Lesbian Bond Girl – Just Needed ‘The Right Man’

Dr Gibson, a dedicated fan of 007 was in regular correspondence with the writer of the novels and in June of 1959 wrote to Ian Fleming complaining that he had changed Pussy Galore from “a criminal Lesbian into a clinging honey-bun (to be bottled by Bond) in the last chapter”.

Pussy Galore, an agent of Goldfinger, in Ian Fleming's 1959 007 novel, is a thoroughly modern, independent woman, equal, or superior, to most of the men around her.  She is the only woman in the USA known to be running an organised crime gang and is 'immune' to James Bond’s charms.  Bond describes her has as having black hair, pale skin, and the only violet eyes that he has ever seen. She is in her thirties, her voice is low and attractive and he is under her spell.

In the novel she tells Bond that she became a lesbian after she was sexually abused by her uncle at the age of 12.  But by the end of the novel Bond has helped Pussy Galore find her inner domestic goddess, as she turns her back on the world of crime and falls in love with a man.  Bond looks deep into her eyes and says, ‘They told me you only liked women’. He then promises her “a course of TLC”, before she looks up at his “passionate, rather cruel mouth” and it comes “ruthlessly down on hers”.

In response Dr Gibson’s letter, James Bond’s writer, Ian Fleming, wrote that Pussy Galore, Goldfinger’s lesbian love interest, only needed ‘the right man to come along and cure her psycho-pathological malady”.


The letter from Ian Fleming to Dr Gibson will be auctioned on the 11th November, by Bonhams for an estimated price of between £3,000 and £4,000.