As has become a regular part of our Club weeks, Mr. Kaggsy is today providing a guest post!  His review does reveal elements of the novel’s events and outcome, although he says the conclusion is fairly predictable, given the relatively short story and the action taking place in a static setting, with very few characters. Quotations and content from the book appearing below are the copyright of the Ian Fleming Estate.

The Spy Who Loved Me by Ian Fleming

Virtually a novella, to say ‘Spy’ was a departure from the usual James Bond 007 cut and thrust would be a vast understatement. For a start, the expected Ian Fleming author name this time read ‘with Vivienne Michel’. Who was she, and why was her name only ever on this one book, in the series of novels and short stories Fleming wrote between 1953 and his passing in 1964?

UK first edition hardback, Jonathan Cape, 1962, with front board silver dagger motif (the US first edition and US book club had the same design); UK Book Club, 1962.

The rear dust flap read: ‘The spy who loved me was called James Bond and the night on which he loved me was a night of screaming terror in The Dreamy Pines Motor Court, which is in the Adirondacks in the north of New York State…’ The rest of the blurb was a mix of lurid description and advertising, including name-dropping Fleming and the publishers Cape; there was even a promotional ‘handwritten’ letter to provide publicity for the book.

The fourth wall was not so much broken, as demolished, by Vivienne Michel stepping out of the book into the real world, not only to push copies of the novel, but also to thank ‘her co-author’ and his publishers. And so the fiction, no pun intended, was exposed; the woman was a figment of Fleming’s fertile imagination, so much so that he brought her to life as a character, narrating the story, but also sharing the writing credits.

The Pan paperback teaser, a whole five years later, was even more full of hype: ‘Vivienne Michel is in trouble. Trying to escape her tangled past, she has run away to the American backwoods, winding up at the Dreamy Pines Motor Court. A far cry from the privileged world she was born to, the motel is also the destination of two hardened killers… When a cooly(sic) charismatic Englishman turns up, Viv, in terrible danger, is not just hopeful, but fascinated. Because he is James Bond, 007; the man she hopes will save her, the spy she hopes will love her…’

Thus the woman lived not only in Fleming’s mind, but also in the book which she ‘helped write’. The prospective reader might be put off, seeing the tale as one of those dime-a-dozen US paperbacks from the Fifties. But surely not, this was the famed Ian Fleming, from whom came the blockbuster movie ‘Dr. No’, in the same year that ‘Spy’ appeared. So did another reason present itself here, was Fleming, or Cape, or both, wanting a new title to sell on the back of the ‘Dr. No’ publicity?

The author’s ‘Thunderball’ had been published the year before, and ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’ was not due out until the next, leaving ‘Spy’ on its own, a slimmed-down, untypical offering. Apart from being the most explicit of Fleming’s novels, another seismic change came with the story being told in first person by ‘Viv’; moreover, Bond is absent for half of the book. Fleming even wrote a wordy prologue, purporting to credit Ms Michel as his co-author:

I found what follows lying on my desk one morning. As you will see, it appears to be the first person story of a young woman, evidently beautiful and not unskilled in the arts of love. According to her story, she appears to have been involved, both perilously and romantically, with the same James Bond whose secret service exploits I myself have written from time to time…after obtaining clearance for certain minor infringements of the Official Secrets Act I have much pleasure in sponsoring its publication.

‘Spy’ was the tenth Bond title from the Fleming/Cape stable, with only three more novels yet to be published, in as many years, plus some short stories. However, the author became disillusioned with the book, written in 1961, it meeting with savage criticism. He tried to stop further publication, although a paperback appeared in the US in 1963, but not in the UK until after Fleming’s death.

A cartoon strip of ‘Spy’ ran in the Daily Express newspaper in 1967/8. A decade later the title was used for the next Bond film (starring Roger Moore), made in name only and having no connection with the events from the book from fifteen years earlier. The ‘sleazy and violent’ book also appeared in the US ‘Stag’ magazine, under the title ‘Motel Nymph’, with commensurate artwork.

