Make that Booths, High amp; Dry8230;

The two men shared a love of drink 8212; spirits rather than wine 8212; but never enough to make them drunk. Both loved fast cars 8212; Bond went for Aston Martins while Fleming preferred a Bugatti. The two also had a weakness for gadgets 8212; 8220;gimmicks8221;, as Fleming, a former Sunday Times foreign manager, calls them in his notes.

One particularly revealing note shows how Fleming thought Bond should be careful about drinking too much: 8220;Drink relaxed Bond. His only rule was not to get drunk but perhaps for 20 years he had hardly gone to bed cold sober.

8220;His other rules were not to drink at midday or after dinner, and never to drink liqueurs. A great woman who had once granted Bond her favours and had been disappointed by his lack of fervour had chided him angrily. I might have known it. I should have stopped you having the liqueur brandy.8221;8217;

The author8217;s concern for the secret agent8217;s sobriety stemmed from his own problems with alcohol. 8220;Fleming himself really didn8217;t hold his drink very well,8221; said Andrew Lycett, his biographer. 8220;More than two glasses of wine at lunch time and he was done for.8221;

Fleming himself was particularly fond of gin and vermouth. 8220;Like Bond,8221; said Lycett, 8220;he also enjoyed some of the exotic drinks you could get in Jamaica8221; 8212; the island where the author escaped from the British winter to write his books.

One tiny red-covered notebook from the 1950s contains scenes describing the drinking habits of Bond and an unnamed woman. The handwritten scrawl features two characters, simply named He and She, who discuss types of drink and how they are served.

He:8220;Gin. The Booth8217;s one, called High amp; Dry. Couple of chunks of ice. Add water. Pink if you like.8221;
She:8220;Make it two.8221;
He:8220;Your8217;re quite a girl.8221;

Then Fleming tries out some more ideas.

He:8220;Two martins. Booth8217;s High amp; Dry. And make it six to one. Squeeze of lemon peel.8221;
She:8220;That sounds together.8221;
He:8220;Never drown a good gin.8221;
She:8220;Why do you always ask for Booth8217;s High amp; Dry?8221;
He:8220;Because it8217;s as smooth as your thighs and as clear as your eyes.8221;
She:8220;Phoeey.8221;

Fleming then attempts some other versions.

He:8220;Waiter! Two martinis. Shaken, not stirred, please. That Booth8217;s gin 8212; High amp; Dry. And a twist of lemon peel. Easy on the vermouth.8221;

Lycett deduces that 8220;shaken not stirred8221; probably reflected Fleming8217;s concern that in a stirred drink, the flavour of the ingredients is more likely to be lost8230;.

Excerpted from, How Bond got taste for martinis and motors8217;, by Richards Brooks, The Sunday Times8217;, October 1