Legendary Homes & Hotels: GoldenEye: 007’s Secret Jamaican Hideaway

The house is pierced by large, unglazed windows, whose louvers open onto the turquoise waters of Orcacabessa Bay. A narrow staircase leads down to its private beach, protected from view by vegetation. Goldeneye: that’s what Ian Fleming called his Caribbean paradise in 1946, his lost writing retreat on the north coast of the island of Jamaica. It was here that the British journalist, hired by the intelligence services during the Second World War, would give birth to the most famous of secret agents: James Bond.

His typewriter has disappeared, but the small corner desk on which Ian Fleming wrote all his best-sellers has not moved. The guardian of this memory is none other than Chris Blackwell, the music producer who made Bob Marley famous the world over. In 1976, he bought the property overlooking the shore, where his mother, Ian Fleming’s mistress, knew every reef. Around the writer’s house, he imagined a vast estate where luxurious villas and cottages dotted between lagoons, beaches and forest.

At the age of 87, Chris Blackwell opens the doors of this legendary place, so private and romantic. He looks back on his incredible career and tells us about his passion for Jamaica: the country that Ian Fleming fell in love with and that gave the world the greatest spy saga, still hosting the last filming of 007, but also that of the sound systems, reggae and rastas that shaped his life.