“James Bond’s Armourer”

Geoffrey Boothroyd really did write me on Model 12 Winchesters. He also really held that “position”- a critical letter to Ian Fleming on guns, early in the series, led to Fleming’s whimsically writing him into the books as a character.

With Fleming, early in his career.

Here is the Winchester letter. He later provided an intro to John Hill. “Johnny UK”, who became a good friend, over our mutual interests in Darnes.

Of course it was a young and beautiful Betsy who, with Joan van Ness, attended a wild party at Goldeneye, Fleming’s Jamaica estate. Everybody knows everybody.