Imagine you, a Canadian girl circa 1943/1944, went to high school in an isolated town with no roads in or out, move to a big city, get a job and on a lark with your friend answer an ad for an office job in New York that pays twice what you were making. You end up working with the British spymaster who 007 was modelled on, help in code breaking by noticing an irregularity in Japanese code, and even be working with Ian Flemming himself although not directly.
My local paper did a human interest story on this fascinating local gutsy woman. Not only did I find the woman fascinating, but the ancillary rich experiences (that most of her contempories experienced) that she related opens a window on a time that we will never experience again.
I felt that I should share that article with those of you with human interest, whether Canadian or not.
The claim at the end of that newspaper article linked to in the OP that James Bond was based on William Stephenson is at least an exaggeration. On other occasions Ian Fleming said that Bond was a composite of many of the people he worked with during World War II.
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to travel to Bermuda and pick up a large number of personal items from Sir William’s estate. It was awesome, but my favorite item was a large binder of personal correspondence. Letters from Hoover, Roosevelt, William Donovan…it was very, very cool!
Since then, most of the artefacts have been on display everywhere, including in the CIA museum.
And his daughter was a very gracious hostess, but an extremely private person.
