1.
Ian Fleming
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Ian Lancaster Fleming was an English author, journalist and naval intelligence officer who is best known for his James Bond series of spy novels. Fleming came from a family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co. Educated at Eton, Sandhurst and, briefly, the universities of Munich and Geneva and his wartime service and his career as a journalist provided much of the background, detail and depth of the James Bond novels. Fleming wrote his first Bond novel, Casino Royale, in 1952 and it was a success, with three print runs being commissioned to cope with the demand. Eleven Bond novels and two short-story collections followed between 1953 and 1966, the novels revolved around James Bond, an officer in the Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6. Bond was also known by his number,007, and was a commander in the Royal Naval Reserve. The Bond stories rank among the series of fictional books of all time. Fleming also wrote the childrens story Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang and two works of non-fiction, in 2008, The Times ranked Fleming 14th on its list of The 50 greatest British writers since 1945. Fleming was married to Ann Charteris, who was divorced from the second Viscount Rothermere owing to her affair with the author, Fleming and Charteris had a son, Caspar. Fleming was a smoker and drinker for most of his life. Two of his James Bond books were published posthumously, other writers have since produced Bond novels, Flemings creation has appeared in film twenty-six times, portrayed by seven actors. Ian Fleming was born on 28 May 1908, at 27 Green Street in the wealthy London district of Mayfair and his mother was Evelyn St Croix Rose, and his father was Valentine Fleming, the Member of Parliament for Henley from 1910. As an infant he lived, with his family, at Braziers Park in Oxfordshire. Fleming was the grandson of the Scottish financier Robert Fleming, who founded the Scottish American Investment Trust, in 1914, with the start of the First World War, Valentine joined C Squadron, Queens Own Oxfordshire Hussars, and rose to the rank of major. He was killed by German shelling on the Western Front on 20 May 1917, because the family owned an estate at Arnisdale, Valentines death was commemorated on the Glenelg War Memorial. Flemings elder brother Peter became a writer and married actress Celia Johnson. Fleming also had two brothers, Michael and Richard, and a younger maternal half-sister born out of wedlock, cellist Amaryllis Fleming. Amaryllis was conceived during an affair between John and Evelyn that started in 1923, some six years after the death of Valentine
2.
James Bond
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The James Bond series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. The latest novel is Trigger Mortis by Anthony Horowitz, published in September 2015, additionally Charlie Higson wrote a series on a young James Bond, and Kate Westbrook wrote three novels based on the diaries of a recurring series character, Moneypenny. The character has also adapted for television, radio, comic strip, video games. As of 2017, there have been twenty-four films in the Eon Productions series, the most recent Bond film, Spectre, stars Daniel Craig in his fourth portrayal of Bond, he is the sixth actor to play Bond in the Eon series. There have also two independent productions of Bond films, Casino Royale and Never Say Never Again. In 2015, the franchise was estimated to be worth $19.9 billion, the Bond films are renowned for a number of features, including the musical accompaniment, with the theme songs having received Academy Award nominations on several occasions, and two wins. Other important elements which run through most of the films include Bonds cars, his guns, the films are also noted for Bonds relationships with various women, who are sometimes referred to as Bond girls. Ian Fleming created the character of James Bond as the central figure for his works. Bond is an officer in the Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6. Bond is known by his number,007, and was a Royal Naval Reserve Commander. Among those types were his brother, Peter, who had involved in behind-the-lines operations in Norway. Aside from Flemings brother, a number of others also provided some aspects of Bonds make up, including Conrad OBrien-ffrench, Patrick Dalzel-Job and Bill Biffy Dunderdale. The name James Bond came from that of the American ornithologist James Bond, a Caribbean bird expert and author of the definitive field guide Birds of the West Indies. He further explained that, When I wrote the first one in 1953, I wanted Bond to be a dull, uninteresting man to whom things happened. When I was casting around for a name for my protagonist I thought by God, is the dullest name I ever heard. On another occasion, Fleming said, I wanted the simplest, dullest, plainest-sounding name I could find, James Bond was much better than something more interesting, like Peregrine Carruthers. Exotic things would happen to and around him, but he would be a neutral figure—an anonymous, likewise, in Moonraker, Special Branch Officer Gala Brand thinks that Bond is certainly good-looking. Rather like Hoagy Carmichael in a way and that black hair falling down over the right eyebrow
3.
Jonathan Cape
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Jonathan Cape was a London publishing firm founded in 1921 by Herbert Jonathan Cape, who was head of the firm until his death in 1960. Cape and his business partner Wren Howard set up the house in 1921. They established a reputation for quality design and production and a fine list of English-language authors, fostered by the firms editor. Capes list of writers ranged from poets including Robert Frost and C, day Lewis, to childrens authors such as Hugh Lofting and Arthur Ransome, to James Bond novels by Ian Fleming, to heavyweight fiction by James Joyce and T. E. Lawrence. After Capes death, the firm later merged successively with three other London publishing houses, in 1987 it was taken over by Random House in 1987. Its name continues as one of Random Houses British imprints, Herbert Jonathan Cape was born in London on 15 November 1879, the youngest of the seven children of Jonathan Cape, a clerk from Ireby in what is now Cumbria, and his wife Caroline, née Page. He received a basic schooling and in his teens he was taken on by Hatchards bookshop in Piccadilly as an errand-boy. In 1904 he joined the house of Duckworth as London traveller. In 1914, on the outbreak of the Great War, he took over the charge of the business when the proprietor. In December of that year Cape joined the army, serving for the rest of the war, Cape returned to Duckworth in 1918. In 1920 he was appointed manager of the Medici Society, known mainly for publishing prints of paintings, while in this post he met George Wren Howard,14 years his junior, who was learning the publishing trade at the Medici Society. Capes biographer Rupert Hart-Davis writes, Cape quickly saw that Howard had a sense of design in book production, as well as a good business head. After some months they decided there was no future for them where they were. Howard was able to raise money from his family, Cape, with no such option, raised his share of the starting capital by selling cheap paperback reprints of novels by Elinor Glyn. Duckworth held the rights to her books, but did not wish to issue cut-price editions, Cape negotiated the rights in early 1920, with just enough starting capital, the firm of Jonathan Cape began trading on 1 January 1921 at 11 Gower Street, Bloomsbury. Cape and Howard recruited Edward Garnett as their editor and reader, Garnett, described by The Times as the prince of publishers readers, remained with the firm until his death in 1937. Hart-Davis credits Garnetts literary judgment and Howards production with gaining the firm an outstanding reputation for quality during the two decades. The firms first publication was regarded as a gamble, Cape published a new two-volume edition, at the high price of nine guineas
4.
Dr. No (novel)
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No is the sixth novel by the English author Ian Fleming to feature his British Secret Service agent James Bond. Fleming wrote the novel in early 1957 at his Goldeneye estate in Jamaica and it was first published in the United Kingdom by Jonathan Cape on 31 March 1958. The novel centres on Bonds investigation into the disappearance in Jamaica of two fellow MI6 operatives and he establishes that they had been investigating Doctor No, a Chinese operator of a guano mine on the fictional Caribbean island of Crab Key. Bond travels to the island and meets Honeychile Rider and later Doctor No, the novel began as a 1956 screenplay for the producer Henry Morgenthau III for a proposed television show entitled Commander Jamaica. When those plans foundered, Fleming adapted the ideas as the basis for a novel, the books eponymous villain was influenced by Sax Rohmers Fu Manchu stories. No was the first of Flemings novels to face widespread negative criticism in Britain, Paul Johnson of the New Statesman dismissed the book as one of Sex, Snobbery, when released on the American market it was received more favourably. No was serialised in The Daily Express, first in a story form. The story was adapted in 1962 as the first film in the Bond series, with Sean Connery in the role, in 2008 BBC Radio 4 broadcast a version. After recovering from tetrodotoxin poisoning inflicted by the SMERSH agent Rosa Klebb the MI6 agent James Bond is sent by his superior, M, while there he is instructed to investigate the disappearance of Commander John Strangways, the head of MI6s Station J in Kingston, and his secretary. Bond is briefed that Strangways had been investigating the activities of Doctor Julius No, the island has a colony of roseate spoonbills at one end while local rumour is that a vicious dragon also lives there. The spoonbills are protected by the American National Audubon Society, two of whose representatives died when their plane crashed on Nos airstrip. With the help of an old friend, Quarrel, Bond surreptitiously visits Crab Key to establish whether there is a connection between No and the disappearance of the MI6 personnel, Bond and Quarrel meet Honeychile Rider, who is there to collect valuable shells. Bond and Rider are captured by Nos men after Quarrel is burned to death by the doctors dragon—a flamethrowing armoured swamp buggy designed to keep away trespassers. Bond discovers that No is working with the Russians and has built an underground facility from which he can sabotage US test missiles launched from Cape Canaveral. No had previously been a member of a Chinese tong, but after he stole an amount of money from their treasury. The tongs leaders had Nos hands cut off as a warning to others, because Nos heart was on the right side of his body, the bullet missed it and he survived. Interested in the ability of the body to withstand and survive pain. Bond is kept under observation as he suffers electric shocks, burns, Bonds ordeal ends in a fight with a captive giant squid, which he defeats by using improvised weapons
5.
For Your Eyes Only (short story collection)
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For Your Eyes Only is a collection of short stories by the British author Ian Fleming, featuring the fictional British Secret Service agent Commander James Bond. It was first published by Jonathan Cape on 11 April 1960 and it marked a change of format for Fleming, who had previously written James Bond stories only as full-length novels. The collection contains five stories, From a View to a Kill, For Your Eyes Only, Quantum of Solace, Risico. Four of the stories were adaptations of plots for a series that was never filmed, while the fifth Fleming had written previously. Fleming undertook some minor experiments with the format, including a story written as an homage to W. Somerset Maugham, an author he greatly admired. Elements from the stories have been used in a number of the Eon Productions James Bond film series, including the 1981 film, For Your Eyes Only, the film used some elements and characters from the short stories For Your Eyes Only and Risico. From a View to a Kill also gave part of its title to the fourteenth Bond film, plot elements from The Hildebrand Rarity were used in the sixteenth Bond film, Licence to Kill, and the twenty-fourth Bond film Spectre references the title. Quantum of Solace was used as the title for the twenty-second Bond film, Bond investigates the murder of a motorcycle dispatch-rider and the theft of his top-secret documents by a motorcycle-riding assassin. The rider was en route from SHAPE, the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, then located in Versailles, to his base, Station F, since Bond is already in Paris, his superior, M, sends him to assist in the investigation in any way he can. Bond disguises himself as a dispatch-rider and follows the journey to Station F as the previous rider, as expected. Bond, however, is ready and kills the assassin and he then uncovers the assassins hidden base of operations. They are killed by two Cuban hitmen at the direction of their leader, Major Gonzales, all three work for von Hammerstein, the Havelocks turn out to be close friends of M, who served as the grooms best man during their wedding in 1925. When Bond arrives on the scene, he finds the Havelocks daughter, Judy, Judy kills von Hammerstein by shooting him in the back with an arrow from 100 yards away at the exact moment that he dives into a lake. A shoot-out then occurs between Bond and Gonzales and the two Cuban gunmen, Bond kills all of them and returns to Canada with Judy, who has been wounded during the gunfight. After completing a mission in the Bahamas, Bond is in Nassau, when the other guests have left, Bond remarks that, if he ever marries, he imagines it would be nice to marry an air hostess. The Governor then tells Bond the story of a relationship between a civil servant Philip Masters and air hostess Rhoda Llewellyn. After meeting aboard a flight to London, the married and went to live in Bermuda. As a result, Masters work deteriorated, and he suffered a nervous breakdown, after recovering, he was given a break from Bermuda by the Governor and sent on an assignment to Washington
6.
