Help! I'm searching for an Ian Fleming, Bond quote.

[Blib]

Are there any Ian Fleming, James Bond experts out there?

I would like some help in tracing what I think is a quote from a Bond novel.

The line reads something like, "One of Bond's favourite drinks was the one before the first one."

If you are able to provide me a lead to the quote then I'll be eternally grateful and I will repay you with PH martini tokens. Shaken, not stirred.

Thank you.

Edited by Blib on Saturday 15th October 22:26

[anonymous-user]

I've been re-reading all the Bond books recently and I'm not sure that the line you've quoted was in any of the novels. I think it might have been in an article that was written about Fleming and the people he had based the character of Bond on. Sorry, that's not very helpful is it?! I'm wracking my brain cell now trying to remember where I've seen it before.

[Blib]

Thank you for your reply. If you do come across it any time, I'd be grateful.

[Mannginger]

I can't find it attributed to a particular book, only quoting Fleming but I think what you're looking for is:

Allegedly Ian Fleming said:

To Bond, the best drink of the day was the drink he had in his head before the first drink of the day

[Blib]

That looks like what I was after. Thank you. Though, it's a shame that it's not a line in a novel. So, I can't use it.

[blearyeyedboy]

‘When I’m … er … concentrating,’ he explained, ‘I never have more than one drink before dinner. But I do like that one to be large and very strong and very cold and very well-made."

(Casino Royale)

Is that close enough?

[Blib]

Thank you for that. Unfortunately, it's not quite what I'm looking for. The crucial part is, "the one before the first one" i.e, Bond hasn't yet had a drink. It's the anticipation of his first one.

[james28]

The very first drink he orders, from 1953’s Casino Royale, is an Americano, a mixture of Campari, Cinzano and soda water and later in the same book he goes on to invent the Vesper, made with Kina Lillet, which he names after his love interest

[roygarth]

The Man with the Golden Gun - Page 88

'The best drink in the day is just before the first one (the Red Stripe didn't count). James Bond put ice in the glass and three fingers of the bourbon and swilled it round the glass to cool it and break it down with the ice. He pulled a chair up to the ...'

[Blib]

That's it!! That's the one.

Thank you so much. I occasionally use the line in my work with alcohol dependency. It neatly sums up some problem drinkers' mindset.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

I think it was Henry Youngman who said "when I read drinking was bad for you, I immediately gave up reading". That's my fave.

[roygarth]

Blib said:

That's it!! That's the one.

Thank you so much. I occasionally use the line in my work with alcohol dependency. It neatly sums up some problem drinkers' mindset.

I'm 21 years a friend of Bill W. That Fleming line still speaks loudly to me!

[CopperBolt]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

I think it was Henry Youngman who said "when I read drinking was bad for you, I immediately gave up reading". That's my fave.

A bloke up the club said: I always said if drinking ever affected my work - Id give up work.

[Blib]

roygarth said:

I'm 21 years a friend of Bill W. That Fleming line still speaks loudly to me!

[NMNeil]

We're all going to die of something, so it may as well be from something you like doing, and I like drinking

[Dr Jekyll]

Blib said:

That's it!! That's the one.

Thank you so much. I occasionally use the line in my work with alcohol dependency. It neatly sums up some problem drinkers' mindset.

I must admit I don't understand it. What is the mindset?

[Turn7]

Dr Jekyll said:

I must admit I don't understand it. What is the mindset?

I think its the anticipation and pleasure of the first,because the addict knows that oblivion beckons... ?

[thechasmanblue]

I've always liked that quote so thanks for locating the source.
It's all about anticipation, I think in a positive way, rather than about adiction / oblivion. The idea that there's something to enjoy worth waiting for.
Gotta love that a beer doesn't count as a proper drink, too!

[Einion Yrth]

thechasmanblue said:

I've always liked that quote so thanks for locating the source.
It's all about anticipation, I think in a positive way, rather than about adiction / oblivion. The idea that there's something to enjoy worth waiting for.
Gotta love that a beer doesn't count as a proper drink, too!

Describing Red Stripe as a beer is pretty charitable.

[GraemeP]

The antithesis to “fear of death, is worse than death itself” - Simon Seagull