Ian Fleming`s idyllic Caribbean retreat in development row

Bond writer Ian Fleming's idyllic Caribbean retreat called the Golden Eye is in the midst of a row over plans to build "a Barratt-style housing estate" a stone's throw from it, reports Daily India.

Fleming's friends, fans and family fear the writer's Jamaican hideaway will be transformed into a "celebrity theme park" by the development which is due to begin this month.

"It's an act of vandalism. I'm appalled. It is a really sad, tacky thing to do. The whole idea would have had poor old Ian Fleming turning in his grave," Fleming's biographer John Pearson was quoted by the Scotsman, as saying.

"It has remained remarkably unspoiled over time. It gives you an idea of the way Fleming worked. It was a place where he could relax and let his imagination run riot. A quarter of the world's population have seen a James Bond film and Goldeneye is the centre of the whole cult thing.

"Goldeneye is the only connection Ian had with Jamaica and it's an awful pity to lose it. The Jamaicans shouldn't let it be mucked up. It makes no sense other than the money it will generate for the developers," he added.

The £50m development will see the creation of 80 luxury beach huts and villas on the doorstep of Goldeneye, where Fleming entertained glamorous guests such as Noel Coward, Errol Flynn and Katharine Hepburn.

Fleming's stepdaughter Ffion Morgan, whose mother Ann Rothermere married Fleming in the early 1950s, expressed concern that the project could spoil the idyllic retreat. "I would be very sad if the development disturbed the peace and seclusion of the place. It was mother and Ian's Eden. That was a phrase they used to describe Goldeneye. My mother's view was that it was paradise.

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