• Written by Ian Fleming [1,2]; edited by William Plomer [3,4]
  • First (typewritten) draft completed by the end of February 1954 [5]
  • Hard-cover novel of 256 pages published April 7, 1955 [6] by Jonathan Cape [7]
  • First U.S. printing published September 1955 [8] by The Macmillan Company [9]
  • February 27, 2023 Statement on the Changes to the New Editions [10]
THE STORY

This was the third James Bond story. The action was set in May {pages 52 and 96} of 1952 {pages 20-21}, upon return of Agent 007 from his leave that had followed Live and Let Die.

“Recognizing that Live and Let Die had bee more of an entertainment than intended, [Ian Fleming] wanted to make Moonraker his most ambitious and personal novel yet,” observed biographer Andrew Lycett [11].

… he deliberately focused on his home turf … for another examination of the theme of duplicity which so fascinated him. Ostensibly Sir Hugo Drax was one of Britain’s leading tycoons … part of the Establishment as a member of Blade’s, London’s most elegant club …. But behind his impeccable facade, Sir Hugo was not quite the gentleman he seemed. He had bee found cheating at Blade’s …. Bond was brought in to play him … and beat him at his own game. Bond suspected that Drax was one of the German commandos, known as [World War II] Werewolves, who were infiltrated behind Allied lines as saboteurs …. This idea proved correct when he visited Drax’s plant in Kent, where he discovered a corps of British-hating Nazi scientists, working for the Russians and bent on destroying London with their rocket [named ‘Moonraker’].

Start to finish, the plot unfolded over the course of just six days, opening on a Monday and concluding the Saturday following. And yet Moonraker was sixteen pages longer than its immediate predecessor, and thirty-eight pages longer than Casino Royale. The compressed time frame, coupled with the narrowed geography of having been set entirely in and around the home environs of MI6, made for a more intimate reader engagement — even as the stakes were the highest yet to-date.

KEEPING TIME

Sir Hugo Drax wore “a plain gold Patek Phillipe watch with a black leather strap {page 46} when he cheated at cards {page 27}. This watchmaker was very much apropos of the period, Europe, and the characters, emergent as a brand for those “in the know” [12]. It fit within the larger context of this signature Bond villain {page 26}.

By 1950 he was a multi-millionaire. Then he came back to England and started spending it. He simply threw it about. Best houses, best cars, best women. Boxes at the Opera, at Goodwood. Prize-winning Jersey herds. Prize-winning carnations. Prize-winning two-year-olds. Two yachts; money for the Walker Cup team; £100,000 for the Flood Disaster Fund; Coronation Ball for Nurses at the Albert Hall — there wasn’t a week when he wasn’t hitting the headlines with some splash or another ….

In keeping with the ascribed pace of Moonraker, Ian Fleming adopted a more conspicuous reference to time markers, including those which might otherwise have been dismissed as pedestrian. At his own desk, 007 began reviewing files at twelve o’clock {page 16}, arranged to lunch with the Chief of Staff en route to a meeting with M {page 20}, only to miss it by “an hour” when discussions ran to “half-past two” {page 31}. He then lunched on his own, “was back in his office by three,” “at four-thirty was collecting his car from the staff garage,” and “was home in fifteen minutes” {page 32}. He spent half-an-hour preparing for his planned encounter to come with Hugo Drax at Blades {page 33}, then “relaxed for ten minutes” with a cigarette {page 34}.

Although Moonraker in its penultimate chapter featured a countdown — of the most common sort for a thriller: To rocket launch {pages 241-242} — the presentation effectively pro forma, especially when considered against its predecessor in Live and Let Die. By that point the plan had been more methodically set {pages 229-238}, essentially left to simply unfold in an end with a yet-to-be-revealed bit of satisfying justice.

Elsewhere, readers learned in this book that 007 had no need of an alarm to prompt his start of day {page 130}.

… Bond visualized the figure seven on the dial of a clock and left it to the hidden cells of his memory to wake him.

JAMES BOND'S WATCH

James Bond wore only one wristwatch in Moonraker.

Here, that watch was referenced at least a dozen times {pages 12, 40, 91, 126, 190, 229, 235, 236, 237, 241, 252, and 254}. That made for a multiple of all other citations to date. But no indication whatsoever of watchmaker, nor, for that matter, any clue about dial arrangement, luminescence, or band. Conversely, a scant three sentences into this story, readers were not merely told that smoke was cleared from the MI6 firing range by a central fan, but that it was a Ventaxia [13] fan that had done so.

The James Bond Moonraker watch is most significant for what Ian Fleming did not say about it; or, rather: Chose not to say about it, and, in particular, having withheld tying it to any particular watchmaker, as he had done in the novel immediately prior, for a diver’s watch.

The degree to which author interest in any particular James Bond watch here was de minimus might have been no better seen than in juxtaposition against automobiles. The beloved 4½-litre Bentley {page 16} was called-out by name across eleven different chapters {eg, pages 32, 38, 96, 131, 177, 195, 204, and 212} — in some, repeatedly. The vehicle of choice for Hugo Drax received similar attention {eg, pages 177, 185, 193, 196, 201, 202, 203, and 208}. And when it came time to trial a replacement for the lost 1930, a 1953 open touring description was specified by model {pages 252-253}.

