which is patently set in 1999 or thereafter. That's very old people up that mountain.

If these books don't mention Roland Marquis, then IFP have put Mr Benson in the bin.

It's all a bit of a problem, innit?

(Although, admittedly, only if one takes any of this twaddle seriously).

Of course we take this twaddle seriously! I've always imagined Bond as a 78 year old in THE MAN WITH THE RED TATTOO, engaging in a mission with a 100 year old Japanse ex-Kamikaze pilot and shagging girls young enough to be his grandaughter, haven't you? Groovy!

Edited by David Schofield, 07 January 2005 - 12:24 PM.

[Jim]

Another thought strikes (not too harshly, but it strikes nonetheless).

If these books mention Roland Marquis or Draco Malfoy or whatever the chap from High Time to Kill is called, then this means that approximately sixty-five years pass between these books and High Time to Kill, which is patently set in 1999 or thereafter. That's very old people up that mountain.

If these books don't mention Roland Marquis, then IFP have put Mr Benson in the bin.

It's all a bit of a problem, innit?

(Although, admittedly, only if one takes any of this twaddle seriously).

Of course we take this twaddle seriously! I've always imagined Bond as a 78 year old in THE MAN WITH THE RED TATTOO, engaging in a mission with a 100 year old Japanse ex-Kamikaze pilot and shagging girls young enough to be his grandaughter, haven't you? Groovy!

Well, that does improve the book considerably, true.

[Loomis]

If these books don't mention Roland Marquis, then IFP have put Mr Benson in the bin.

Surely not. That would be unthinkable.

[Jim]

If these books don't mention Roland Marquis, then IFP have put Mr Benson in the bin.

Surely not. That would be unthinkable.

I know. An outrage.

[For those who may think that is the appropriate place for Mr Benson's stuff, how could you be so cruel? You big naughties, you.]

[David Schofield]

If these books don't mention Roland Marquis, then IFP have put Mr Benson in the bin.

Surely not. That would be unthinkable.

I know. An outrage.

[For those who may think that is the appropriate place for Mr Benson's stuff, how could you be so cruel? You big naughties, you.]

Hey, maybe IFP are trying to create Bonds in parallel universes! What a trip! Wait a minute, these cigarettes taste different.

[dajman_007]

I may be kicked off the forums, but he is a fictional character. The writers controll his biography, not himself, so his history could be altered from a transvestite nun to a 9 to 5 superman in between novels.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Sorry just venting. I just think they should try to coordinate with previous novels so we don't have these arguements.

[Jim]

I may be kicked off the forums, but he is a fictional character. The writers controll his biography, not himself, so his history could be altered from a transvestite nun to a 9 to 5 superman in between novels.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Sorry just venting. I just think they should try to coordinate with previous novels so we don't have these arguements.

No, you're right on the fictional character thing. It's absolutely true that it really doesn't matter, and it probably reflects more on us than them that we pay attention to this sort of piffle. Our tragedy. Won't stop the books from existing, after all.

[marktmurphy]

a ) Gardner's Bond could just have been lying- he is rather competative, after all.

b ) Jim: bloody hell.

c ) Just because no-one mentions Maquis in the novels doesn't erase him- he's just not been mentioned. Not that I'd mind Benson's novels being contradicted of course.

d) Bond being an old fella: personally I'm not even sure I place Bond's consecutive adventures in the same timeline as it just seems so silly that one guy would have all these (stangely repetative) adventures. Fleming even started to ruin his own continuity by changing Bond's age and important dates (buying the Bentley when he was in his pre-teens etc.) towards the end, didn't he?

Film-wise, I've been thinking there have been two 'Ages of Bond's: the Sean/George/Roger Bond and the Tim/Pierce Bond as these have similar ages and ostensibly could have retired in 1986 and 2002 respectively.

[Loomis]

Film-wise, I've been thinking there have been two 'Ages of Bond's: the Sean/George/Roger Bond and the Tim/Pierce Bond as these have similar ages and ostensibly could have retired in 1986 and 2002 respectively.

I'm with you on that one.