Secret Intelligence Service
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The Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6, is the foreign intelligence agency of the British government. The SIS Chief is held accountable to the Foreign Secretary, SIS is bound by the Intelligence Services Act 1994. The name MI6 was used as a flag of convenience during the First World War when it was known by many names, the existence of the SIS was not officially acknowledged until 1994. It forms a part of the UKs intelligence machinery alongside GCHQ, MI5, in late 2010, the head of SIS delivered what he said was the first public address by a serving chief of the agency in its then 101-year history. The remarks of Sir John Sawers primarily focused on the relationship between the need for secrecy and the goal of maintaining security within the UK and his remarks acknowledged the tensions caused by secrecy in an era of leaks and pressure for ever-greater disclosure. Since 1995, the SIS headquarters have been at Vauxhall Cross on the South Bank of the River Thames, the service derived from the Secret Service Bureau, which was founded in 1909. The bureau was split into naval and army sections which, over time, specialised in foreign espionage and internal counter-espionage activities and this specialisation was because the Admiralty wanted to know the maritime strength of the Imperial German Navy. This specialisation was formalised before 1914 and its first director was Captain Sir George Mansfield Smith-Cumming, who often dropped the Smith in routine communication. He typically signed correspondence with his initial C in green ink and this usage evolved as a code name, and has been adhered to by all subsequent directors of SIS when signing documents to retain anonymity. The services performance during the First World War was mixed, because it was unable to establish a network in Germany itself, most of its results came from military and commercial intelligence collected through networks in neutral countries, occupied territories, and Russia. After the war, resources were reduced but during the 1920s. In August 1919, Cumming created the new passport control department, the post of Passport Control Officer provided operatives with diplomatic immunity. Circulating Sections established intelligence requirements and passed the intelligence back to its consumer departments, mainly the War Office, the debate over the future structure of British Intelligence continued at length after the end of hostilities but Cumming managed to engineer the return of the Service to Foreign Office control. In the immediate post-war years under Sir George Mansfield Smith-Cumming and throughout most of the 1920s, SIS was focused on Communism, in particular, Russian Bolshevism. Smith-Cumming died suddenly at his home on 14 June 1923, shortly before he was due to retire, an economic intelligence section, Section VII, to deal with trade, industrial and contraband. A clandestine radio communications organisation, Section VIII, to communicate with operatives, Section N to exploit the contents of foreign diplomatic bags Section D to conduct political covert actions and paramilitary operations in time of war. Section D would organise the Home Defence Scheme resistance organisation in the UK, with the emergence of Germany as a threat following the ascendence of the Nazis, in the early 1930s attention was shifted in that direction. Sinclair died in 1939, after an illness, and was replaced as C by Lt Col. Stewart Menzies, the extensive double-cross system run by MI5 to feed misleading intelligence to the Germans Imagery intelligence activities conducted by the RAF Photographic Reconnaissance Unit
7.
Auric Goldfinger
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Auric Goldfinger is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the James Bond film Goldfinger, based on Ian Flemings novel of the same name. His first name, Auric, is a meaning of gold. According to a 1965 Forbes article and The New York Times, in 2003, the American Film Institute declared Auric Goldfinger the 49th greatest villain in the past 100 years of film. In a poll on IMDb, Auric Goldfinger was voted the most sinister James Bond villain, beating out in order Ernst Stavro Blofeld, Dr. No, Max Zorin, Auric Goldfinger was played by German actor Gert Fröbe. Fröbe, who did not speak English well, was dubbed in the film by Michael Collins, in the German version, Fröbe dubbed himself back again. Goldfinger was banned in Israel after it was revealed that Fröbe had been a member of the Nazi Party, however, he left the party before the outbreak of World War II. After several years, the ban was lifted, as it was found that Fröbe helped out hiding two Jews in his basement during the war, in the novel, Auric Goldfinger is a 42-year-old expatriate from Riga, Latvia, who emigrated in 1937 at the age of 20. He is 5 feet tall, has eyes, red hair. Goldfingers name was borrowed from Ian Flemings neighbour in his Hampstead home, architect Ernő Goldfinger, Goldfinger is typically a German-Jewish name, and the protagonists of the novel know this, but neither Bond nor Mr. Du Pont think Goldfinger is Jewish. Instead, Bond thinks the red-haired, blue-eyed man to be a Balt, Goldfinger is the treasurer of SMERSH, a Soviet counterintelligence agency, which is Bonds nemesis. Goldfinger fancies himself a pistol shot who never misses. He tells Bond he has done so with four Mafia heads at the end of the novel. Goldfinger is obsessed with gold, going so far as to have yellow-bound erotic photographs and he is also a jeweller, a metallurgist, and a smuggler. When Goldfinger first meets Bond in Miami, he claims that he is agoraphobic, Bond figures out how Goldfinger is managing this, and blackmails him by forcing him to admit his deception. This incident also establishes Goldfinger as boundlessly greedy, as whatever sums he can gain by this elaborate cheating are negligible compared with what he already has in his possession. Goldfinger is also a golfer, but is known at his club for being a smooth cheater there. When Bond contrives to play a match with Goldfinger, he cheats the cheater by switching Goldfingers Slazenger 1 golf ball with a Slazenger 7 he had found while playing. In both the novel and film, Goldfinger is aided in his crimes by his manservant, Oddjob, Goldfinger is the owner of Auric Enterprises A. G. in Switzerland, maker of metal furniture, which is purchased by many airlines including Air India
8.
SMERSH
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SMERSH was an umbrella organisation for three independent counter-intelligence agencies in the Red Army formed in late 1942 or even earlier, but officially announced only on 14 April 1943. The name SMERSH was coined by Joseph Stalin, the main reason for its creation was to subvert the attempts by German forces to infiltrate the Red Army on the Eastern Front. The organisation was officially in existence until 4 May 1946, when its duties were transferred back to the NKGB, the head of the agency throughout its existence was Viktor Abakumov, who rose to become Minister of State Security in the postwar years. The official liquidation of OO GUGB within NKVD was announced on 12 February by a joint order № 00151/003 of NKVD, the rest of GUGB was abolished and staff was moved to newly created Peoples Commissariat for State Security. Departments of former GUGB were renamed Directorates, for example, former Foreign Department became Foreign Directorate, political police represented by Secret Political Department became Secret Political Directorate, and so on. The former GUGB 4th Department was split into three sections, one section, which handled military counter-intelligence in NKVD troops become 3rd NKVD Department or OKR, the chief of OKR NKVD was Aleksander Belyanov, Commissar State Security 3rd rank. On 25 February 1941, Viktor Abakumov became NKVD deputy Commissar in charge of supervising this, the second and most significant part went to the Defense Commissariat Soviet Armed Forces becoming its 3rd Directorate or. The 3rd NKO Directorate took over most of the 4th GUGB Department Sections and was headed by division commissar Anatolii Mikheev, the third part of former OO became the Navy Commissariat 3rd Directorate. The head of navy KI was Andrei Petrov, a state security captain, UOO on every level was given much more power and a freer hand in decision making than at any time since the creation of Cheka. Also on 19 July, by the order of NKVD №00940, Navy 3rd Directorate was still under Navy control, till 11 January 1942 when it was incorporated into Directorate of Special Departments. On 2 July 1941, NKGB USSR was incorporated back into the NKVD structure, NKGB did not return as GUGB, but as separate units. The NKVD structure organisation from 31 July 1941, shows that there are independent Directorates as in the 1st, foreign intelligence, 2nd, domestic KI, and so on. P 40/91Peoples Commissariat for State Security or was created for the second time and it was based on NKVDs Directorates. For detailed organization please see NKGB, regulations of the Peoples Commissariat of State Security were approved by SNK in order № 621-191ss from 2 June 1943. After losing most of the units to the NKGB, the Peoples Commissariat for Internal Affairs was still a very powerful government apparatus. The same order that created GUKR SMERSH within the NKO created an organisation within the Navy Commissariat. This organization was known as the Navy UKR SMERSH and headed by Peter Gladkov, in reality, Gladkov reported to Abakumov, by then deputy Commissar of the NKO, and Stalins deputy. Formally Gladkov was subordinate to his superior Peoples Commissar Nikolay Gerasimovich Kuznetsov, OKR SMERSH of the NKVD USSR was subordinate to Lavrentiy Beria, Peoples Commissar of Internal Affairs
9.
Gold reserve
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It has been estimated that all the gold mined by the end of 2011 totaled 171,300 tonnes. At a price of US$1,500 per troy ounce, reached on 12 April 2013, the total value of all gold ever mined would exceed US$8.2 trillion at that valuation. However, there are varying estimates of the amount of gold mined to date. Another reason is that countries are not particularly open about how much gold they are mining. In addition, it is difficult to account for gold output in illegal mining activities, during most of history, a nations gold reserves were considered its key financial asset and a major prize of war. A typical view was expressed in a memorandum by the British Chief of the Imperial General Staff from October 1939. The transport of many hundreds of tons of bullion presents a difficult problem, the ideal would of course be to have the gold transferred to this country or to the United States of America. The gold reserves of Belgium and Holland amount to about £70 million, note, H. M. Treasury has particularly requested that this information, which is highly confidential should in no circumstances be divulged. At present this gold is believed to be stored at Brussels and The Hague respectively, the Belgian government rushed to ship the gold to a safe place, Dakar, the capital of Senegal, then part of the French colonial empire. After the Germans occupied Belgium and France in 1940, they demanded the Belgian gold reserve back, in 1941, Vichy French officials arranged the transport of 4,944 boxes with 198 tons of gold to officials of the German Reichsbank. Since early 2011, the holdings of the IMF have been constant at 90.5 million troy ounces. The IMF regularly maintains statistics of national assets as reported by various countries and these data are used by the World Gold Council to periodically rank and report the gold holdings of countries and official organizations. On 17 July 2015, China announced that it increased its reserves by about 57 percent from 1,054 to 1,658 metric tons. The gold listed for each of the countries in the table may not be stored in the country listed. Gold leasing by central banks could place into doubt the reported gold holdings in the table below
10.
United States Bullion Depository
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It is estimated to have roughly 2. 3% of all the gold ever refined throughout human history. As a result, the value of the held by the Federal Reserve increased from $4 billion to $12 billion between 1933 and 1937. This left the government with a large gold reserve and no place to store it. In 1936, the U. S. Treasury Department began construction of the United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, Kentucky, the Gold Vault was completed in December 1936 for US $560,000. The site is located on what is now Bullion Boulevard at the intersection of Gold Vault Road. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988, in recognition of its significance in the history of the United States. It is constructed of granite mined at the North Carolina Granite Corporation Quarry Complex, the first gold shipments were made from January to July 1937. The majority of the United States gold reserves were shipped to the site, including old bullion. The transfer used 500 rail cars and was sent by registered mail, protected by the U. S. Postal Inspection Service, and the U. S. Treasury Department agents. In 1974, a Washington attorney named Peter David Beter circulated a theory that the gold in the Depository had been removed by elites. A group of reporters was allowed inside in order to refute the theory, other than this 1974 event, no member of the public has been allowed inside. During World War II, the depository held the original U. S, declaration of Independence and U. S. Constitution. It held the reserves of European countries and key documents from Western history, for example, it held the Crown of St. Stephen, part of the Hungarian crown jewels, given to American soldiers to prevent them from falling into Soviet hands. The repository held one of four copies of the Magna Carta, which had sent for display at the 1939 New York Worlds Fair. Below the fortress-like structure lies the gold vault lined with granite walls, members of the Depository staff must dial separate combinations known only to them. Beyond the main door, smaller compartments provide further protection. Both the vault door and emergency door were 21-inches thick and made of the latest torch-, the main vault door weighed 20 tons and the vault casing was 25-inches thick. The facility is ringed with fences and is guarded by the United States Mint Police, the Depository premises are within the site of Fort Knox, a US Army post, allowing the Army to provide additional protection
11.
Saint George
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Saint George, according to legend, was a Roman soldier of Syrian origin and officer in the Guard of Roman emperor Diocletian, who ordered his death for failing to recant his Christian faith. As a Christian martyr, he became one of the most venerated saints in Christianity. In hagiography, as one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers and one of the most prominent military saints, he is immortalised in the myth of Saint George and his memorial, Saint Georges Day, is traditionally celebrated on April 23. Numerous countries, cities, professions and organisations claim Saint George as their patron, accounts differ regarding whether George was born in Cappadocia or Syria Palaestina, but agree that he was raised at least partly in Lydda. There is little information on the life of Saint George. Two stories tell of his possible origins, one says that he was born in the region of Cappadocia, which is now located in central Turkey. Georges parents were both Christian, and they brought him up to be a Christian and his father died when he was fourteen, and his mother took George back to her homeland of Palestine. At seventeen, he joined the Roman army, a second story says that Georges father came from Cappadocia. His mother was from Lydda, in Palestine, and George was born in Lydda, both of his parents were from noble Syrian families and gave him the Greek name of Georgios. Georges father had been an officer in the Roman army, so George joined the Roman army as soon as he could, an earlier work by Eusebius, Church history, written in the 4th century, contributed to the legend but did not name George or provide significant detail. A critical edition of a Syriac Acta of Saint George, accompanied by an annotated English translation, was published by E. W. Brooks in 1925. Pope Gelasius I stated that George was among those whose names are justly reverenced among men. The traditional legends have offered a narration of Georges encounter with a dragon. The modern legend that follows below is synthesised from early and late hagiographical sources, chief among the legendary sources about the saint is the Golden Legend, which remains the most familiar version in English owing to William Caxtons 15th-century translation. At the age of 14, George lost his father, a few years later, George then decided to go to Nicomedia and present himself to Diocletian to apply for a career as a soldier. Diocletian welcomed him with arms, as he had known his father. By his late twenties, George was promoted to the rank of military tribune, however, George objected, and with the courage of his faith, approached the Emperor and ruler. Diocletian was upset, not wanting to lose his best tribune, but George loudly renounced the Emperors edict, and in front of his fellow soldiers and tribunes he claimed himself to be a Christian
12.
