Literary Trails
Kingsdown
Kingsdown is assumed to be the setting for Ian Fleming's novel, MOONRAKER, published in 1955. It is here - 'on the edge of the cliffs between Dover and Dear - that Sir Hugo Drax is building the Moonraker, an atomic rocket. And it is here that James Bond is sent to investigate. However, as previously ‘secret’ photographs come to light, you can easily picture James Bond in Flemings own St. Margarets Bay with its Sci-Fi radar masts and cold-war bunker disguised as a bungalow.
As in GOLDFINGER, Fleming shows his knowledge of the local area and he leaves us with clear images of the landscape in his description of 'the black and white confetti of the ravens and gulls tossed against the vivid backcloth of green fields. '
