10 Writers Who Wrote Famous Works While Wasted

By early 1962, Ian Fleming was on a downhill slide. The adaptation of Dr. No was due to be released in only a few months, but the publication of that novel four years earlier had wrecked his professional reputation.

The critics had rounded on Fleming as one, denouncing both his talent and the morality that they supposed had produced such a work. His self-esteem in tatters, by 1961 his health was causing friends and family some concern, with reports of Fleming drinking a bottle of gin a day and insisting that the staff at Goldeneye, his Jamaican retreat, call him ‘Commander’.

The works written immediately afterward were confused, drunken attempts to react to that critical consensus, none more so than The Spy Who Loved Me, which barely featured Bond at all and was presented as a romantic memoir told in the first person by a young woman.

Fleming’s health continued to decline - he had his first heart attack two months after completing the manuscript. Critical reception was even less kind than before, their focus smoothly moving on from his character to the loss of his ability to write an engaging thriller.

The success of Dr. No in theatres would, ironically, restore Fleming’s confidence in his own writing. However, years of heavy drinking had taken their toll, and another heart attack in August 1964 was the final straw. Ian Fleming died a month before the release of Goldfinger in theatres, which broke records and established Bond as a cinematic icon for the ages.