The Open Championship
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The Open Championship, often referred to as The Open or the British Open, is the oldest of the four major championships in professional golf. Held in the United Kingdom, it is administered by The R&A and is the only major outside the United States, the Open is currently the third major of the year, between the U. S. Open and the PGA Championship, and is played in mid-July. The current champion is Henrik Stenson, who won the 145th Open at Royal Troon in 2016 with a score of −20. The Open was first played on 17 October 1860 at Prestwick Golf Club in Scotland, the inaugural tournament was restricted to professionals and attracted a field of eight golfers who played three rounds of Prestwicks twelve-hole course in a single day. Willie Park Sr. won with a score of 174, beating Old Tom Morris, the following year the tournament was opened to amateurs, eight of them joined ten professionals in the field. James Ogilvie Fairlie was the organiser of the first Open Championship held at Prestwick in 1860. With the untimely death of Allan Robertson, aged 43 in 1859, originally, the trophy presented to the events winner was the Challenge Belt, a red leather belt with a silver buckle. The Challenge Belt was retired in 1870, when Young Tom Morris was allowed to keep it for winning the tournament three consecutive times, because no trophy was available, the tournament was cancelled in 1871. In 1872, after Young Tom Morris won again for a time in a row. The present trophy, The Golf Champion Trophy, better known by its name of the Claret Jug, was then created. Prestwick administered The Open from 1860 to 1870, in 1871, it agreed to organise it jointly with The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews and The Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers. In 1892 the event was doubled in length from 36 to 72 holes, the 1894 Open was the first held outside Scotland, at the Royal St Georges Golf Club in England. Because of a number of entrants, a cut was introduced after two rounds in 1898. In 1920 full responsibility for The Open Championship was handed over to The Royal & Ancient Golf Club, the early winners were all Scottish professionals, who in those days worked as greenkeepers, clubmakers, and caddies to supplement their modest winnings from championships and challenge matches. The Open has always dominated by professionals, with only six victories by amateurs. The last of these was Bobby Jones third Open and part of his celebrated Grand Slam, Jones was one of six Americans who won The Open between the First and Second World Wars, the first of whom had been Walter Hagen in 1922. These Americans and the French winner of the 1907 Open, Arnaud Massy, were the winners from outside Scotland and England up to 1939. The first post-World War II winner was the American Sam Snead, in 1947, Northern Irelands Fred Daly was victorious
13.
Sapper (author)
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Herman Cyril McNeile, MC, commonly known as Cyril McNeile and publishing under the name H. C. McNeile or the pseudonym Sapper, was a British soldier and author, drawing on his experiences in the trenches during the First World War, he started writing short stories and getting them published in the Daily Mail. After the war McNeile left the army and continued writing, although he changed from war stories to thrillers, in 1920 he published Bulldog Drummond, whose eponymous hero became his best-known creation. The character was based on McNeile himself, on his friend Gerard Fairlie, McNeile wrote ten Bulldog Drummond novels, as well as three plays and a screenplay. McNeile interspersed his Drummond work with other novels and story collections that included two characters who appeared as protagonists in their own works, Jim Maitland and Ronald Standish, McNeiles stories are either directly about the war, or contain people whose lives have been shaped by it. His thrillers are a continuation of his war stories, with upper class Englishmen defending England from foreigners plotting against it, McNeile was born in Bodmin, Cornwall. He was the son of Malcolm McNeile, a captain in the Royal Navy who at the time was governor of the prison at Bodmin. The McNeile family had roots from both Belfast and Scotland, and counted a general in the British Indian Army among their members. McNeile did not like either of his given names but preferred to be called Cyril, after attending a prep school in Eastbourne, he was further educated at Cheltenham College. On leaving the college, he joined the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich and he underwent further training at the Royal School of Military Engineering before a short posting to Aldershot Garrison. He received promotion to lieutenant in June 1910 and was posted to Canterbury, in 1914 McNeile was promoted to the rank of captain. He was still in Malta when the war broke out and was ordered to France in October 1914, he travelled via England, Baird was the daughter of Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Baird Douglas of the Cameron Highlanders. On 2 November 1914 McNeile travelled to France as part of the British Expeditionary Force, few details are known about McNeiles wartime service, as his records were destroyed by incendiary bombs during the Second World War. He spent time with a number of Royal Engineer units on the Western Front, including 1st Field Squadron RE, McNeiles first known published story, Reminiscences of Sergeant Michael Cassidy, was serialised on page four of the Daily Mail from 13 January 1915. McNeile later confided that he had started writing through sheer boredom, some of his stories appeared on page four of the Daily Mail over the following months. Northcliffe was impressed by his writing and attempted, but failed, by the end of 1915, he had written two collections of short stories, The Lieutenant and Others and Sergeant Michael Cassidy, R. E. both of which were published by Hodder & Stoughton. Although many of the stories had appeared in the Daily Mail, between 1916 and 1918 Sergeant Michael Cassidy, R. E. sold 135,000 copies and The Lieutenant. By the end of the war he had published three collections, Men, Women, and Guns, No Mans Land and The Human Touch
14.
John Buchan
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John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir GCMG GCVO CH PC was a Scottish novelist, historian and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation. He eventually wrote propaganda for the British war effort in the First World War, in 1935 he was appointed Governor General of Canada by King George V, on the recommendation of Prime Minister of Canada R. B. Bennett, to replace the Earl of Bessborough and he occupied the post until his death in 1940. Buchan proved to be enthusiastic about literacy, as well as the evolution of Canadian culture, Buchan was born in Perth, Scotland. He was the first child of John Buchan—a Free Church of Scotland minister—and Helen Jane Buchan, Buchan was brought up in Kirkcaldy, Fife, and spent many summer holidays with his maternal grandparents in Broughton, in the Scottish Borders. The childhood he and his sister, Anna, shared was documented in her memoir, Unforgettable, after attending Hutchesons Grammar School, Buchan was awarded a scholarship to the University of Glasgow at age 17, where he studied classics, wrote poetry, and became a published author. With a junior Hulme scholarship, he moved on in 1895 to study Literae Humaniores at Brasenose College, Oxford, where his friends included Hilaire Belloc, Raymond Asquith, and Aubrey Herbert. It was at around the time of his graduation from Oxford that Buchan had his first portrait painted, together, Buchan and his wife had four children, Alice, John, William, and Alastair, two of whom would spend most of their lives in Canada. With the outbreak of the First World War, Buchan went to write for the British War Propaganda Bureau and he continued to write fiction, and in 1915 published his most famous work, The Thirty-Nine Steps, a spy-thriller set just prior to World War I. The novel featured Buchans oft used hero, Richard Hannay, whose character was based on Edmund Ironside, a sequel, Greenmantle, came the following year. Buchan then enlisted in the British Army and was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Intelligence Corps. It was difficult for him, given his close connections to many of Britains military leaders, following the close of the war, Buchan turned his attention to writing on historical subjects, along with his usual thrillers and novels. Robert Graves, who lived in nearby Islip, mentioned his being recommended by Buchan for a position at the newly founded Cairo University. In a 1927 by-election, Buchan was elected as the Unionist Party Member of Parliament for the Combined Scottish Universities, politically, he was of the Unionist-Nationalist tradition, believing in Scotlands promotion as a nation within the British Empire. Buchan remarked in a speech to parliament, I believe every Scotsman should be a Scottish nationalist, if it could be proved that a Scottish parliament were desirable. He found himself profoundly affected by John Morleys Life of Gladstone, after the United Free Church of Scotland joined in 1929 with the Church of Scotland, Buchan remained an active elder of St. Columbas Church in London, as well as of the Oxford Presbyterian parish. In 1933 and 1934 Buchan was further appointed as the King George Vs Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, beginning in 1930 Buchan aligned himself with Zionism and the related Palestine All Party Parliamentary Group. In recognition of his contributions to literature and education, on 1 January 1932, in 1935 Buchans literary work was adapted for the cinema with the completion of Alfred Hitchcocks The 39 Steps, starring Robert Donat as Richard Hannay, though with Buchans story much altered
15.
Daily Express
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The Daily Express is a daily national middle market tabloid newspaper in the United Kingdom. It is the title of Express Newspapers, a subsidiary of Northern & Shell. It was first published as a broadsheet in 1900 by Sir Arthur Pearson and its sister paper The Sunday Express was launched in 1918. As of December 2016, it had a daily circulation of 391,626. The paper was acquired by Richard Desmond in 2000, hugh Whittow has served as the papers editor since February of 2011. The papers editorial stances are often seen as aligned to the UK Independence Party, in addition to its sister paper, Express Newspapers also publishes the red top newspapers the Daily Star and Daily Star Sunday. The Daily Express was founded in 1900 by Sir Arthur Pearson, Pearson, who had lost his sight to glaucoma in 1913, sold the title to the future Lord Beaverbrook in 1916. It was one of the first papers to place instead of advertisements on its front page along with carrying gossip, sports. It was also the first newspaper in Britain to have a crossword puzzle, the Express began printing copies in Manchester in 1927 and in 1931, the publication moved to 120 Fleet Street, a specially commissioned art deco building. Under Beaverbrook, the newspaper achieved a high circulation, setting records for newspaper sales several times throughout the 1930s. Its success was due to its aggressive marketing campaign and a vigorous circulation war with other populist newspapers. Beaverbrook also discovered and encouraged an editor named Arthur Christiansen who, at an early age, showed talent for writing. Christiansen became editor in October 1933, under his editorial direction sales climbed from two million in 1936 to four million in 1949. The paper also featured Alfred Bestalls Rupert Bear cartoon and satirical cartoons by Carl Giles which it began publishing in the 1940s, on 24 March 1933, a front page headline titled Judea Declares War on Germany was published by the Daily Express. During the late thirties, the paper was an advocate of the appeasement policies of the Chamberlain government. The ruralist author Henry Williamson wrote for the paper on many occasions for half a century and he also wrote for the Sunday Express at the beginning of his career. In 1938, the moved to the Daily Express Building. It opened a building in Glasgow in 1936 in Albion Street
16.
Goldfinger (film)
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Goldfinger is a British spy film, the third in the James Bond series and the third to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. It is based on the novel of the name by Ian Fleming. The film also stars Honor Blackman as Bond girl Pussy Galore and Gert Fröbe as the title character Auric Goldfinger, Goldfinger was produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman and was the first of four Bond films directed by Guy Hamilton. The films plot has Bond investigating gold smuggling by gold magnate Auric Goldfinger, Goldfinger was the first Bond blockbuster, with a budget equal to that of the two preceding films combined. Principal photography took place from January to July 1964 in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the release of the film led to a number of promotional licensed tie-in items, including a toy Aston Martin DB5 car from Corgi Toys which became the biggest selling toy of 1964. The promotion also included an image of gold-painted Shirley Eaton as Jill Masterson on the cover of Life, Goldfinger was the first Bond film to win an Academy Award and opened to largely favourable critical reception. The film was a success, recouping its budget in two weeks, and is hailed as the Bond canons quintessential episode. After destroying a drug laboratory in Latin America, James Bond—Agent 007—travels to Miami Beach to receive instructions from his superior, M and he is to observe bullion dealer Auric Goldfinger at the hotel there. Bond sees Goldfinger cheating at gin rummy and stops him by distracting his employee, Jill Masterson, after Bond and Jill consummate their new relationship, Bond is knocked out by Goldfingers Korean manservant, the hulking giant Oddjob. When Bond awakens, he finds Jill dead, covered in gold paint, in London, Bond learns his objective is determining how Goldfinger smuggles gold internationally. The chancellor of the exchequer and M explain that prices vary across the world. Bond arranges to meet Goldfinger socially at his club in Kent. Bond follows him to Switzerland, where Tilly, Jills sister, Bond sneaks into Goldfingers plant and discovers Goldfinger smuggles gold by melting it down and incorporating it into the bodywork of his car, which he takes with him whenever he travels. Bond also overhears Goldfinger talking to Chinese agent Mr. Ling about Operation Grand Slam, leaving, Bond encounters Tilly as she tries to kill Goldfinger again, but trips an alarm in the process, Oddjob kills Tilly with his hat. Captured, Bond is tied to a cutting table underneath an industrial laser, Bond lies to Goldfinger that MI6 knows about Grand Slam, causing Goldfinger to spare Bonds life to mislead MI6 into believing Bond has things in hand. Bond is transported by Goldfingers private jet, piloted by Pussy Galore, to his farm near Fort Knox. Bond escapes and witnesses Goldfingers meeting with US mafiosi, who have brought the materials he needs for Operation Grand Slam. Although they are each promised $1 million, Goldfinger tempts them that they could have the million today, or $10 million tomorrow and he then kills them using some of the neurotoxin he plans to release over Fort Knox
17.
