Fun Facts Friday: You Only Live Twice by Ian Fleming

Yesterday I posted my thoughts on You Only Live Twice by Ian Fleming. While it wasn’t my favorite James Bond, book, I thought I’d research it a bit more. Here are some fun facts I found while doing a little digging.

1)     You Only Live Twice was the last book published while Ian Fleming was still alive.

2)      Fleming died five month after the novel was released.

3)      The story ties up the “Blofeld Trilogy” which starts with Thunderball that introduced SPECTRE and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, where Blofeld is involved in a murder that affects Bond in a very personal way.

4)      Mr. Fleming got the name of Blofeld from a farmer friend, named Tom Blofeld.

5)      The manuscript for the book was the one least revised before publication.

6)      The dark mood of the book reflects Mr. Fleming’s own melancholia.

7)      The story was written after the film Dr. No was released, literary 007 gotten some of cinematic Bond’s persona.

8)      An obituary of Bond is included in the novel, the first time the readers find out about Bond’s early life.

9)      There were 62,000 pre-orders for the book, an increase of 20,000 from the previous Bond book.

10)   From 18 May, 1965 to 8 January, 1966 a comic adaptation of the book ran in the Daily Express and syndicated around the globe.

Zohar – Man of la Book