Blanche Blackwell, Mistress And Muse Of James Bond’s Creator, Ian Fleming, Dies at 104

Matt Schudel at the Washington Post offers an obituary of Blanche Blackwell, a British socialite who lived in Jamaica and inspired Errol Flynn, Noel Coward and Ian Fleming.

Blanche Blackwell inspired one of Noel Coward’s plays about an upper-crust love triangle, and swashbuckling Hollywood star Errol Flynn wanted to marry her. She was a member of one of Jamaica’s richest families, but she was best known as the mistress and muse of Ian Fleming (seen in the below photo), the rakish author who was the creator of James Bond.

Mrs. Blackwell died Aug. 8 in London at 104. Her death was confirmed by Andrew Lycett, Fleming’s biographer. Other details were not available.

Vivacious and outdoorsy, Mrs. Blackwell was known for her bright smile and casual allure. She first met Flynn — “a gorgeous god,” in her words — in the 1940s, during one of his Jamaican vacations. He described her laugh as “like the sounds of water tinkling over a waterfall” and was so enchanted that he wanted to propose, even both were married to other people.

One of her closest friends was Coward, the gay playwright and entertainer who based a character on Mrs. Blackwell in his play 1957 “Volcano,” which was so sexually charged that it wasn’t performed in public until 2012. (Mrs. Blackwell attended the opening.)

  

She lived long enough to give business advice to U2’s Bono, whose career was launched by her son, Chris Blackwell, the founder of Island Records.

“She always says, ‘I love men — they make such good pets,’ ” Chris Blackwell told the British magazine Tatler this year.

Mrs. Blackwell had a home on Jamaica’s northern coast, midway between Coward’s island retreat and Fleming’s estate, Goldeneye, where he wrote his novels and stories about Bond, Agent 007.

…“She always says, ‘I love men — they make such good pets,’ ” Chris Blackwell told the British magazine Tatler this year.

Mrs. Blackwell had a home on Jamaica’s northern coast, midway between Coward’s island retreat and Fleming’s estate, Goldeneye, where he wrote his novels and stories about Bond, Agent 007.

…In Jamaica, what began as “a tropical dalliance” between the writer and Mrs. Blackwell “developed into a deep love affair,” Lycett wrote in his 1995 biography of Fleming.

Beginning in 1952, Fleming returned to Goldeneye every winter to write a new book about Bond’s adventures as a British intelligence officer and serial seducer of women — both of which he could describe from his personal experience. His wife, Ann, usually stayed in England.

…“She was really somebody who offered him friendship,” Lycett said in an interview. “She made him content and happy at a difficult time in his life. She was a woman of great charm and intelligence and was extraordinarily good company.”

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/mistress-and-muse-of-james-bonds-creator-ian-fleming-dies-at-104/2017/08/11/27f65c7a-7eb2-11e7-9d08-b79f191668ed_story.html?utm_term=.f013c4927861 

The Dark Secrets Of Noel Coward's Play 'Volcano'

Michael Thornton at the British newspaper the Telegraph offers the back story to Noel Coward's forgotten play Volcano.

This week, Volcano, a play he wrote in that very house but which was unproduced for 56 years, received its West End premiere at the Vaudeville Theatre. It is set on the island of Samolo (obviously Jamaica), to a background of native drums and the ominous rumble of the neighbouring volcano.
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It features a saga of serial infidelity, adulterous betrayal and acrimonious marital conflict taken straight from Coward’s own Jamaican doorstep. The lead role of Adela Shelley, a handsome woman in her middle forties, played by Jenny Seagrove, is a thinly disguised depiction of Blanche Blackwell, still alive in her 100th year, Coward’s former neighbour in Jamaica.
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The other two characters in this turbulent triangle – the island’s Lothario, Guy Littleton, and his bitchy and vengeful wife Melissa – are equally thinly disguised portrayals of Coward’s womanising friend, Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, who is alleged to have been Blackwell’s lover, and his wife, Ann, the former Viscountess Rothermere.

You can read the rest of the story via the below link:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/theatre/9483001/The-dark-secrets-of-the-Volcano.html

Note: The top photo is of Noel Coward and the above photo is of Ian Fleming at Goldeneye. 

I visited Noel Coward's Jamaican villa Firefly and my wife and I stayed a week at Goldeneye. Like Coward and Fleming, we love Jamaica and Goldeneye was truly magical.

Noel Coward: Playwright, Performer, Spy

 

Chris Michard at Reuters.com offers an interesting piece on a new exhibit at the New York Public Library on Noel Coward.

For many, the name Noel Coward conjures the image a smoking jacket-clad bon vivant, tickling the ivories and tossing off bons mots between sips of a cocktail.

But a new exhibit that opened on Monday at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center takes a comprehensive look at the many, sometimes lesser-known lives of Coward the celebrated playwright. He was, for instance, a spy.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/13/us-noelcoward-idUSBRE82B1DT20120313

Note: I passed by Noel Coward's Jamaican home Firefly some years ago. I was staying at Ian Fleming's nearby Jamaican villa Goldeneye, where Noel Coward was often a guest.

Fleming, like Coward, served in intelligence during WWII, and the two were good friends. Coward served as Fleming's best man when Fleming married Anne in Jamaica.