What Bond wants in a wife
Ian Fleming's birth one hundred years ago has generated more than the usual coverage of the latest James Bond film.
Yesterday, Allen Barra wrote that there is not much biographical information about Bond in the films or books, but there was some personal information about what he wanted in a woman.
Actually, Bond tells us exactly what he wants in a wife in the most private passage Fleming ever wrote about him (On His Majesty's Secret Service). I published the paragraph in a book about marriage because I thought some men would share Bond's feelings -
Hell! I'll never find another girl like this one. She's got everything I've ever looked for in a woman. She's beautiful, in bed and out. She's adventurous, brave, resourceful. She's exciting, always. She seems to love me. She'd let me go on with my life. She's a lone girl, not cluttered up with friends, relations, belongings. Above all, she needs me. It'll be someone for me to look after. I'm fed up with all these untidy, casual affairs that leave me with a bad conscience. I wouldn't mind having children. I've got no social background into which she would or wouldn't fit. We're two of a pair, really. Why not make it for always?
I know I've mentioned this before, but if the Anglosphere has enjoyed success, it's partly due to brave and brilliant women and the men who respected them.
| Permalink
| 
