Cookie Consent by Free Privacy Policy website Ian Fleming's Love Letters Written to his Wife, Ann to be Offered at Sotheby's London
november 13, 2019 - Sotheby

Ian Fleming's Love Letters Written to his Wife, Ann to be Offered at Sotheby's London

Tuesday 12 November 2019: A uniquely substantial and significant series of letters exchanged between #ianfleming and the great love of his life, Ann (“Darling Darling Baby”, “Dear Monkey”, “Darling Pig”), will be offered for sale at Sotheby’s next month.

The correspondence chronicles two decades of their lives from the intensity of their early secret love affair to the embittered final years of their marriage. The collection encompasses intimate love letters, lively descriptions of travels around the world, gossip of rich and famous friends, their shared passion for the natural world, the writing of the #jamesbond novels and their phenomenal success, which dominated his final years.

Dr #gabrielheaton, Sotheby’s Specialist in Books and Manuscripts said: “James Bond was very much a product of Ian and Ann’s relationship. It is no coincidence that Ian wrote his first Bond novel in the same year they married, both as an outlet for his libido and imagination, and also in an attempt to make money for a woman who was used to being unthinkingly rich. 

These letters remain largely unpublished and, in their scope and scale, must surely be an unmatchable record of the life of the author as his fortunes changed: they begin during the war, when he was working in intelligence, cover his post-war forays into journalism, long periods spent in his beloved Jamaica, and his creation of #jamesbond – one of the most enduring fictional characters of the last seventy years. As well as recording a relationship with an extraordinary erotic charge, this correspondence charts the meteoric rise of Bond and paints a vivid picture of high society living in the post-war world.” 

Comprising over 160 letters written by both Ian and Ann, written across 500 pages, this correspondence will be offered as part of Sotheby’s #London online sale of English Literature, History, Rock and Pop, Children’s Books and Illustrations (3-10 December) with an estimate of £200,000-300,000.