Connery`s co-author says 007 got his facts wrong

Murray Grigor, the co-author of Sir Sean Connery’s newly published memoirs, has revealed the former 007 star did not contribute any of the writing to the book - reports The Times.

And it appears the actor, who left school at 13 to become a milkman, did not read it properly either, given the number of mistakes spotted by readers.

Some have complained that Being a Scot, which includes an account of Connery’s early life in Edinburgh, and his take on Scottish arts and culture, is littered with factual errors.

The blurb from its publishers boasts that: “Sean Connery offers a correction to misconceptions that many believe are part of the historical record while revealing as never before his own vibrant personal history.”

However, Grigor said he wrote the book in its entirety, based on conversations with the 78-year-old actor, and he conceded that arrangement had inevitably lead to mistakes. During the writing process, he said, Connery mostly played golf.

A photograph of Connery and his mother, Effie, is described as being taken “at the start of the James Bond era”, when it was, in fact, taken while he was filming science fiction film Zardoz more than 10 years later. Another picture of Connery with his parents and grandparents describes the family as attending the Edinburgh premiere of From Russia with Love, in 1963, when it was taken in the early 1950s.

Grigor blamed Connery for the inaccuracies, claiming the actor had responsibility for checking facts.

“I had a tape recorder and I just recorded three-hour sessions, then he would go off and play a round of golf. I would write it up then we would discuss that and Sean would fine-tune it,” he said.

“He said what he wanted and I just wrote it, and he would change things if it was wrong — but we didn’t get to everything.”

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