Ian Fleming in Jamaica
Ian Fleming fell in love with Jamaica (“as I suppose any Scotsman would,” he once said) on a trip to the island during World War II. After the war, he bought a large plot of land on a coral bluff. He called the place Goldeneye, claiming a number of origins for the name of the estate, including Carson McCullers’ Reflections in a Golden Eye and Operation Goldeneye, a plan he developed during World War II in case of a Nazi invasion of Gibraltar. Whatever the inspiration, Fleming found his own there: he created James Bond on the island — writing many of his 14 novels in a home he built overlooking the Caribbean.
After Fleming’s death, the estate was sold to Bob Marley. A year later, Marley sold it to Chris Blackwell, the founder of Island Records. The 17th Bond film, Pierce Brosnan’s first, took its name from the idyllic locale.
—Stephanie Abrahams