The most outrageously named of the Bond girls, Pussy Galore is also one of the most intriguing. She is America’s only female crime boss and becomes Bond’s unlikely accomplice in Goldfinger. Originally a trapeze artist from New York, she formed the all-female circus act Pussy Galore and her Abrocats. But after realizing it was more lucrative, she trained her performers as cat burglars to form The Cement Mixers, a female gang well-respected in criminal circles. Like its namesake, this cocktail has its roots in Manhattan, being a complex variant of the Sweet Manhattan. The drink’s base spirit, Hudson Four Grain bourbon, is made by the first whiskey distillery to open in New York State after Prohibition. It is enhanced by Maraschino for a note of bitter almonds, Branca Menta for aromatic complexity, and white crème de menthe for freshness.
60ml (2¼fl oz) Hudson Four Grain (or other bourbon)
25ml (generous ¾fl oz) Martini Riserva Speciale Rubino (or other red vermouth)
1 teaspoon white crème de menthe
1 teaspoon Luxardo Maraschino liqueur
1 teaspoon Branca Menta
2 dashes of orange bitters
2 dashes of Angostura bitters
strip of orange peel
TO GARNISH
edible snowflakes (available from online baking suppliers)
Measure the liquid ingredients into a frosted mixing glass and top up with ice. Stir until very cold, then strain into a frosted coupette. Spritz the orange peel over the glass to express the oils and discard, then garnish with edible snowflakes.
PUSSY GALORE
Although she was a very beautiful girl she was the kind who leaves her beauty alone. She had made no attempt to pat her hair into place. As a result, it looked as a girl’s hair should look – untidy, with bits that strayed and a rather crooked parting. It provided the contrast of an uneven, jagged dark frame for the pale symmetry of the face, the main features of which were blue eyes under dark brows, a desirable mouth, and an air of determination and independence that came from the high cheek-bones and the fine line of the jaw.
GOLDFINGER
CHAPTER 13. “IF YOU TOUCH ME THERE . . .”
Her stance, feet slightly parted and hands behind her back, was a mixture of provocation and challenge.
GOLDFINGER
CHAPTER 13. “IF YOU TOUCH ME THERE . . .”
Gosh, what a crew! Even the Mafia had come in. How had Goldfinger persuaded them all to come? And who in heaven’s name was Miss Pussy Galore?
GOLDFINGER
CHAPTER 17. HOODS’ CONGRESS
“Who is this Pussy Galore from Harlem?”
“She is the only woman who runs a gang in America. It is a gang of women. I shall need some women for this operation. She is entirely reliable. She was a trapeze artiste. She had a team. It was called ‘Pussy Galore and her Abrocats’.” Goldfinger did not smile. “The team was unsuccessful, so she trained them as burglars, cat burglars. It grew into a gang of outstanding ruthlessness. It is a Lesbian organization which now calls itself ‘The Cement Mixers’. Even the big American gangs respect them. She is a remarkable woman.”
GOLDFINGER
CHAPTER 17. HOODS’ CONGRESS
Goldfinger said, “Good afternoon, Miss Galore. We have just been through the formality of introductions. The agenda is before you, together with the fifteen-thousand-dollar gold bar I asked you to accept to meet the expense and inconvenience of attending this meeting.”
Miss Galore reached for her parcel and opened it. She weighed the gleaming yellow brick in her hand. She gave Goldfinger a direct, suspicious look. “All the way through?”
“All the way through.”
GOLDFINGER
CHAPTER 17. HOODS’ CONGRESS
She thought Miss Pussy Galore was “divine”. She somehow seemed to count on her to get her out of this mess. Women, with a sniff, were rather good at things that needed finesse. Instinct told them what to do.
GOLDFINGER
CHAPTER 19. SECRET APPENDIX
They had been treated like a mixture of royalty and people from Mars. Bond had answered the first, most urgent questions and then it had all suddenly seemed to be too much for his tired mind to cope with. Now he was lying luxuriating in the peace and the heat of the whisky and wondering about Pussy Galore and why she had chosen shelter under his wing rather than under Goldfinger’s.
GOLDFINGER
CHAPTER 23. T.L.C. TREATMENT
It is likely that Fleming borrowed the name from Livia – or Pussy – Stela Nasta, a Romanian-born Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent. A committed anti-fascist, Pussy Nasta fled Romania during the Second World War and worked for SOE in Cairo, where she met her husband Bill Deakin, a British spy and academic. Pussy and Bill were friends of Ian Fleming’s wife, Ann, so the author would have known the couple.
Noël Coward’s partner, Graham Payn, claimed Pussy Galore was based on Blanche Blackwell, Fleming’s neighbour and lover in Jamaica.
Pussy Galore was famously portrayed by Honor Blackman in the 1964 film adaptation of Goldfinger.
She returned in the 2015 Bond continuation novel Trigger Mortis by Anthony Horowitz, which is set after Goldfinger. The novel contains original, previously unreleased material by Fleming.