Sean Connery
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Sir Thomas Sean Connery is a retired Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes. He was knighted by Elizabeth II in July 2000 after receiving Kennedy Center Honors in the US in 1999, Connery was the first actor to portray the character James Bond in film, starring in seven Bond films between 1962 and 1983. In 1988, Connery won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in The Untouchables, Connery has been polled as The Greatest Living Scot and Scotlands Greatest Living National Treasure. In 1989, he was proclaimed Sexiest Man Alive by People magazine, Thomas Sean Connery, named Thomas after his grandfather, was born in Fountainbridge, Edinburgh, Scotland on 25 August 1930. His mother, Euphemia McBain Effie, was a cleaning woman and his paternal grandfathers parents emigrated to Scotland from Ireland in the mid-19th century. The remainder of his family was of Scottish descent, and his maternal great-grandparents were native Scottish Gaelic speakers from Fife and his father was a Roman Catholic, and his mother was a Protestant. He has a brother, Neil. He was generally referred to in his youth as Tommy, although he was small in primary school, he grew rapidly around the age of 12, reaching his full adult height of 6 ft 2 in at 18. He was known during his teen years as Big Tam, and has stated that he lost his virginity to a woman in an ATS uniform at the age of 14. Connerys first job was as a milkman in Edinburgh with St. Cuthberts Co-operative Society, one tattoo is a tribute to his parents and reads Mum and Dad, and the other is self-explanatory, Scotland Forever. Connery was later discharged from the navy on medical grounds because of a duodenal ulcer, Scotland, Archie Brennan, a coffin polisher. The modelling earned him 15 shillings an hour, student artist Richard Demarco who painted several notable early pictures of Connery described him as very straight, slightly shy, too, too beautiful for words, a virtual Adonis. Connery began bodybuilding at the age of 18, and from 1951 trained heavily with Ellington, Connery was a keen footballer, having played for Bonnyrigg Rose in his younger days. He was offered a trial with East Fife, while on tour with South Pacific, Connery played in a football match against a local team that Matt Busby, manager of Manchester United, happened to be scouting. According to reports, Busby was impressed with his physical prowess, Connery admits that he was tempted to accept, but he recalls, I realised that a top-class footballer could be over the hill by the age of 30, and I was already 23. I decided to become an actor and it turned out to be one of my more intelligent moves, looking to pick up some extra money, Connery helped out backstage at the Kings Theatre in late 1951. He became interested in the proceedings, and a career was launched, the production returned the following year out of popular demand, and Connery was promoted to the featured role of Lieutenant Buzz Adams, which Larry Hagman had portrayed in the West End. While in Edinburgh, Connery was targeted by the notorious Valdor gang, there Connery launched an attack single-handedly against the gang members, grabbing one by the throat and another by a biceps and cracked their heads together
18.
BBC Radio
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BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation. The service provides national radio stations covering the majority of genres, as well as local radio stations covering local news, affairs. It also oversees online audio content, of the national radio stations, BBC Radio 1,2,3,4 and 5 Live are all available through analogue radio as well as on DAB Digital Radio and internet services through RealMedia, WMA and BBC iPlayer. The remaining stations, BBC Radio 1Xtra,4 Extra,5 Live Sports Extra and 6 Music, all of the BBCs national radio stations broadcast from bases in London, usually in or near to Broadcasting House in Marylebone. However, the BBCs network production units located in Belfast, Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Glasgow, the BBCs radio services began in 1922. Today radio broadcasting still makes up a part of the corporations output - the title of the BBCs listings magazine, Radio Times. On 1 January 1927 the British Broadcasting Company was succeeded in control of the airwaves by the British Broadcasting Corporation. John Reith, who had been the managing director of the commercial company. He expounded firm principles of centralised, all-encompassing radio broadcasting, stressing programming standards and these he set out in his autobiography, Broadcast Over Britain, influencing modern ideas of public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom. To this day, the BBC aims to follow the Reithian directive to inform, educate, although no other broadcasting organisation was licensed in the UK until 1973, commercial competition soon opened up from overseas. The English language service of Radio Luxembourg began in 1933 as one of the earliest commercial radio broadcasting to Britain. The IBC began leasing time on transmitters in continental Europe and then reselling it as sponsored English-language programming aimed at audiences in Britain and it was an important forerunner of pirate radio and modern commercial radio in the United Kingdom. The onset of World War II silenced all but one of the original IBC stations, at the start of the Second World War it was renamed The Overseas Service but is now known as the BBC World Service. Beginning in 1964 the first in what became a fleet of 10 offshore pirate radio stations began to ring the British coastline, by 1967 millions were tuning into these commercial operations and the BBC was rapidly losing its radio listening audience. The British government reacted by passing the Marine Offences Act, which all, One of the stations called Radio London was so successful that the BBC was told to copy it as best they could. This led to an overhaul by Frank Gillard the BBCs Director of Radio of the BBC output creating the four analogue channels that still form the basis of its broadcasting today. The creator of BBC Radio One told the press that his family had been fans of Radio London, the BBC hired many out-of-work broadcasting staff who had come from the former offshore stations. Tony Blackburn who presented the very first BBC Radio One morning show had previously presented the morning show on Radio Caroline
19.
Toby Stephens
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Toby Stephens is an English stage, television, and film actor who has appeared in films in both Hollywood and Bollywood. Stephens, the son of actors Dame Maggie Smith and Sir Robert Stephens, was born in London. He was educated at Aldro and Seaford College and he trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. Stephens began his career with the role of Othello in 1992s Orlando. He has since made appearances on television and on stage. He played the role in a Royal Shakespeare Company production of Coriolanus shortly after graduation from LAMDA. He also played Stanley Kowalski in a West End production of Tennessee Williams A Streetcar Named Desire and he has appeared on Broadway in Ring Round the Moon. He played the lead in the film Photographing Fairies and played Orsino in Trevor Nunns 1996 film adaptation of William Shakespeares Twelfth Night, in 2002 he took on the role for which he is most widely known, that of Gustav Graves in the James Bond film Die Another Day. Aged 33 at the time of release, he remains the youngest actor to have played a Bond villain. In 2005 he played the role of a British Army captain in the Indian film, The Rising, Ballad of Mangal Pandey, the following year he returned to India to play a renegade British East India Company officer in Sharpes Challenge. During mid-2007, Stephens played the role of Jerry in a revival of Harold Pinters Betrayal under the direction of Roger Michell, later that year, Stephens also starred as Horner in Jonathan Kents revival of William Wycherleys The Country Wife. Various members of the company are expected to star in upcoming productions at the Haymarket Theatre with various artistic directors, the formation of the company is considered by many London theatre critics to be a bold move for West End theatre. In February 2008, the Fox Broadcasting Company gave the go-ahead to cast Stephens as the lead in a one hour, prime time US television show, Inseparable. Billed as a modern Jekyll and Hyde story, the show was to feature a partially paralysed forensic psychologist whose other personality is a charming criminal, Stephens casting was highly unusual, because Fox had not yet approved a script nor purchased a pilot for the show. However, in mid-May 2008, The Hollywood Reporter announced that y the time the network picked up the pilot. In May 2008, Stephens performed the role of James Bond in a BBC Radio 4 production of Ian Flemings Dr. No, as part of the centenary celebration of Flemings birth. The production was reportedly the first BBC radio dramatisation of the novel though Moonraker was on South African radio in 1956, also in May 2008, Stock-pot Productions announced that Stephens will have the lead role in a feature-length film entitled Fly Me, co-starring Tim McInnerny. Stock-pot was also the producer of One Day, a short 2006 film shown at film festivals
20.
Ian McKellen
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Sir Ian Murray McKellen, CH, CBE is an English actor. He has also received two Oscar nominations, four BAFTA nominations and five Emmy Award nominations, McKellens career spans genres ranging from Shakespearean and modern theatre to popular fantasy and science fiction. The BBC states his performances have guaranteed him a place in the canon of English stage, a recipient of every major theatrical award in the UK, McKellen is regarded as a British cultural icon. He started his career in 1961 at the Belgrade Theatre as a member of their highly regarded repertory company. In the 1970s McKellen became a stalwart of the Royal Shakespeare Company and he has been openly gay since 1988, and continues to be a champion for LGBT social movements worldwide. He was made a Freeman of the City of London in October 2014, McKellen was born on 25 May 1939 in Burnley, Lancashire, the son of Margery Lois and Denis Murray McKellen, a civil engineer. He was their child, with a sister, Jean. Shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939 and they lived there until Ian was twelve years old, before relocating to Bolton in 1951, after his father had been promoted. The experience of living through the war as a child had a lasting impact on him. Did I realise that war wasnt normal, when an interviewer remarked that he seemed quite calm in the aftermath of 11 September attacks, McKellen said, Well, darling, you forget—I slept under a steel plate until I was four years old. Even though he lived in Bolton for less than seven years, as opposed to the eleven years in Wigan beforehand. McKellens father was a engineer and lay preacher, and was of Protestant Irish and Scottish descent. Both of McKellens grandfathers were preachers, and his great-great-grandfather, James McKellen, was a strict, evangelical Protestant minister in Ballymena and his home environment was strongly Christian, but non-orthodox. My upbringing was of low nonconformist Christians who felt that you led the Christian life in part by behaving in a Christian manner to everybody you met, when he was 12, his mother died of breast cancer, his father died when he was 24. His great-great-grandfather Robert J. McKellen attended Bolton School, of which he is still a supporter, McKellens acting career started at Bolton Little Theatre, of which he is now the patron. An early fascination with the theatre was encouraged by his parents, in 1958, McKellen, at the age of 18, won a scholarship to St Catharines College, Cambridge, where he read English literature. While at Cambridge, McKellen was a member of the Marlowe Society, at that young age he was already giving performances that have since become legendary such as his Justice Shallow in Henry IV alongside Trevor Nunn and Derek Jacobi, Cymbeline and Doctor Faustus. During this period McKellen had already directed by Peter Hall, John Barton
21.
Casino Royale (novel)
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Casino Royale is the first novel by the British author Ian Fleming. The story concerns the British secret agent James Bond, gambling at the casino in Royale-les-Eaux to bankrupt Le Chiffre, the treasurer of a French union and a member of the Russian secret service. Bond is supported in his endeavours by Vesper Lynd, a member of his own service, as well as Felix Leiter of the CIA, Fleming wrote the draft in early 1952 at his Goldeneye estate in Jamaica while awaiting his marriage. He was initially unsure whether the work was suitable for publication, but was assured by his friend, the novelist William Plomer, since publication Casino Royale has appeared as a comic strip in a British national newspaper, The Daily Express. As part of Bonds cover as a rich Jamaican playboy, M also assigns as his companion Vesper Lynd, the CIA and the French Deuxième Bureau also send agents as observers. The game soon turns into a confrontation between Le Chiffre and Bond, Le Chiffre wins the first round, cleaning Bond out of his funds. As Bond contemplates the prospect of reporting his failure to M, the CIA agent, Felix Leiter, gives him an envelope of money, with the compliments of the USA. The game continues, despite the attempts of one of Le Chiffres minders to kill Bond, Bond eventually wins, taking from Le Chiffre eighty million francs belonging to SMERSH. Desperate to recover the money, Le Chiffre kidnaps Lynd and tortures Bond, during the torture session, a SMERSH assassin enters and kills Le Chiffre as punishment for losing the money. The agent does not kill Bond, saying that he has no orders to do so, Lynd visits Bond every day as he recuperates in hospital, and he gradually realises that he loves her, he even contemplates leaving the Secret Service to settle down with her. When he is released from hospital they spend time together at a quiet guest house, one day they see a mysterious man named Gettler tracking their movements, which greatly distresses Lynd. The following morning, Bond finds that she has committed suicide and she leaves behind a note explaining that she had been working as an unwilling double agent for the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. Bond informs his service of Lynds duplicity, coldly telling his contact, Ian Fleming, born in 1908, was a son of Valentine Fleming, a wealthy banker and MP who died in action on the Western Front in May 1917. Fleming joined the organisation full-time in August 1939, with the codename 17F, early in 1939 he began an affair with Ann ONeill, who was married to the 3rd Baron ONeill. In 1942 Fleming attended an Anglo-American intelligence summit in Jamaica and, despite the constant heavy rain during his visit and his friend Ivar Bryce helped find a plot of land in Saint Mary Parish where, in 1945, Fleming had a house built, which he named Goldeneye. The name of the house and estate has many possible sources, Fleming mentioned both his wartime Operation Goldeneye and Carson McCullers 1941 novel Reflections in a Golden Eye, which described the use of British naval bases in the Caribbean by the US Navy. Upon Flemings demobilisation in May 1945, he became the Foreign Manager in the Kemsley newspaper group, in this role he oversaw the papers worldwide network of correspondents. His contract allowed him to two months holiday every winter in Jamaica
22.
