''Take Over'' is an unpublished 1970

James Bond The ''James Bond'' franchise focuses on James Bond (literary character), the titular character, a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels ...

novel purportedly written by

Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer, best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., and his ...

six years after his death. Spy author

Donald McCormick George Donald King McCormick (11 December 1911 – 2 January 1998) was a British Journalism, journalist and popular historian, who also wrote under the pseudonym Richard Deacon. After working for Naval Intelligence during the Second World War, ...

believes this "remarkable story" is perhaps Ian Fleming's strangest legacy. In 1970 a retired bank officer and his daughter who have never been identified claimed to have transcribed works from the "great yonder" by deceased authors. None of the works has ever been published.

Plot

Few details are known other than the plot involves "a poisonous gas which will enable its users to dominate the world." Peter Fleming conceded that this was "the sort of preposterous, cosmic story-line which might have occurred to

Ian Ian or Iain is a name of Scottish Gaelic origin, which is derived from the Hebrew given name ( Yohanan, ') and corresponds to the English name John. The spelling Ian is an Anglicization of the Scottish Gaelic forename ''Iain''. This name is a po ...

." Traditional

elements such as M,

Miss Moneypenny Miss Moneypenny, later assigned the first names of Eve or Jane, is a fictional character in the James Bond novels and films. She is secretary to M (James Bond), M, who is Bond's superior officer and head of the British Secret Intelligence Serv ...

and

Universal Exports The ''James Bond'' series of films contain a number of repeating, distinctive Motif (narrative), motifs which date from the series' inception with Dr. No (film), ''Dr. No'' in 1962. The series consists of twenty five films produced by Eon Produ ...

also appear, though the story contains more sex than other Bond novels.

History

Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond novels, died on 12 August 1964 of a heart attack. His brother Peter Fleming, himself also an author and occasional novelist, was a director of Glidrose Publications, the corporate entity Ian Fleming had established to administer the Bond copyright. Donald McCormick describes Peter Fleming as "level-headed" and "down-to-earth." Ian fleming grave

In October 1970 a retired 73-year-old bank officer - only identified as "Mr. A." - wrote to Peter Fleming cryptically offering some "unusual" and "very pleasurable" news about Peter's late brother Ian. Mr. A. asked to meet Peter Fleming at the latter's

Oxfordshire Oxfordshire ( ; abbreviated ''Oxon'') is a ceremonial county in South East England. The county is bordered by Northamptonshire and Warwickshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the east, Berkshire to the south, and Wiltshire and Glouceste ...

estate. Peter Fleming reluctantly agreed and so a meeting was set for the following Sunday. Mr. A. traveled from Hertfordshire with his middle-aged daughter Vera. With them was a 60,000 word manuscript entitled ''Take Over: A James Bond Thriller''. Mr. A.'s wife - Vera's mother - had died in 1967. In December 1969, when Vera was recovering from an illness, she glanced at her mother's framed photograph on the piano and wished they could still talk. With pen in hand Vera found herself writing - with difficulty - on the writing pad in front of her, "I love you Vera." Further extrasensory communication ensued. The

automatic writing Automatic writing, also called psychography, is a claimed psychic ability allowing a person to produce written words without consciously writing. Practitioners engage in automatic writing by holding a writing instrument and allowing alleged sp ...

gradually became easier and the handwriting became that of her mother's. According to Vera and her father, Vera's handwriting "had always been rounded, loopy and backward-sloping." Vera had struggled to correct this having been repeatedly told at school that such penmanship was "a sign of bad character". But no matter how often school masters implored her, she could not remedy matters. But whilst transmitting messages from her mother, her own handwriting became sharp, pointed and italic, sloping "steeply forwards" like her mother's. Conan doyle

At first the deceased Mrs. A. began describing life after death to her daughter. Eventually Mrs. A. began dictating new works of fiction by deceased authors who would not let death hamper their literary ambitions. Also in this spiritual consortium were

Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Hol ...

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer, prolific in many genres. He wrote more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories. His non-fiction output included works of social commentary, politics, hist ...

Edgar Wallace Richard Horatio Edgar Wallace (1 April 1875 – 10 February 1932) was a British writer of crime and adventure fiction. Born into poverty as an illegitimate London child, Wallace left school at the age of 12. He joined the army at age 21 and was ...

Ruby M. Ayres Ruby Mildred Ayres (28 January 1881 – 14 November 1955) was a British romance novelist, "one of the most popular and prolific romantic novelists of the twentieth century". Personal life Ayres was born in Watford on 28 January 1881, th ...

and

W. Somerset Maugham William Somerset Maugham ( ; 25 January 1874 – 16 December 1965) was an English writer, known for his plays, novels and short stories. Born in Paris, where he spent his first ten years, Maugham was schooled in England and went to a German un ...

. When Ayres "dropped out"

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from the 188 ...

replaced her. Vera transcribed these communications in

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