Geoffrey Boothroyd  and   Ian Fleming  picture from Ivan Morelius                         Kemsley House. London W.C.!.    .fleming_letter.PDF                                              flemingletter.PDF

GEOFFREY BOOTHROYD –  MY FIRST ENGLISH GUEST                            By Iwan Morelius (then Hedman) I had just founded my magazine DAST-MAGAZINE in september 1968, but it should take two more years before I got my first English guest. It was my old pen-friend since many years, Geoffrey Boothroyd, so well known among James Bond-fans as ”James Bond´s armourer” in almost all the movies. No, not as an actor, but always the man who choosed James Bon´ds´ weapons. You are of course familiar with the background that Geoff Boothroyd sent Ian fleming a letter where he told Ian that ”if James Bond would survive the next adventure he had to change weapon. Instead of the Beretta he should have a Swith & Wesson (see photo). Geoff said in the letter to Ian Fleming: ”…is utterly useless as well being a lady´s gun!”  Ian Fleming was grateful and from the next book, which was From Russia With Love( Kamrat mördare), James used the S&W. The gun used by Richard Chopping for the jacket to that book was Geoff´s own gun .  17th of August 1970 Geoff came to Strängnäs  as our  guest  and as he also was very interested in Scottish pistols/guns from the 1600 century, I had suggested to him to visit Sko Kloster, which had a wonderful collection of such weapons. Geoff came and showed up to be a most   charming man with great humour and quick to laugh. And his knowledge of weapons was enormous. He knew more than I even about our Swedish weapons. Some years later he wrote a book with the title The Handguns, which since then is the gun collectors bible. I was happy to be able to help him with some research and found two very rare Swedish books about handguns for him. Geoff and my wife Inga (ex.wife today)in Strängnäs 1970 These two books Geoff had never seen, just heard about, so he was very grateful when I gave them to him for his collection. Geoff and I also visited my regiment – P 10 – in Strängnäs and he was invited to the officers mess. He was guided around by my regimental chief after we had some coffe. Suddenly Geoff stopped in front of a big portrait, reading the information on a plate. He then told us that the portrait was of a scottish officer (colonel) who had been regimental chief at P 10 in early 1600. His name was Alexander Leslie. We also made a viti to Stockholm and Livrustkammarern, where they had two very rare scottish pistols, which Geoff got the permission to take into parts and take photos of. These pistols had been own by Count Oxenstierna who had got them from a scottish noble man. The value of those pistols was around 72.000:- Skr each! Geoff said to me: ”Iwan, just to have been able to hold these pistols was worth my trip to Sweden! I have never seen such pistols before. They are unic in the world. We don´t even have such pistols in Scotland!!! When Geoff and I visited the shooting range at P 10 some days later he showed me what a craftsman he was. He used my personal gun, a Husqvarna m/40 and my mashingun, a K-pist m/45  with 36 bullets. Geoff beat me with both guns and put 8 rounds with the pistol in the middle of the target at 30 meters. Then he used my K-pist and put the whole magazine (36 rounds) in the middle of a paper-figure. I was amazed. But he had been Scottish champion a couple of times. Geoff at P 10 shooting range with my k-pist m/45

 

http://www.svenskamagasinet.nu/article.645.html http://www.dast.nu/tag/roman http://hangmattan.site90.net/ Till vänster Geoffrey Boothroyd, som visar revolvern som användes till omslaget på  "From Russia With Love" 1963  (dock då med en förkortad pipa).  Till höger Ian Fleming.

Ian Lancaster Fleming – James Bonds skapare, 100 år! Det är skillnad på fenomen och fenomen, det står fullt klart när det gäller författaren Ian Fleming, som året 1953 fick sin thriller om den hemlige agent 007, James Bond, publicerad på Jonathan Capes förlag. ”Had he but known”, som det ibland uttrycks i deckarromaner, men det hade han inte. Avled 1964 Tyvärr hann Ian Fleming inte uppleva det verkligt stora lyftet eftersom han gick bort redan 1964. Men han hann uppleva att några av de filmade böckerna höjdes till skyarna. Nu sitter han uppe i sin himmel och njuter av att ha varit skaparen av ett av vår tids största fenomen inom bok- och filmvärlden. Hans böcker säljer fortfarande i miljoner världen över och filmerna slår kassarekord efter kassarekord. Och hans James Bond har blivit en ren industri med Bond-prylar av alla de slag. Museum i Nybro Ett  museum finns det .   ett på 1000 kvm i Sverige - www.007museum.com – det ligger i Nybro och innehavaren heter Gunnar Schäfer. Det finns leksaker, hämtade från alla filmerna i form av bilar, vapen, kläder med mera i all oändlighet liksom specialmagasin som handlar enbart om 007/James Bond/Ian Fleming.

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