Bob Dolgan, writer of This Week in Birding, Filmmaker and Piping Plover fan, tweeted:
Ian Fleming and Jim Bond might appreciate reading this fine book in Eleuthera, Bahamas. A story about a pre-eminent ornithologist of the Caribbean. The first bird guide to the West Indies was by Bond.
All that -- and an awesome photo from the Eleuthera in the Bahamas!
Bob's website is turnstoneimpact.com
... Ian Fleming sat down at the bullet-wood desk in his bungalow on the north shore of Jamaica to write his first 007 novel.
Near his desk sat a copy of Birds of the West Indies, by a Philadelphia ornithologist named James Bond.
Fleming called his place "Goldeneye" (above). He would call his spy thriller Casino Royale.
Next Friday: A hummingbird dear to Ian Fleming's heart.
(Photo courtesy of Island Outpost.)
Jim Bond died on Valentine's Day, 1989, after a long bout with cancer. He was 89.
His ashes are buried next to his wife Mary's in a cemetery in Lower Gwynedd Township, not far from his childhood home outside of Philadelphia.
Their ashes are buried near the graves of Jim’s mother, brother and sister.
The church’s altar has an exquisite stained-glass window (below) donated by Bond’s father in memory of Bond’s mother.
The window, of a Resurrection scene, was made by Clayton & Bell of London, who also designed several windows for Westminster Abbey.
My column this week is about the Bee Hummingbird, the smallest hummingbird in the world.It was one of the many star attractions of James Bond's Birds of the West Indies, I saw earlier several this winter on a trip to Cuba with the Caribbean Conservation Trust. With a terrific photo by Kevin Watson. (Thanks, Kevin!)
Continue reading "The World's Smallest Hummingbird" »
Want your own copy of The Real James Bond?
You can order a hard-cover copy online here. (This website helps raise money for independent bookshops.)
You can order a signed copy from me here.
You can order a Real James Bond eBook for Kindle here. You can order a Real James Bond eBook on Apple here.
You can read my interview with BirdWatching magazine here.
You can subscribe to this blog by supplying your email address under "Subscribe" in the column at right.
Sure is a lot you can do!
Interested in learning more about the book? Here are some useful links, including a raft of great reviews.
You can read my article about the real Bond in The Smithsonian Magazine here.
My interview with BirdWatching Magazine is here.
The Real James Bond has gotten some marvelous reviews and praise, and I thought it might be helpful to link to as many of them as possible in one spot -- here:
Continue reading "'Real James Bond' Useful Links" »
Looking forward to presenting my next Zoom talk on Tuesday, with some new material on 007 in the Adirondacks.
Meet The Real James Bond
A free Zoom talk for
the Southern Adirondack Audubon Society
Tuesday, Jan. 24, 7 pm.
In 1952, Ian Fleming stole the name of a famous ornithologist and explorer named James Bond (1900-1989), the author of the trail-blazing Birds of the West Indies.
This colorfully illustrated talk will focus on Bond, Ian Fleming, and some 007 moments in the Adirondacks.
Jim Wright is the author of The Real James Bond, the acclaimed biography of the author and birdman who fell prey to the world’s most famous case of identity theft. The Wall Street Journal called it “slim and elegant” -- just like the real Bond and 007.
I happened upon this webpage advertising a copy of How 007 Got His Name, signed by both James Bond and his wife, Mary Wickham Bond.
Here's part of the description:
First edition, first impression, inscribed by the author and her husband James Bond on the front free endpaper: "To Sarah and Bill, with Democratic wishes (R-L? or L-R?) from Mary Wickham Bond. April 8 1967" and "From a Republican. James Bond". While copies signed by the author occasionally appear in commerce, those signed by the subject are evidently scarce.
https://www.peterharrington.co.uk/how-007-got-his-name-156034.html
Worth a look!
I met with the legendary Cuban ornithologist Orlando Garrido in Havana for the first time since The Real James Bond came out and presented him with a copy of the book. I had interviewed him for the book back in 2016.
The Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia -- James Bond's home base for six decades, has a neat story about its Ornithology Department nowadays.
(Above, a tag from a Bee Hummingbird that Bond collected for science on the Isle of Pines (now called the Isle of Youth) in Cuba.
You can read it here:
https://www.anspblog.org/day-in-ornithology-dept/
Trick question: The Isle of Youth is the second-largest Cuban island. What is the largest?
See the answer below:
Cuba