Canasta
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Canasta is a card game of the rummy family of games believed to be a variant of 500 Rum. Although many variations exist for two, three, five or six players, it is most commonly played by four in two partnerships with two decks of cards. Players attempt to make melds of seven cards of the same rank and it is the only partnership member of the family of Rummy games to achieve the status of a classic. The game of Canasta was devised by Segundo Santos and Alberto Serrato in Montevideo, Uruguay, reilly in 1949 and Michael Scully of Coronet magazine in 1953. The game quickly became a boom in the 1950s providing a sales avalanche of card sets, card trays. The classic game is for four players in two partnerships, variations exist for two and three player games wherein each plays alone, and also for a six player game in two partnerships of three. If partners are chosen they must sit opposite each other, Canasta uses two complete decks of 52 playing cards plus the four Jokers. All the Jokers and twos are wild cards, the initial dealer is chosen by any common method, although it should be remembered that in Canasta there is no privilege or advantage to being the dealer. The deal then rotates clockwise after every hand, the dealer shuffles the pack, the player to the dealers right cuts, and the dealer deals out 2 hands of 11 cards to each player. The remaining cards are left in a stack in the center of the table, the player to the dealers left has the first turn, and play then proceeds clockwise. A turn begins either by drawing the first card from the stock into the hand or by picking up the entire discard pile. However, there are restrictions on when one can pick up the discard pile, if the card drawn from the stock is a red three the player must table it immediately, as one would if melding, and draw another card. The player may make as many legal melds as they wish from the cards in their hand. A turn ends when the player discards one card from their hand to the top of the discard pile. No player may undo a meld or laid card, or change their mind after drawing a card from the deck if they decide that they could have taken the discard pile, Each player/team keeps separate melds of the various ranks of cards. A player may never play to an opponents meld, a legal meld consists of at least three cards of the same rank. Suits are irrelevant except that black threes are treated differently from red threes, wild cards can be used as any rank except for threes. Threes may never be melded in ordinary play, although 3 or 4 black threes may be melded last in the process of a going out
23.
Bond girl
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A Bond girl is a character who is a love interest and/or female sidekick of James Bond in a novel, film, or video game. There is no set rule on what kind of person a Bond girl will be or what role she will play and she may be an ally or an enemy of Bond, pivotal to the mission or simply eye candy. However, it has argued that Ms pivotal role in the plot of Skyfall qualifies her as a Bond girl or Bond woman. Nearly all of Ian Flemings Bond novels and short stories include one or more characters who can be said to qualify as Bond girls. While Flemings Bond girls have some traits, they also have a great many characteristics in common. One of these is age, The typical Bond girl is in her early to mid-twenties, roughly ten years younger than Bond, examples include Solitaire, Tatiana Romanova, Vivienne Viv Michel, and Kissy Suzuki. The youngest Bond girl may be Gala Brand, she is named for the cruiser in which her father is serving at the time of her birth, Bonds youngest sexual partner in the books is Mariko Ichiban, an 18-year-old masseuse in You Only Live Twice. The eldest Bond girls are Pussy Galore, whom Bond speculates is in her early 30s, Bond girls conform to a fairly well-defined standard of beauty. They possess splendid figures and tend to dress in a masculine, assertive fashion, wear little jewellery—and that in a masculine cut—wide leather belts. Nearly all of them are white, they often sport light though noticeable suntans and their hair may be any colour, though they typically wear it in a natural or casual cut that falls heavily to their shoulders. Their features, especially their eyes and mouths, are widely spaced. Even Domino, however, wears rather masculine jewellery, the best-known characteristic of Bond girls apart from their uniform beauty is their pattern of sexually suggestive names, such as Pussy Galore. Names with less obvious meanings are sometimes explained in the novels, Flemings penchant for double-entendre names began with the first Bond novel Casino Royale. Several Bond girls, however, have normal names, most Bond girls are apparently sexually experienced by the time they meet Bond. Tiffany Case was gang-raped as a teenager, Honey Ryder, too, was beaten, Pussy Galore was sexually abused at age 12 by her uncle. While there is no such clear-cut trauma in Solitaires early life, there are suggestions that she, too, avoids men because of their unwanted sexual advances in her past. Kissy Suzuki reports to Bond that during her career in Hollywood, when she was 17, They thought that because I am Japanese I am some sort of an animal. The cliché reaches its most extreme level in Goldfinger, in this novel Pussy Galore is portrayed as a practising lesbian when she first meets Bond, but at the end of the novel she sleeps with him
24.
M (James Bond)
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M is a fictional character in Ian Flemings James Bond book and film series, the character is the Head of the Secret Intelligence Service—also known as MI6—and is Bonds superior. Fleming based the character on a number of people he knew who commanded sections of British intelligence, M has appeared in the novels by Fleming and seven continuation authors, as well as appearing in twenty-four films. Fleming based much of Ms character on Rear Admiral John Godfrey, after Flemings death, Godfrey complained He turned me into that unsavoury character, M. A further inspiration for M was Maxwell Knight, the head of MI5, who signed his memos as M, the tradition of the head of MI6 signing their name with a single letter came from Mansfield Smith-Cumming, who would sign his initial C with green ink. Melville recruited Sidney Reilly into government service and foiled a plot against Queen Victoria on her 1887 Golden Jubilee. A naval theme runs throughout Flemings description of M and his surroundings, and his character was described by journalist and Bond scholar Ben Macintyre as every inch the naval martinet. Macintyre also notes that in his study of Flemings work, Kingsley Amis outlined the way Fleming had described Ms voice, being, angry, brutal, cold, curt, dry, gruff, stern, testy. Over the course of twelve novels and two collections of stories, Fleming provided a number of details relating to Ms background. In On Her Majestys Secret Service it is revealed that Ms pay as head of the Secret Service is £6,500 a year, Blades has a restricted membership of only 200 gentlemen and all must be able to show £100,000 in cash or gilt-edged securities. Kingsley Amis noted in his study, The James Bond Dossier, as a personal favour to M, the staff at Blades keeps a supply of cheap red wine from Algeria on hand but does not include it on the wine list. M refers to it as Infuriator and tends only to drink it in moderate quantities unless he is in a bad mood. In the first post-Fleming book, Colonel Sun, M is kidnapped from Quarterdeck, his home, in Gardners final novel, COLD, M is kidnapped and rescued by Bond and finishes the book by retiring from MI6. Continuation Bond author Raymond Bensons 1998 novel The Facts of Death continued Messervys retirement, the book also introduces a new M, Barbara Mawdsley. M was played by Bernard Lee from the first Bond film, Dr. No, in Dr. No, M refers to his record of reducing the number of operative casualties since taking the job, implying someone else held the job recently before him. The film also saw M refer to himself as head of MI7, Lee had originally said MI6, earlier in the film, the department had been referred to as MI6 by a radio operator. Smith and Lavington, meanwhile, remarked that Lee was the incarnation of Flemings crusty admiral. Lee died of cancer in January 1981, four months into the filming of For Your Eyes Only, later films referred to Lees tenure as head of the service, with a painting of him as M in MI6s Scottish headquarters during the 1999 instalment The World Is Not Enough. Featured in The likeness of Lee was used in the 2005 James Bond video game adaptation of James Bond 007, after Lees death in 1981, the producers hired actor Robert Brown to play M in Octopussy
25.
Bank of England
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The Bank of England, formally the Governor and Company of the Bank of England, is the central bank of the United Kingdom and the model on which most modern central banks have been based. Established in 1694, it is the second oldest central bank in the world, after the Sveriges Riksbank, and it was established to act as the English Governments banker and is still one of the bankers for the Government of the United Kingdom. The Bank was privately owned by stockholders from its foundation in 1694 until it was nationalised in 1946, in 1998, it became an independent public organisation, wholly owned by the Treasury Solicitor on behalf of the government, with independence in setting monetary policy. The Banks Monetary Policy Committee has a responsibility for managing monetary policy. The Banks Financial Policy Committee held its first meeting in June 2011 as a macro prudential regulator to oversee regulation of the UKs financial sector, the Banks headquarters have been in Londons main financial district, the City of London, on Threadneedle Street, since 1734. It is sometimes known by the metonym The Old Lady of Threadneedle Street or The Old Lady, the busy road junction outside is known as Bank junction. Until 2016, the bank provided banking services as a popular privilege for employees. Englands crushing defeat by France, the dominant naval power, in naval engagements culminating in the 1690 Battle of Beachy Head, England had no choice but to build a powerful navy. No public funds were available, and the credit of William IIIs government was so low in London that it was impossible for it to borrow the £1,200,000 that the government wanted. To induce subscription to the loan, the subscribers were to be incorporated by the name of the Governor, the Bank was given exclusive possession of the governments balances, and was the only limited-liability corporation allowed to issue bank notes. The lenders would give the government cash and issue notes against the government bonds, the £1. 2m was raised in 12 days, half of this was used to rebuild the navy. This helped the new Kingdom of Great Britain – England and Scotland were formally united in 1707 – to become powerful, the power of the navy made Britain the dominant world power in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. The establishment of the bank was devised by Charles Montagu, 1st Earl of Halifax, the plan of 1691, which had been proposed by William Paterson three years before, had not then been acted upon. The Royal Charter was granted on 27 July through the passage of the Tonnage Act 1694, the first governor was Sir John Houblon, who is depicted in the £50 note issued in 1994. The charter was renewed in 1742,1764, and 1781, the Bank moved to its current location in Threadneedle Street in 1734, and thereafter slowly acquired neighbouring land to create the edifice seen today. When the idea and reality of the National Debt came about during the 18th century, the 1844 Bank Charter Act tied the issue of notes to the gold reserves and gave the Bank sole rights with regard to the issue of banknotes. Private banks that had previously had that right retained it, provided that their headquarters were outside London, a few English banks continued to issue their own notes until the last of them was taken over in the 1930s. Scottish and Northern Irish private banks still have that right, the bank acted as lender of last resort for the first time in the panic of 1866
26.
Reculver
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Reculver is a village and coastal resort about 3 miles east of Herne Bay in south-east England, in a ward of the same name, in the City of Canterbury district of Kent. It once occupied a location at the north-western end of the Wantsum Channel, a sea lane that separated the Isle of Thanet. The military connection resumed in the Second World War, when the sea off Reculver was used for testing Barnes Walliss bouncing bombs, by the 7th century Reculver had become a landed estate of the Anglo-Saxon kings of Kent. The site of the Roman fort was given over for the establishment of a dedicated to St Mary in 669 AD. During the Middle Ages Reculver was a township with a weekly market and a yearly fair. The settlement declined as the Wantsum Channel silted up, and coastal erosion claimed many buildings constructed on the sandy cliffs. The village was abandoned in the late 18th century. Protecting the ruins and the rest of Reculver from erosion is an ongoing challenge, the 20th century saw a revival as local tourism developed and there are now two caravan parks. The census of 2001 recorded 135 people in the Reculver area, while nationally scarce plants and insects are found there, the location is also important for migrating birds and is of significant geological interest. The form Raculfceastre includes the Old English place-name element ceaster, which relates to a city or walled town. Stone Age flint tools have been washed out from the cliffs to the west of Reculver, and this was probably an accidental loss, rather than suggesting a human settlement, evidence for which begins with late Bronze Age and Iron Age ditches. These indicate a settlement, where a Bronze Age palstave. A full-size fort, or castrum, was started late in the 2nd century and this date is derived in part from a reconstruction of a uniquely detailed plaque, fragments of which were found by archaeologists in the 1960s. Identified with the shrine of headquarters building, hitherto unmentioned in any inscription. Application of the basilica to. These structures were found by archaeologists, together with probable officers quarters, barracks, a Roman oven found 200 feet south-east of the fort was probably used for drying food such as corn and fish, its main chamber measured about 16 feet by 15 feet overall. The Notitia Dignitatum, a Roman administrative document from the early 5th century, also records the presence of the Cohors I Baetasiorum at Reculver, then known as Regulbium. There must also have been a harbour nearby in Roman times, the walls of the fort originally stood about 14.8 feet high and were 10 feet thick at their base, reducing to 8 feet at the top, they were reinforced internally by an earthen bank
27.
