In Passing From The Sydney Morning Herald

Blanche Blackwell, who has died aged 104, was the mother of the record mogul Chris Blackwell, the mistress of novelist Ian Fleming and one of the last survivors from the age when some 20 families ran Jamaica.

Her family, the Lindos, were Sephardic Jews from Portugal who had arrived in Jamaica in 1743 to make their money from sugar, rum, coconuts and cattle.

Their finances were said to have been weakened by a large loan to Napoleon, which was never repaid.

Blanche first met Ian Fleming at a Kingston dinner party in 1956. At first they did not get on: he thought her “a stupid bitch”, albeit an attractive one; she found him insufferably rude.

“Don’t tell me you’re a lesbian,” he demanded.

Later he was said to have used her as the model for the glamorously bisexual martial-arts expert Pussy Galore in Goldfinger (less gallantly he named the decrepit guano tanker in Dr No the Blanche).

Gradually they got to know each other, however, and Fleming, enchanted by Blanche’s mischievous wit and vivacity, started inviting her to his house, where she enjoyed snorkelling.

For more on this story go to: http://www.smh.com.au/comment/obituaries/in-passing-20170811-gxu72y.html

IMAGE: Blanche as a young woman in Jamaica CREDIT: TAKEN FROM THE BOOK THE LINDO LEGACY BY JACKIE RANSTON