Fleming came to regard his concoction as an ‘experiment’, one which he accepted had ‘backfired’, reactions to the novel bringing fierce criticism, such as ‘an unprecedented low’. The author reportedly downplayed Bond simply as an exercise, a counter to the agent’s usual powerful character and action-filled exploits. The idea was a step too far, seen as interfering with the Bond canon, as well as delivering a thin plot and a boring read, according to critical sources.

UK Cape hardback double page illustration of ‘Dreamy Pines Motor Court’; first UK Pan paperback, 1967 (the US paperback appeared 1963, with quite plain cover).

‘Spy’ is written in three parts: ‘Me’, ‘Them’ and ‘Him’, the events all recounted by Viv. Her recent and past life and affairs outside of her native Canada are gone through at length, before she returns to her homeland and starts working at the ‘Dreamy Pines’, run by Jed and Mildred Phancey, a mature couple. The author goes through Viv’s young adult years, she being in her early twenties; she has been mistreated and her homecoming will assist in forgetting past relationships, also the countries in which they occurred. She takes a receptionist job, the holiday season about to end. Her temporary bosses treat her badly, with the much older Mr Phancey pestering the young woman. The unkind employers leave at last, leaving Viv behind, awaiting the owner, who is expected to visit and make an inventory, before closing up the premises; already the young woman suspects some insurance scam.

The novel reaches the middle part, ‘Them’. During a violent storm Viv turns the ‘vacancy’ sign on, hoping a passing traveller will want to stay, making her feel less alone. Much of the later content deals with the actions of characters yet to arrive, focusing on much of their conversations. For now, there are still descriptive passages with the usual Fleming flair:

I banged the door behind me, locked it and put up the chain. I was only just in time. Then the avalanche crashed down and settled into a steady roar of water whose patterns of sound varied from a heavy drumming on the slanting timbers of the roof to a higher, more precise slashing at the windows. In a moment these sounds were joined by the busy violence of the overflow drainpipes. And the noisy background pattern of the storm was set. I was still standing there, cosily listening, when the thunder, that had been creeping quietly up behind my back, sprang its ambush. Suddenly lightning blazed in the room, and at the same instant there came a blockbusting crash that shook the building and made the air twang like piano wire.

So the atmosphere is set, but the expected threat is dimmed by the arrival of a pair of comic book hoods, who work for the owner, their undisclosed objective being to torch the place for an insurance claim; moreover, Viv will conveniently die in the fire and get the blame, to boot. However, the baddies find the young woman to be of interest to them in the short term and are vicious towards her; the novel was originally banned in some countries, because of scenes then quite graphic.

US James Bond Classic Library, 1990s; UK Folio Society 2020; UK Cape 1977 hardback of the Christopher Wood unrelated movie version.

The third act, ‘Him’, is the opportune arrival of Bond, he having auspiciously seen the ‘vacancy’ sign. Viv appeals to him to save her from the thugs. The ensuing violence – including an incomplete torching of the motel – and rescue events take place, with the Englishman emerging the victor. The baddies seemingly despatched, Bond and his charge take a cabin together. However, one of the hoodlums returns for a final shootout, although he is gunned down by Bond, the victor now able to resume the passing affair with Viv; she experiences lovemaking of a kind denied to her in the past.

Her rescuer has gone by the time Viv awakes, having left a letter confirming that he will report the crimes and explaining what she should do. In fact the next two visitors at the burned premises are State Troopers, Bond having made good his promise. The woman is eventually able to ride off on her scooter, regenerated, with harsh memories erased by the life-affirming encounter with 007.

When I first read ‘Spy’, long ago, when I was going through the Bond titles in order, I found it out of place, compared with the more recognised fare of 007 in tight spots, combating villainous masterminds and savouring exotic settings. There are touches of Fleming’s colourful writing style, particularly in his capturing other countries and cities. However, regrettably, much of the tale involves verbal exchanges and actions between the players, with a slender storyline. The hardback cost fifteen shillings in 1962; now, in preserved condition, the book can fetch between one and two thousand pounds.