Oddjob
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Oddjob is a henchman to the villain Auric Goldfinger in the 1959 James Bond novel Goldfinger and its 1964 film adaptation. In the film, he was played by the Japanese-American actor, Oddjob, who also appears in the James Bond animated series and in several video games, is one of the most popular characters in the Bond series. He is named by Goldfinger to describe his duties to his employer, Oddjob is described as being a squat man with arms like thighs and black teeth. This would place his height at 6 ft 6 inches, the earlier novel tells of his hatred of being mistaken for Japanese, largely due to Korean anger at the Japanese occupation during the Second World War. The revised novel keeps that facet, Oddjobs karate schooling in Japan apparently having nothing to assuage his prejudice. Oddjob is also an expert with a bow and arrow and can throw his razor-edged bowler hat with deadly accuracy and he has a cleft palate that renders his speech unintelligible to everyone except Goldfinger. In addition to killing people who cause trouble for Goldfinger, Oddjob functions as his personal guard, chauffeur. He has a taste for cats as food, apparently acquired in Korea when food was in short supply, Bond frames Goldfingers yellow cat for destruction of surveillance film, and as punishment, the cat is given to Oddjob for dinner. When Bond meets Goldfinger for a round of golf, Oddjob is seen in full for the first time and he is described by Goldfinger as an admirable manservant but mute. He only has four lines of dialogue throughout the film, in his first line, upon pretending to have found Goldfingers missing golf ball, he exclaims Aha. The second time, after killing Tilly Masterson, he instructs his men to dispose of her body by merely pointing at them, the third time, he says Ah. to order Bond to put on a gas mask before entering Fort Knox. The fourth time, as Bond electrocutes him in Fort Knox, he yells out a final long, Oddjob acts as Goldfingers personal chauffeur, bodyguard and golf caddy. He wears a Sandringham hat with a steel rim, using it as a lethal weapon in the style of a chakram or a flying guillotine. It was shown to be powerful, capable of cutting through steel. He later uses it to kill Tilly Masterson by breaking her neck and he barely flinches after both these attacks and is otherwise invincible against Bonds futile hand-to-hand fight. However, he is never mentioned to be a karate expert and he is also shown to be fanatically loyal to Goldfinger and his plot, as he is apparently willing to die in the nuclear explosion in Fort Knox rather than allow the bombs disarmament. Oddjobs demeanour remains constant throughout the film, Most of the time he is seen to smile broadly whenever he encounters Bond, even during their fight scene. The only time he shows anything resembling fear or wariness is when Bond attempts to use his own hat against him, when thrown at him, however, Oddjob simply dodges the hat with ease, causing it to get stuck between a pair of metal bars
28.
Aston Martin DB Mark III
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The DB 2/4 Mark III is a sports car sold by Aston Martin from 1957 until 1959. It was an evolution of the DB2/4 Mark II model it replaced, bentley-designed Lagonda 2.9 L straight-6 engine, redesigned by Tadek Marek. Changes included the front grille, that would become the shape of all future Aston Martin models, a new instrument panel, worm-and-sector steering and a live axle rear end were carry overs. At the rear, the DB2/4 Mark IIs tailfins were altered to use the lights from the Humber Hawk. The standard DBA engine model with twin SU carburettors produced 162 hp, thus equipped, the car could reach 60 mph in 9.3 seconds and hit 120 mph. Girling disc brakes were fitted as standard to the front wheels of all MkIII Astons after the first 100 had been made, only five automatic cars were made from a total of 551. A1959 review by Road & Track magazine praised the car for everything, a car for connoisseurs, they called it. The Aston has many virtues and few faults, among the faults was too-heavy steering effort, high door sills, and a stiff ride. Interestingly, R&T failed to comment at all on the cars innovative hatchback body style, complete with fold-down rear seats, along with the hatchback, two two-seater coupé variants of the Mark III were also produced. A Drophead Coupé convertible, while not common, still considerably outnumbers the Fixed Head Coupé –84 of the former were produced, all five Fixed Head Coupés were built close to the end of Mark III production and feature the mid-spec DBD engine. Both of these bodystyles feature conventional hinged boot lids rather than the innovative hatch back and it is the only Bond car in the Ian Fleming novels to have gadgets installed. For the film five years later, the car was updated to the Aston Martin DB5 model. It was to one of the most iconic of classic cars as a result. DB Mark III,551 Hatchback,462 Drophead Coupé,84 DBA,68 DBB,2 DBD,14 Fixed Head Coupé,5 LHD,83 The DB Mk III was included in the Spot-on range in the early 1960s
29.
Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost
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The Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost name refers both to a car model and one specific car from that series. Originally named the 40/50 h. p. the chassis was first made at Royces Manchester works, with moving to Derby in July 1908. 60551, registered AX201, was the car that was given the name Silver Ghost. The Silver Ghost was the origin of Rolls-Royces claim of making the Best car in the world – a phrase coined not by themselves, the chassis and engine were also used as the basis of a range of Rolls-Royce Armoured Cars. The 40/50 hp was so new that the cars were not fully finished. The car at first had a new side-valve, six-cylinder,7036 cc engine with the cylinders cast in two units of three cylinders each as opposed to the triple two-cylinder units on the earlier six, a three-speed transmission was fitted at first with four-speed units used from 1913. The seven-bearing crankshaft had full pressure lubrication, and the main bearing was made especially large to remove vibration. Two spark plugs were fitted to each cylinder with, from 1921, continuous development allowed power output to be increased from 48 bhp at 1,250 rpm to 80 bhp at 2,250 rpm. Electric lighting became an option in 1914 and was standardised in 1919, electric starting was fitted from 1919 along with electric lights to replace the older ones that used acetylene or oil. Development of the Silver Ghost was suspended during World War I, although the chassis, the chassis had rigid front and rear axles and leaf springs all round. Early cars only had brakes on the wheels operated by a hand lever. The footbrake system moved to drums on the axle in 1913. Four-wheel servo-assisted brakes became optional in 1923, despite these improvements the performance of the Silver Ghosts competitors had improved to the extent that its previous superiority had been eroded by the early 1920s. Sales declined from 742 in 1913 to 430 in 1922, the company decided to launch its replacement which was introduced in 1925 as the New Phantom. After this, older 40/50 models were called Silver Ghosts to avoid confusion, a total of 7874 Silver Ghost cars were produced from 1907 to 1926, including 1701 from the American Springfield factory. Many of them still run today, a fine example is on display at the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu. A 40/50 was privately entered in the prestigious 1912 Austrian Alpine Trial by James Radley, a factory team of four cars were prepared for the 1913 event with four-speed gearboxes, and engine power increased from 60 to 75 bhp by an increase in compression ratio and larger carburettor. The team gained six awards including the Archduke Leopold Cup, in 1907 Claude Johnson, Commercial and Managing Director of Rolls-Royce, ordered a car to be used as a demonstrator by the company
30.
Pinkerton (detective agency)
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Pinkerton became famous when he claimed to have foiled a plot to assassinate president-elect Abraham Lincoln, who later hired Pinkerton agents for his personal security during the Civil War. Pinkertons agents performed services ranging from security guarding to private military contracting work, Pinkerton was the largest private law enforcement organization in the world at the height of its power. The ensuing battle between Pinkerton agents and striking workers led to the deaths of seven Pinkerton agents and nine steelworkers, the organization was pejoratively called the Pinks by its opponents. The company now operates as Pinkerton Consulting & Investigations, Inc. d. b. a, Pinkerton Corporate Risk Management, a division of the Swedish security company Securitas AB. The former Government Services division, PGS, now operates as Securitas Critical Infrastructure Services, in the 1850s, Allan Pinkerton met Chicago attorney Edward Rucker in a local Masonic Hall and formed the North-Western Police Agency, later known as the Pinkerton Agency. Historian Frank Morn writes, By the mid-1850s a few businessmen saw the need for control over their employees. In February 1855, Allan Pinkerton, after consulting with six midwestern railroads, in 1871, Congress appropriated $50,000 to the new Department of Justice to form a suborganization devoted to the detection and prosecution of those guilty of violating federal law. The amount was insufficient for the DOJ to fashion an integral investigating unit, white, who had been hired as a Special Officer during a strike, was shot and killed. July 19,1919, Hans Rassmuson, Special Officer, was shot, March 12,1924, Frank Miller, Pinkerton Watchman, was shot and killed. Gowen, then president of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, hired the agency to investigate the labor unions in the companys mines, the incident inspired Arthur Conan Doyles Sherlock Holmes novel The Valley of Fear. This resulted in a fight and siege in which 16 men were killed and 23 others were wounded. To restore order, two brigades of the Pennsylvania militia were called out by the Governor, as a legacy of the Pinkertons involvement a bridge connecting the nearby Pittsburgh suburbs of Munhall and Rankin was named Pinkertons Landing Bridge. In 1895, detective Frank Geyer tracked down the murderer of the three Pitezel children, leading to the trial and execution of the United States first known serial killer H. H. Holmes. His story is told in his book, The Holmes-Pitezel Case, Pinkertons had previously apprehended Holmes in 1894 in Boston on an outstanding warrant for insurance fraud perpetrated in Chicago. Harry Orchard was arrested by the Idaho police and confessed to Pinkerton agent James McParland that he assassinated former Governor Frank Steunenberg of Idaho in 1905. Orchard testified, under threat of hanging, against Western Federation of Miners president Big Bill Haywood, with a stirring defense by Clarence Darrow, Haywood and the other defendants of the WFM were acquitted in a nationally publicized trial. Orchard received a sentence, but it was commuted. In 1890, Indiana University hired the Pinkerton Agency to investigate the authorship of a student bogus that had been distributed throughout town, while boguses were not uncommon, this particular one attacked IU faculty and students with such graphic language that Bloomington residents complained
31.
Felix Leiter
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Felix Leiter is a fictional character created by Ian Fleming in the James Bond series. The character is an operative for the CIA and Bonds friend, after losing a leg and his hand to a shark attack, Leiter joined the Pinkerton Detective Agency. The name Felix comes from the name of Flemings friend Ivar Bryce, while the name Leiter was the surname of Flemings friend Marion Oates Leiter Charles. Leiter has also appeared in the video game 007 Legends, Fleming named the character after two of his American friends, Felix was Ivar Bryces middle name, whilst Tommy Leiter was a mutual friend. Academic Kerstin Jütting describes Leiter as a cool and quiet character who knows 007s strengths. Physically, Fleming describes Leiter in Casino Royale, a mop of straw-coloured hair lent his face a look which closer examination contradicted. Leiter is Bonds saviour in Casino Royale, providing him with 32 million francs when Bond has been cleaned out by SMERSH paymaster Le Chiffre, calling it Marshall Aid. Academic Jeremy Black agrees, although points out that the Bond and he, the American, takes orders from Bond, the Britisher, and that Bond is constantly doing better than he. Bond scholars Bennett and Woollacott note that although the two men share adventures, it is Bond who leads, not Leiter, Leiters role is to suppl Bond with technical support and hardware, add. Flemings second novel, Live and Let Die shows that in his early twenties, Leiter wrote a few pieces on Dixieland jazz for the New York Amsterdam News. Espionage scholar Rupert Allason, writing as Nigel West, noted that Leiters involvement in a domestic US matter was a breach of the CIAs charter, as laid out in the National Security Act of 1947. According to Bond scholar Henry Chancellor, the speed and comfort of it impressed Ian, for the post-Fleming continuation Bond authors, Leiter has also appeared on a periodic basis. Raymond Benson also included Leiters character in some of his novels, including The Facts of Death, similarly the more recent continuation Bond novels—the 2008 Sebastian Faulks novel Devil May Care and the 2011 novel Carte Blanche by Jeffery Deaver—both contained the character. Leiter, who was an agent for Station S, was a combination of the novels Felix Leiter, Jack Lord was the first Felix Leiter, appointed into the role for the first Bond film, Dr. No. Eon Productions started filming the series out of the written by Fleming. Leiter was not present in the Fleming novel, but the added the character to the film. Jeremy Black agrees, although points out that the inclusion of Leiter was a sign of American influence in the Caribbean, Lord played Leiter in a swaggering fashion, according to Smith and Lavington, and they considered him excellent, an effective American version of James Bond. Bond scholars Pfeiffer and Worrall agree, stating that Lords was one of the most satisfying portrayals of Leiter, the producers instead decided to recast the role, initially with Austin Willis
32.
British Overseas Airways Corporation
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British Overseas Airways Corporation was the British state-owned airline created in 1940 by the merger of Imperial Airways and British Airways Ltd. It continued operating overseas services throughout World War II, after the passing of the Civil Aviation Act of 1946, European and South American services passed to two further state-owned airlines, British European Airways and British South American Airways. BOAC absorbed BSAA in 1949, but BEA continued to operate British domestic, a 1971 Act of Parliament merged BOAC and BEA with effect from 31 March 1974, forming todays British Airways. On 24 November 1939, BOAC was created by Act of Parliament to become the British state airline, formed from the merger of Imperial Airways and British Airways Ltd. The companies had been operating together since war was declared on 3 September 1939, on 1 April 1940, BOAC started operations as a single company. Linking Britain to the Horseshoe Route taxed the resources of BOAC, although Spain denied access, Portugal welcomed BOACs civilian aircraft at Lisbon. The Empire flying-boats were at their limit on the 1,900 mile Lisbon-Bathurst sector, refuelling at Las Palmas in the Canary Islands was permitted by Spain for some Empire flying-boat flights in 1940 and 1941. In 1941 longer range Consolidated Catalinas, Boeing 314As were introduced to guarantee non-stop Lisbon to Bathurst sectors, BOACs flying-boat base for Britain was shifted from Southampton to Poole, Dorset, but many flights used Foynes in Éire, reached by shuttle flight from Whitchurch. Use of Foynes reduced the chance of interception or friendly fire incidents over the English Channel. BOAC had large bases at Durban, Asmara, Alexandria and a school at Soroti. These were BOACs first New York services and this was the first sustained North Atlantic landplane service. By September 1944 BOAC had made 1,000 transatlantic crossings, in late 1942, the new hard-surface airport at Lisbon permitted the use of civil registered Liberators to North and West Africa and Egypt. Arguably, BOACs most famous wartime route was the Ball-bearing Run from Leuchars to Stockholm in neutral Sweden, initially flown with Lockheed 14s and Lockheed Hudson transports, the unsuitable Armstrong Whitworth Whitley civilianised bombers were also used between 9 August and 24 October 1942. The much faster civilian registered de Havilland Mosquitoes were introduced by BOAC in 1943, between 1939 and 19456,000 passengers were transported by BOAC between Stockholm and Great Britain. At the end of the war, BOACs fleet consisted of Lockheed Lodestars, lend-lease Douglas DC-3s, Liberators, converted Sunderlands, and the first Avro Lancastrians, Avro Yorks, and Handley Page Haltons. The Short Empire, Short S.26 and Boeing 314A flying boats, the Corporations aircraft, bases and personnel were scattered around the world, and it took a decade to reorganise it into an efficient unit at Heathrow. Whilst the major world airlines abandoned flying-boats at the end of WWII, BOAC continued with theirs until 1950, and even introduced the new Short Solent on the leisurely Nile route to South Africa. In 1948, the unpressurised Yorks were still operating passenger services as far afield as Nairobi, Accra, Delhi and Calcutta, after its first six Lockheed 049 Constellations, BOAC had to use some ingenuity to increase its Constellation fleet
33.
