Today I have booked plane tickets from Station S (Sweden) to the HQ in London and I am so looking forward to my quick in and out trip in a couple of weeks.
The reason for my trip is the Ian Fleming event at the Whitstable Literary Festival at Lecture Theatre, Whitstable Community College, Bellevue Road, on Friday, May 13th.
The evening will most certainly be a most memorable one with not less then four speakers with connection to the James Bond / Ian Fleming world.
Below is the program that I will attend:
Friday 13 May, 4pm-5pm
THE NAME’S COLE, STEVE COLE
Steve Cole introduces his first explosive Young Bond adventure, ‘Shoot to Kill’ giving a unique insight into 1930s gadgets, gangsters and Hollywood. Join Steve is this interactive event as he explains how he became such a fan of Ian Fleming’s super-spy, shares the research behind his creation, introduces new characters, including a sinister villain, and tests the audience’s spy skills to ask ‘How Bond Are You?’ Steve Cole has written the bestselling ‘Astrosaurs’ adventures. In 2013 he took over from Charlie Higson as author of the Young Bond series exploring the life of the teenage James Bond.
Friday 13 May, 6.30pm-7.30pm
IAN FLEMING: THE MAN BEHIND BOND
Andrew Lycett Sportsman, womanizer, naval commander, world-traveler, and spy, the creator of the Cold War’s archetypal secret agent was infinitely more complex and interesting than his iconic fictional character, Agent 007. Ian Fleming’s wide-ranging and exciting life inevitably provided the plausible backdrop for his Bond novels. The day after his wedding to Ann O’Neill, Fleming sat down to write his first book, ‘Casino Royale’, in order to soothe his nerves. Thus began the long line of Bond novels for which he would earn lasting fame.
Andrew Lycett is one of the foremost experts on Fleming’s life and work. He is a biographer and journalist whose other subjects include Wilkie Collins and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
Friday 13 May 7.45pm – 8.45pmGOLDENEYE WHERE BOND WAS BORN: IAN FLEMING’S JAMAICA
Matthew Parker
Historian Matthew Parker reveals the untold story of Ian Fleming in Jamaica, his house Goldeneye, and the creation of James Bond. Amid Jamaica’s beauty, Fleming immersed himself in the jet-set society that clung to its imperial past. Rubbing shoulders with Noel Coward and Errol Flynn, he was part of a world of dangerous glamour that would infuse all his Bond novels. The top 10 Sunday Times Best seller ‘Goldeneye’ is a revealing exploration of Ian Fleming’s life and work.
Matthew Parker spent part of his childhood in the West Indies. He has written five books and contributes to The Literary Review, and BBC History Magazine.
Friday 13 May 9.00pm – 10.00pm
IAN FLEMING, MY STEP-FATHER – FIONN MORGAN in conversation with ANDREW LYCETT
WhitLit is honoured to welcome Fionn Morgan, the daughter of Ann Fleming and her first husband Shane, 3rd Lord O’Neill. Fionn was 16 when her mother married Ian Fleming and has a wise stance on her step- father’s life, work, loves and outlooks. Ann Fleming was the last great political hostess, a letter writer of rare wit with close friends including Noel Coward, Evelyn Waugh, Lucian Freud and Cecil Beaton. Her long love affair with Ian Fleming started before her second marriage to newspaper baron Lord Rothermere and after their divorce Fleming married Ann in 1952. Fionn will reveal to Andrew Lycett growing up in a fascinating family and spending time with Ian Fleming and her mother in Kent.
Authors will sell and sign their books after their lecture.
Please let me know if any of you blog readers will be in the audience that night. I would be delighted to shake your hand.
You can read more and book your tickets here.