The Story Behind: The Hotel Splendide Assassination Attempt

Posted on 11 November, 2025

Filled with memorable images, dazzling characters and thrilling twists, Ian Fleming’s Casino Royale set the standard for the 007 adventures that followed. But where did he draw his inspirations? As he explains in this excerpt from his 1962 essay How To Write A Thriller, many of the elements are based on real-life events and encounters from his war years.

‘People often ask me, “How do you manage to think of that?”

I certainly have got vivid powers of imagination, but I don’t think there is anything very odd about that. We are all fed fairy stories and adventure stories and ghost stories for the first 20 years of our lives, and the only difference between me, and perhaps you, is that my imagination earns me money. But, to revert to my first book, Casino Royale, there are three strong incidents in the book which carry it along and which are all based on fact. I extracted them from my wartime memories of the Naval Intelligence Division of the Admiralty, dolled them up, attached a hero, a villain and a heroine, and there was the book.

The first was the attempt on Bond’s life outside the Hotel Splendide.

SMERSH had given two Bulgarian assassins box camera cases to hang over their shoulders. One was of red leather, the other one, blue. SMERSH told the Bulgarians that the red case contained a high-explosive bomb and the blue one a powerful smokescreen, under cover of which the two assassins could escape. One was to throw the red bomb and the other was then to press the button on the blue case. But the Bulgars mistrusted the plan and decided to press the button on the blue case and envelop themselves in the smokescreen before throwing the bomb. In fact, the blue case also contained a bomb, powerful enough to blow both the Bulgars to fragments and remove all evidence which might point to SMERSH. Farfetched, you might say. In fact, this was the method used in the Russian attempt on Von Papen’s life in Ankara in the middle of the war. On that occasion the assassins were also Bulgarians and they were blown to nothing while Von Papen and his wife, walking from their house to the embassy; were only bruised by the blast.’

Stay tuned for more of Fleming’s inspirations and find the book at our shop here.