Uncontrolled decompression
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Such decompression may be classed as Explosive, Rapid, or Slow, Explosive decompression is violent, the decompression being too fast for air to safely escape from the lungs. Rapid decompression, while still fast, is enough to allow the lungs to vent. Slow or gradual decompression occurs so slowly that it may not be sensed before hypoxia sets in, Decompression can occur due to structural failure of the pressure vessel, or failure of the compression system itself. The risk of trauma is very high, as is the danger from any unsecured objects that can become projectiles because of the explosive force. After an explosive decompression within an aircraft, a heavy fog may immediately fill the interior as the humidity of cabin air rapidly changes as the air cools. Military pilots with oxygen masks have to pressure-breathe, whereby the lungs fill with air when relaxed, Rapid decompression typically takes more than 0.1 to 0.5 seconds, allowing the lungs to decompress more quickly than the cabin. The risk of damage is still present, but significantly reduced compared with explosive decompression. Slow, or gradual, decompression occurs slowly enough to go unnoticed and this type of decompression may also come about from a failure to pressurize as an aircraft climbs to altitude. Seals in high-pressure vessels are also susceptible to decompression, the O-rings or rubber gaskets used to seal pressurised pipelines tend to become saturated with high-pressure gases. If the pressure inside the vessel is suddenly released, then the gases within the rubber gasket may expand violently, for this reason, it is common for military and industrial equipment to be subjected to an explosive decompression test before it is certified as safe for use. The first type, a reduction from normal atmospheric pressure to a vacuum, is the more common. At the extreme low pressures encountered at altitudes above about 62,000 feet, the second type is rare since it involves a pressure drop over several atmospheres, which would require the person to have been placed in a pressure vessel. The only likely situation in which this might occur is during decompression after deep-sea diving, a similar but fictional death was shown in the James Bond film Licence to Kill, when a characters head explodes after his hyperbaric chamber is rapidly depressurized. Neither of these incidents would have been if the pressure drop had been only from normal atmospheric to a vacuum. The television program MythBusters examined this belief informally using a pressurised aircraft, the MythBusters approximations suggested that fuselage design does not allow this to happen. Barotrauma, an inability to equalize pressure in internal air spaces such as the ear or gastrointestinal tract. Physical trauma caused by the violence of explosive decompression, which can turn people, altitude sickness Frostbite or hypothermia from exposure to freezing cold air at high altitude. However, decompression events have proved fatal for aircraft in other ways
34.
Weather ship
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A weather ship, or Ocean Station Vessel, was a ship stationed in the ocean as a platform for surface and upper air meteorological observations for use in weather forecasting. They were primarily located in the north Atlantic and north Pacific oceans, research vessels remain heavily used in oceanography, including physical oceanography and the integration of meteorological and climatological data in Earth system science. The idea of a weather ship was proposed as early as 1921 by Météo-France to help support shipping. They were used during World War II but had no means of defense and this number was eventually negotiated down to nine. The agreement of the use of ships by the international community ended in 1985. Weather ship observations proved to be helpful in wind and wave studies, as commercial shipping tended to avoid weather systems for safety reasons and they were also helpful in monitoring storms at sea, such as tropical cyclones. Beginning in the 1970s, their role was superseded by weather buoys because of the ships significant cost. The removal of a ship became a negative factor in forecasts leading up to the Great Storm of 1987. The last weather ship was Polarfront, known as weather station M, Weather observations from ships continue from a fleet of voluntary merchant vessels in routine commercial operation. The vessels were involved in search and rescue operations involving aircraft, the vessels themselves had search radar and could activate a homing beacon to guide lost aircraft towards the ships known locations. Each ships homing beacon used a different frequency. In addition, the ships provided a platform where scientific and oceanographic research could be conducted, the role of aircraft support gradually changed after 1975, as jet aircraft began using polar routes. At the same time, the transmission of the data using Morse code was replaced by a system using telex-over-radio. The director of Frances meteorological service, Météo-France, proposed the idea of a weather ship in 1921 in order to aid shipping. In 1938 and 1939, France established a merchant ship as the first stationary weather ship, the Atlantic Weather Observation Service was authorized by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on January 25,1940. The Germans began to use weather ships in the summer of 1940, however, three of their four ships had been sunk by November 23, which led to the use of fishing vessels for the German weather ship fleet. Their weather ships were out to sea for three to five weeks at a time and German weather observations were enciphered using Enigma machines. By February 1941, five 327-foot United States Coast Guard cutters were used in weather patrol, as World War II continued, the cutters were needed for the war effort and by August 1942, six cargo vessels had replaced them
35.
Raymond Benson
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Raymond Benson is an American author best known for being the official author of the James Bond novels from 1997 to 2003. Benson was born in Midland, Texas and graduated from Permian High School in Odessa in 1973, in primary school Benson took an interest in the piano which would later in his life develop into an interest in composing music. Other hobbies include film history and criticism, writing, and designing computer games, in 1984, Benson wrote The James Bond Bedside Companion, a book dedicated to Ian Fleming, the official novels, and the films. The book was updated in 1988 and has since been re-released digitally without further updating and it was nominated for an Edgar Award by Mystery Writers of America in the Best Biographical/Critical Work category. In 1985, he worked as a designer and writer on the computer game James Bond 007 and he followed this in 1986 with work on a computer game version of Goldfinger and co-authoring the You Only Live Twice II module of the popular role-playing game James Bond 007. In 1996, John Gardner resigned from writing Bond books, glidrose Publications promptly chose Benson to replace him. As a James Bond novelist, Raymond Benson was initially controversial for being American, the author did much to placate these concerns, however, and promptly embarked on regular tours to promote his novels in the UK, as well as occasional trips to mainland Europe. Several signing sessions were held at the offices of his UK publisher Hodder & Stoughton, in total, Benson wrote six James Bond novels, three novelizations, and three short stories. He was the first Bond author since Ian Fleming to write short stories, glidrose changed its name to Ian Fleming Publications commencing with Bensons novel, High Time to Kill. Benson resigned from writing Bond books in 2003, in 2008 High Time to Kill, Doubleshot, Never Dream of Dying and his 1997 short story Blast from the Past were grouped and released as an omnibus called The Union Trilogy, Three 007 Novels. In 2004, Benson began writing the first of two based on the acclaimed video game series, Splinter Cell, although both are credited to the pseudonym, David Michaels. Further titles in the Splinter Cell series have also credited to David Michaels. The first book, Tom Clancys Splinter Cell was published in 2004 followed by Tom Clancys Splinter Cell, in 2008 Benson wrote A Hard Days Death about a private investigator who looks into the death of a rock star. The book spawned a novel in 2009 called Dark Side of the Morgue. The two novels plus a short story, On the Threshold of a Death, were collected in 2011 as an e-book anthology, The Rock n Roll Detectives Greatest Hits. Benson also wrote the novelization of the video game Metal Gear Solid in 2008 and followed it in 2009 with a novelization of Metal Gear Solid 2, Sons of Liberty. His entry in the Gabriel Hunt pulp adventure series, Hunt Through Napoleons Web, further video game novelizations continued in 2011, when Benson co-authored Homefront--the Voice of Freedom with John Milius, as a prequel to the THQ videogame Homefront. 2012 saw the announcement that Benson would also write Hitman, Damnation, Bensons first novel in a series of womens action/adventure thrillers, The Black Stiletto, was published in September 2011
36.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
37.
Luftwaffe
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The Luftwaffe was the aerial warfare branch of the combined German Wehrmacht military forces during World War II. During the interwar period, German pilots were trained secretly in violation of the treaty at Lipetsk Air Base, with the rise of the Nazi Party and the repudiation of the Versailles Treaty, the Luftwaffe was officially established on 26 February 1935. The Condor Legion, a Luftwaffe detachment sent to aid Nationalist forces in the Spanish Civil War, provided the force with a testing ground for new doctrines. By the summer of 1939, the Luftwaffe had twenty-eight Geschwaders, during World War II, German pilots claimed roughly 70,000 aerial victories, while over 75,000 Luftwaffe aircraft were destroyed or significantly damaged. Of these, nearly 40,000 were lost entirely, the Luftwaffe proved instrumental in the German victories across Poland and Western Europe in 1939 and 1940. From 1942, Allied bombing campaigns gradually destroyed the Luftwaffes fighter arm, in addition to its service in the West, the Luftwaffe operated over the Soviet Union, North Africa and Southern Europe. In January 1945, during the stages of the Battle of the Bulge, the Luftwaffe made a last-ditch effort to win air superiority. After the defeat of Germany, the Luftwaffe was disbanded in 1946, the Luftwaffe had only two commanders-in-chief throughout its history, Hermann Göring and later Generalfeldmarschall Robert Ritter von Greim. Throughout the war, the force was responsible for war crimes, one of the forerunners of the Luftwaffe, the Imperial German Army Air Service, was founded in 1910 with the name Die Fliegertruppen des deutschen Kaiserreiches, most often shortened to Fliegertruppe. It was renamed Luftstreitkräfte on 8 October 1916, after the defeat of Germany, the service was dissolved on 8 May 1920 under the conditions of the Treaty of Versailles, which also mandated the destruction of all German military aircraft. Since the Treaty of Versailles forbade Germany to have an air force, to train its pilots on the latest combat aircraft, Germany solicited the help of its future enemy, the Soviet Union, which was also isolated in Europe. This base was known as 4th squadron of the 40th wing of the Red Army. Hundreds of Luftwaffe pilots and technical personnel visited, studied and were trained at Soviet air force schools in locations in Central Russia. The first steps towards the Luftwaffes formation were undertaken just months after Adolf Hitler came to power, in April 1933 the Reichsluftfahrtministerium was established. Görings control over all aspects of aviation became absolute, on 25 March 1933 the Deutschen Luftsportverband absorbed all private and national organizations, while retaining its sports title. On 15 May 1933, all military organizations in the RLM were merged, forming the Luftwaffe. The |Nationalsozialistisches Fliegerkorps was formed in 1937 to give pre-military flying training to male youths, military-age members of the NSFK were drafted to the Luftwaffe. As all such prior NSFK members were also Nazi Party members, the absence of Göring in planning and production matters was fortunate
38.
Sarin
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Sarin, or GB, is a colorless, odorless liquid, used as a chemical weapon owing to its extreme potency as a nerve agent. It is generally considered a weapon of mass destruction, production and stockpiling of sarin was outlawed as of April 1997 by the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993, and it is classified as a Schedule 1 substance. In June 1994, the UN Special Commission on Iraqi disarmament destroyed the nerve agent sarin under Security Council resolution 687 concerning the disposal of Iraqs weapons of mass destruction, Sarin is an organophosphorus compound with the formula CH3PF. People who absorb a non-lethal dose, but do not receive medical treatment. Sarin is a molecule because it has four chemically distinct substituents attached to the tetrahedral phosphorus center. The SP form is the active enantiomer due to its greater binding affinity to acetylcholinesterase. The P-F bond is broken by nucleophilic agents, such as water. At high pH, sarin decomposes rapidly to nontoxic phosphonic acid derivatives and it is usually manufactured and weaponized as a racemic mixture—an equal mixture of both enantiomeric forms, as this is a simpler process and provides an adequate weapon. A number of pathways can be used to create sarin. The final reaction typically involves attachment of the group to the phosphorus with an alcoholysis with isopropyl alcohol. Two variants of this process are common and this reaction also gives sarin, but hydrochloric acid as a byproduct instead. The Di-Di process was used by the United States for the production of its unitary sarin stockpile, the scheme below describes an example of Di-Di process. The selection of reagents is arbitrary and reaction conditions and product yield depend on the selected reagents, inert atmosphere and anhydrous conditions are used for synthesis of sarin and other organophosphates. As both reactions leave considerable acid in the product, bulk sarin produced without further treatment has a poor shelf life. Various methods have been tried to resolve these problems, triethylamine was added to UK sarin, with relatively poor success. The Aum Shinrikyo cult experimented with triethylamine as well, N, N-Diethylaniline was used by Aum Shinrikyo for acid reduction. N, N′-Diisopropylcarbodimide was added to sarin produced at Rocky Mountain Arsenal to combat corrosion, isopropylamine was included as part of the M687 155mm field artillery shell, which was a binary sarin weapon system developed by the US Army. Another byproduct of these two processes is diisopropyl methylphosphonate, formed when a second isopropyl alcohol reacts with the sarin itself
39.
