Women in "Bondage" Trivia Quiz

Answer: Vesper

The name apparently came about because she was born 'on a very stormy evening'. At the end of 'Casino Royale', Bond was going to ask her to marry him, but she turned out to be a Russian double agent with the Russian Ministry of the Interior, having been blackmailed into it because of her love for a Polish pilot who had been caught by the Russians.

She committed suicide at the end of the book. If you would like to make a Vesper yourself, I'm sorry to have to tell you that Kina Lillet is no longer sold, having been replaced by Lillet Blanc.

The wrong names are all 'Bond Girls' from the movie 'Casino Royale'.

Answer: Miss Moneypenny

Miss Moneypenny was secretary to M. She 'would have been desirable, but for eyes which were cool and direct and quizzical' in the first book, 'Casino Royale', but by the second book, 'Live and Let Die', she had become 'the desirable Miss Moneypenny'. We were introduced to Bond's secretary Loelia Ponsonby in book three, 'Moonraker'.

She was described as 'tall and dark with a reserved unbroken beauty' and also as 'one of the most envied girls in the building'. She didn't like Bond calling her 'Lil'.

In 'Thunderball', Bond was having a bad day, not only suffering a hangover, but his secretary had got flu and he had been given 'a silly, and worse, ugly' woman from the typing pool. Mary Goodnight made her first appearance in 'On Her Majesty's Secret Service' where she was described as an ex-Wren with a 37-22-35 figure (note to metric quizzers - these measurements are in inches!) Mary Goodnight also appeared in 'The Man with the Golden Gun'.

Answer: G-G Sumatra

G-G Sumatra was going to take her G-String (the only item of clothing that remained) off in the dark. However, Felix Leiter and Bond, and their table, were hydraulically deposited into a 'tiny square cell'. Sumatra is one of the Indonesian islands, as are all the wrong answers. [Did you know that, in contradiction to the famous film title, Krakatoa is actually West of Java?]

Answer: Tiffany went back to the States to marry a Marine Corps major

Tiffany had had a hard life. Her mother ran a disorderly house in San Francisco and Tiffany had been gang-raped by gangsters at sixteen. Not surprisingly, she hadn't been with a man since then. It looked as if she and Bond might be togather for a long time, especially after she made him Sauce Bearnaise.

But in 'From Russia with Love' we discovered that after 'too many rows' she had met an American Marine Corps Major and gone back to the US. Wint and Kidd tried to kill Tiffany and Bond on the 'Queen Elizabeth', but Bond got the better of them and also shot down Jack Spang's helicopter.

Answer: David and Caroline Somerset

Ian Fleming considered David Somerset (the Duke of Beaufort) to be 'the perfect Englishman' and gave Bond and Tatiana the names of David Somerset and his stunning wife Caroline. Apparently David Somerset 'seduced more beautiful women than any other aristocrat of his generation', so he sounds like a perfect alias for Bond! Sadly, Caroline Somerset died in 1995, but the Duke celebrated his 81st birthday on February 23 2009.

Answer: Mary Trueblood

Mary Trueblood was trying to cover for Strangways, who was only late for the evening call because of being murdered, when she too was shot by Dr No's gunmen. The two were considered by London to have run off together, despite James Bond's protest that "Chief Officer WRNS don't go out of their senses" (thank you, James, my mother was WRNS).

Answer: Tilly

Jill Masterton was the girl killed by Goldfinger, and she had a very pleasant interlude with Bond and left him her gold Claddagh ring. Bond had daydreamed about taking Tilly to Entre Deux Seins, a village name he had always found intriguing (it means Between Two Centres) before he realised she was 'one of those girls whose hormones had got mixed up'. (In mitigation, the book was written in 1959!) Tilly infinitely preferred Pussy Galore, but it was James Bond who finished up with that particular lady after Oddjob had broken Tilly's neck. Apparently all Pussy Galore needed was some TLC - and the book finished with Bond giving her some.

Answer: Patricia Fearing

The machine was supposed to stretch his spine, but Count Lippe had heard Bond inquiring about his 'Red Lightning' tattoo and very nearly pulled him apart. In revenge, Bond half-boiled Lippe, turning his Turkish Bath up to 180 degrees. Having Googled to find out how likely these scenarios were, I found a US Patent for a machine designed to give 200lbs traction and also articles that suggested 180 degrees of dry heat would cause no harm. Had it been wet heat (such as in a sauna) apparently a temperature of up to 194 degrees Fahrenheit would be fine. Perhaps Ian Fleming meant Centigrade? Count Lippe was only the precursor to the real villain of the book, who, for the first but not the last time, is Ernst Stavro Blofeld of SPECTRE.

Answer: Ruby Windsor

All the answers were girls who were being hypnotised by Blofeld, whose evil plan was to unleash germ warfare across the UK, destroying crops and animals. Bond used Ruby to get details of all the girls. He married Tracey, but she was killed directly after the ceremony by Blofeld and his sinister henchwoman, Irma Blunt.

Answer: Ama

The Ama are famous Japanese divers, with a tradition going back over 2,000 years. Even today, the Ama free dive, without air. There are some male 'Ama' divers too. A top Ama diver can earn over £21,000 (over $31,000) for a single season. So we leave James Bond and his women. I hope you enjoyed the quiz and that it gave you an insight into the books of Ian Fleming.