As far as “the James Bond lifestyle” [14] would have affected the choice of watch for Our Man throughout Moonraker, the expansive Blades chapters {pages 38-78} could have easily drafted off the “moments of great luxury” vibe from his time in New York just a few months prior. Bond was an occasional guest at the club, and was known by name at the door. Beyond this, such environs were consistent with the impression that heroine Gala Brand had had of a double-0 {page 155}.

Did he have moments of longing for the peaceful simple things of life? Of course not. He liked Paris and Berlin and New York and trains and airplanes and expensive food, and, yes, expensive women.

Again, while this would not have been a sports (nor, certainly, a diver’s) watch given the circa 1952-1955 period, neither need it have been anything special at all [15]. Rather, research for identification would simply begin and end with some sort of watch worn by a gentleman in the mainstream [16].

DISPOSITION

What came of this wristwatch?

James Bond “glanced at his watch” just before the countdown commenced to Moonraker launch {page 241}. Given all that it had been through on the wrist up to that point in the story {eg, pages 229 and 236}, the reasonable take-away is that Ian Fleming carried it through to the end of this novel {page 254}.

This was most likely the same “watch #1” that 007 had worn in Live and Let Die — and it very well was the timekeeper with the distinction of having been mentioned only once in Casino Royale.

INSIGHTS

Having hit somewhat of a stride with this, his third James Bond novel, Ian Fleming appeared to have felt the need to lay down some fundamentals with an eye toward the future of his franchise. Several aspects of these had already affected consideration of the years for Bond watch identification, perhaps most pointedly, the Live and Let Die diver that he had written into canon at some point during the first two months of 1953.

At the time of Moonraker, Agent 007 was already thirty-seven years old {page 16}.

Eight years to go before he was automatically taken off the OO list and given a staff job at Headquarters [at the statutory age of forty-five]. At least eight tough assignments. Probably sixteen. Perhaps twenty-four ….

As of its publication on April 7, 1955, no year was ascribed to this story within the book boards this thriller itself. But repeated references to the South Goodwin Lightship {eg, pages 107, 126, 128, and 131-132} date the week of this tale to no later than May of 1954 [17-18]. If this thriller had unfolded then, at the latest, by extension, Bond would have reached his end-of-field-service sometime in 1962.

Pegging Casino Royale to 1951,a Live and Let Die to January of 1952, and Moonrakerb to just a few months after that, would not merely have been “of interest,” but vital to any notion that Ian Fleming might have had at that time of continuing to write these books as he, himself, advanced to his sixtieth year and beyond. Double, and perhaps triple the number of opportunities to share the various adventures that James Bond might face.

The notion of foundation and forward-thinking by way of Moonraker would be further bolstered a year later, in 1956, when Ian Fleming pitched to the Rank Organisation a screenplay adaptation that he had written [19,20].

NOTES

a — See Goldfinger, page 19.
b — Technically, Moonraker was not an “assignment” within the purview of MI6 {Chapters II, III, and IX}.

— Dell Deaton
Updated: April 18, 2024
April 12, 2024

REFERENCES (off-site)
  1. “Ian Fleming”
    Ian Fleming Publications (accessed April 6, 2024)
  2. Ian Fleming: The Man Behind James Bond
    1995 / Andrew Lycett / Turner Publishing: Atlanta
  3. “William Plomer: South African Writer”
    April 2, 2024 / Britannica (accessed April 6, 2024)
  4. James Bond: The Man and His World
    2005 / Henry Chancellor / John Murray: London (pages 45, and 105-107)
  5. “Collecting Ian Fleming”
    November 1998 / Lee Biondi / Firsts: The Book Collectors’ Magazine / Firsts Magazine: Tucson, Arizona (pages 29, 33, and 34)
  6. “The James Bond Books of Ian Fleming: A Descriptive Biography”
    Ibid / Lee Biondi and James M Picard (page 42)
  7. Jonathan Cape: British Publisher
    February 20, 2024 / Britannica (accessed April 6, 2024)
  8. “The James Bond Books of Ian Fleming”
  9. “About Us”
    MacMillan Publishers (accessed April 18, 2024)
  10. “A Statement on the Changes to the New Editions of Ian Fleming’s Bond Stories”
    February 27, 2023 / The Fleming Family / Ian Fleming Publications (accessed April 18, 2024)
  11. Ian Fleming: The Man Behind James Bond (page 253)
  12. “Who’s Who of Watchmaking: Patek Phillipe”
    February 14, 2018 / Watches TV (via YouTube, accessed April 16, 2024)
  13. Vent-Axia
    (accessed April 16, 2024)
  14. “James Bond Lifestyle – Audio Book Sample”
    February 20, 2020 / Paul Kyriazi (via YouTube, accessed April 17, 2024)
  15. Men’s Style: The Thinking Man’s Guide to Dress
    2005 / Russell Smith / New York: St Martin’s Press (pages 147-148)
  16. “Vintage Dress Watch Design in Depth – 1940 to 1960”
    May 17, 2023 / Goldammer Watches (via YouTube, accessed April 17, 2024)
  17. “Lightship Tragedy”
    September 2009 / Lighthouse Digest (accessed April 12, 2024)
  18. “The South Goodwin Disaster”
    September 21, 2021 / Dave Chamberlain (via YouTube, Accessed April 12, 2024)
  19. “Ian Fleming’s lost James bond screenplay reveals a very different 007”
    April 30, 2022 / Dalya Alberge / The Guardian (accessed March 11, 2024)
  20. “Rank Organisation: 1937-1996”
    Science Museum Group (accessed April 18, 2024).