Gold
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Gold is a chemical element with symbol Au and atomic number 79. In its purest form, it is a bright, slightly yellow, dense, soft, malleable. Chemically, gold is a metal and a group 11 element. It is one of the least reactive chemical elements and is solid under standard conditions, Gold often occurs in free elemental form, as nuggets or grains, in rocks, in veins, and in alluvial deposits. It occurs in a solid solution series with the element silver and also naturally alloyed with copper. Less commonly, it occurs in minerals as gold compounds, often with tellurium, golds atomic number of 79 makes it one of the higher numbered, naturally occurring elements. It is thought to have produced in supernova nucleosynthesis, from the collision of neutron stars. Because the Earth was molten when it was formed, almost all of the present in the early Earth probably sank into the planetary core. Gold is resistant to most acids, though it does dissolve in aqua regia, a mixture of acid and hydrochloric acid. Gold also dissolves in solutions of cyanide, which are used in mining and electroplating. Gold dissolves in mercury, forming amalgam alloys, but this is not a chemical reaction, as a precious metal, gold has been used for coinage, jewelry, and other arts throughout recorded history. A total of 186,700 tonnes of gold is in existence above ground, the world consumption of new gold produced is about 50% in jewelry, 40% in investments, and 10% in industry. Gold is also used in infrared shielding, colored-glass production, gold leafing, certain gold salts are still used as anti-inflammatories in medicine. As of 2014, the worlds largest gold producer by far was China with 450 tonnes, Gold is cognate with similar words in many Germanic languages, deriving via Proto-Germanic *gulþą from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃-. The symbol Au is from the Latin, aurum, the Latin word for gold, the Proto-Indo-European ancestor of aurum was *h₂é-h₂us-o-, meaning glow. This word is derived from the root as *h₂éu̯sōs, the ancestor of the Latin word Aurora. This etymological relationship is presumably behind the frequent claim in scientific publications that aurum meant shining dawn, Gold is the most malleable of all metals, a single gram can be beaten into a sheet of 1 square meter, and an avoirdupois ounce into 300 square feet. Gold leaf can be thin enough to become semi-transparent
40.
Live and Let Die (novel)
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Live and Let Die is the second novel in Ian Flemings James Bond series of stories, and is set in London, the US and Jamaica. It was first published in the UK by Jonathan Cape on 5 April 1954, Fleming wrote the novel at his Goldeneye estate in Jamaica before his first book, Casino Royale, was published, much of the background came from Flemings travel in the US and knowledge of Jamaica. Bond becomes involved in the US through Mr Bigs smuggling of 17th-century gold coins from British territories in the Caribbean, as with Casino Royale, Live and Let Die was broadly well received by the critics. The initial print run of 7,500 copies quickly sold out, US sales, when the novel was released there a year later, were much slower. Major plot elements from the novel were incorporated into the Bond films For Your Eyes Only in 1981. The British Secret Service agent James Bond is sent by his superior, M, to New York City to investigate Mr Big, real name Buonaparte Ignace Gallia. These gold coins have been turning up in Harlem and Florida and are suspected of being part of a treasure that was buried in Jamaica by the pirate Sir Henry Morgan, in New York Bond meets up with his counterpart in the CIA, Felix Leiter. The two visit some of Mr Bigs nightclubs in Harlem, but are captured, Bond is interrogated by Mr Big, who uses his fortune-telling employee, Solitaire, to determine if Bond is telling the truth. Solitaire lies to Mr Big, supporting Bonds cover story, Mr Big decides to release Bond and Leiter, and has his henchman Tee-Hee Johnson break one of Bonds fingers. On leaving, Bond kills Tee-Hee and several more of Mr Bigs men, while Leiter is released with minimal physical harm by a gang member, sympathetic because of a shared appreciation of jazz. Solitaire later leaves Mr Big and contacts Bond, the travel by train to St. Petersburg, Florida. While Bond and Leiter are scouting one of Mr Bigs warehouses used for storing exotic fish, Bond finds him in their safe house with a note pinned to his chest He disagreed with something that ate him. Bond then investigates the warehouse himself and discovers that Mr Big is smuggling gold coins by hiding them in the bottom of tanks holding poisonous tropical fish, which he is bringing into the US. He is attacked in the warehouse by the Robber, another of Mr Bigs men, during the resultant gunfight, Bond outwits the Robber and causes him to fall into the shark tank. Bond continues his mission in Jamaica, where he meets a fisherman, Quarrel, and John Strangways. Quarrel gives Bond training in scuba diving in the local waters, Bond swims through shark- and barracuda-infested waters to Mr Bigs island and manages to plant a limpet mine on the hull of his yacht before being captured once again by Mr Big. Bond and Solitaire are saved when the mine explodes seconds before they are dragged over the reef. Between January and March 1952 the journalist Ian Fleming wrote Casino Royale, his first novel, Fleming conducted research for Live and Let Die, and completed the novel before Casino Royale was published in January 1953, four months before his second book was published
41.
Suez Crisis
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The Suez Crisis, also named the Tripartite Aggression and the Kadesh Operation or Sinai War, was an invasion of Egypt in late 1956 by Israel, followed by the United Kingdom and France. The aims were to regain Western control of the Suez Canal, after the fighting had started, political pressure from the United States, the Soviet Union, and the United Nations led to a withdrawal by the three invaders. The episode humiliated Great Britain and France and strengthened Nasser, on October 29, Israel invaded the Egyptian Sinai. Britain and France issued a joint ultimatum to cease fire, which was ignored, on November 5, Britain and France landed paratroopers along the Suez Canal. The Egyptian forces were defeated, but they did block the canal to all shipping and it later became clear that the Israeli invasion and the subsequent Anglo-French attack had been planned beforehand by the three countries. The three allies had attained a number of their objectives, but the Canal was now useless and heavy political pressure from the United States. U. S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower had strongly warned Britain not to invade, historians conclude the crisis signified the end of Great Britains role as one of the worlds major powers. The Suez Canal was closed from October 1956 until March 1957, Israel fulfilled some of its objectives, such as attaining freedom of navigation through the Straits of Tiran. The Suez Canal was opened in 1869, after ten years of work financed by the French, the canal instantly became strategically important, as it provided the shortest ocean link between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. The canal eased commerce for trading nations and particularly helped European colonial powers to gain, in 1875, as a result of debt and financial crisis, the Egyptian ruler was forced to sell his shares in the canal operating company to the British government of Benjamin Disraeli. They were willing buyers and obtained a 44 percent share in the operations for less than £4 million. With the 1882 invasion and occupation of Egypt, the United Kingdom took de facto control of the country as well as the canal proper, the 1888 Convention of Constantinople declared the canal a neutral zone under British protection. In ratifying it, the Ottoman Empire agreed to international shipping to pass freely through the canal, in time of war. The Convention came into force in 1904, the year as the Entente cordiale between Britain and France. Following the Japanese surprise attack on the Russian Pacific Fleet based at Port Arthur, the British denied the Russian fleet use of the canal and forced it to steam around Africa, giving the Japanese forces time to consolidate their position in East Asia. The importance of the canal as an intersection was again apparent during the First World War. The attempt by German and Ottoman forces to storm the canal in February 1915 led the British to commit 100,000 troops to the defense of Egypt for the rest of the war. The canal continued to be strategically important after the Second World War as a conduit for the shipment of oil, petroleum business historian Daniel Yergin wrote of the period, In 1948, the canal abruptly lost its traditional rationale
42.
Goldeneye (estate)
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Goldeneye is the original name of James Bond novelist Ian Flemings estate on Oracabessa bay on the northern coastline of Jamaica. He purchased land adjacent to the renowned Golden Clouds estate in 1946, constructed from Flemings sketch, the modest three bedroom structure was fitted with wooden jalousie windows and a swimming pool. Flemings visitors at Goldeneye included actors, musicians and filmmakers, the property now operates as Goldeneye Hotel and Resort, an upmarket retreat consisting of Flemings main house and several cottages. The estate is located in the Oracabessa Bay Fish Sanctuary, established in 2011 to protect the marine ecosystem. It is adjacent to James Bond Beach, the land is on the site of a former donkey racetrack. The home was built on a cliff overlooking a beach based on a sketch by the author. Fleming joined The Sunday Times in 1946, for which he oversaw the worldwide network of correspondents. He negotiated a contract whereby he could spend three months of year at Goldeneye. Ann was then married to Lord Rothermere and he thought Ann was with Noel Coward, on 17 February 1952 James Bond appeared in the first Bond novel, Casino Royale. For the next years, Fleming wrote all his Bond stories there. A number of the Bond movies, including Dr, no and Live and Let Die, were filmed near the estate. In 1956 British Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden and his wife Clarissa spent a month at Goldeneye after Edens health collapsed in the wake of the Suez Crisis, the attendant publicity helped to boost Flemings writing career. In 1976, twelve years after Ian Flemings death, the property was sold to reggae musician Bob Marley, a year later he sold the estate to Island Records founder Chris Blackwell. In 1995 GoldenEye became the title of the seventeenth James Bond film, Blackwell gradually added 25 acres in small parcels to the original estate to reach a current total of 40 acres. As it grew, he added various cottages and huts around an inner lagoon sandwiched between James Bond Beach and Low Cay Beach. In the late 1980s, he formed the Island Outpost Company, rather than a traditional hotel, Goldeneye resort is a compound of tropical buildings, gardens and private beaches. It closed in 2007 for major additions and renovations, and reopened in December 2010, the property was equally popular with a coterie of Hollywood stars and British literary greats as it was British aristocrats and international heads of state. Errol Flynn, Lucian Freud, Truman Capote, Patrick Leigh Fermor, the Duchess of Devonshire, Princess Margaret, Eden even made the property the temporary Headquarters for the British government during the Suez Crisis of 1956
43.
John Cecil Masterman
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Sir John Cecil Masterman OBE was a noted academic, sportsman and author. However, he was best known as chairman of the Twenty Committee, which during World War II ran the Double Cross System, Masterman was educated at the Royal Naval Colleges of Osborne and Dartmouth, at Worcester College, Oxford, where he read modern history. He studied at the University of Freiburg where he also was a lecturer in 1914. As a result, he was interned as an alien for four years in a detention camp in Ruhleben. During his internment, Masterman took the opportunity to further polish his German, after his return from captivity, Masterman became tutor of Modern History in Christ Church, Oxford, where he was also censor. After World War II he returned to Oxford, becoming Provost of Worcester College, Masterman was knighted for his services in 1959. In 1933, he wrote a mystery novel entitled An Oxford Tragedy. It was written in the point of view of Oxford don named Francis Wheatley Winn and he served as Watson to the novels Sherlock Holmes, an amateur sleuth named Ernst Brendel, a Viennese lawyer of European reputation. He was giving a series of lectures to the Law Faculty, when an unpopular tutor was found shot in the Deans rooms, he took it upon himself to solve the crime. He of course solved the case, and the murderer thus exposed committed suicide, the novel itself was quite unusual for its time in providing an account of how murder affects the tranquil existence of Oxford dons. Despite the acclaim that An Oxford Tragedy had garnered, Masterman did not publish a follow-up until 1957, the novel, again starring Ernst Brendel, was called The Case of the Four Friends, which is a diversion in pre-detection. In the novel, Brendel is persuaded by a group of friends to relate a story of how he pre-constructed a crime, as he says, To work out the crime before it is committed, to foresee how it will be arranged, and then to prevent it. Thats a triumph indeed, and is more than all the convictions in the world. His tale then was about four men, each of either a potential victim or potential murderer. The pacing of the story is slow and the narrative is interrupted from time to time by discussion between Brendel and his listeners. Even so, the novel maintains its interest on the reader throughout and this novel was the last of his crime stories and he wrote no more works of fiction. However, his best known work was still to come, when World War II broke out, Masterman was drafted into the Intelligence Corps. After investigating and producing a report into the evacuation of Dunkirk, Masterman was appointed as a Civil Assistant in MI5
