Few Bond villains have captured the imagination of readers more than Mr Big, the gangster, voodoo baron and SMERSH operative Bond encounters in Live and Let Die. The pursuit of Mr Big leads Bond to the villain’s shark-infested island off the coast of Jamaica, a place which locals fear and declare juju, or obeah, because of the sounds of voodoo drumming, often followed by dead bodies appearing on the beach the next day. Mr Big’s cocktail pays tribute to the rituals of Caribbean life. The base spirit is an aged rhum agricole (cane juice rum) from Haiti, the cradle of Voodoo culture, modified with a classic, molasses-heavy dark rum from Jamaica, where much of the novel takes place. The chilli and hibiscus syrup adds bite and herbaceous notes to the tang of the citrus.
40ml (1½fl oz) Rhum Barbancourt 15 Year Old (or other rhum agricole)
25ml (generous ¾fl oz) Myers dark rum (or other dark rum)
15ml (½fl oz) chilli and hibiscus syrup
15ml (½fl oz) orange sherbet (see here)
20ml (¾fl oz) lemon juice
3 dashes of Dr Adam Elmegirab’s Teapot Bitters
strip of orange peel
FOR THE CHILLI AND HIBISCUS SYRUP, MAKES 200ML (7FL OZ)
¼ red bird’s-eye chilli, chopped
5g (½oz) dried hibiscus flowers
200ml (7fl oz) simple syrup (see here)
TO GARNISH
freshly grated nutmeg
To make the chilli and hibiscus syrup, infuse the chilli and hibscus in the simple syrup for 6 hours, then strain.
To make the cocktail, measure the liquid ingredients into a cocktail shaker and top up with ice to the brim. Shake vigorously, then strain into a goblet over ice cubes. Spritz the orange peel over the glass to express the oils and discard, then garnish with freshly grated nutmeg.
NOTE: these ingredients work well as a punch, so scale up the quantities for a party and serve in a punch bowl.
MR BIG
Because of the initial letters of his fanciful name, Buonaparte Ignace Gallia, and because of his huge height and bulk, he came to be called, even as a youth, “Big Boy” or just “Big”. Later this became “The Big Man” or “Mr Big”, and his real names lingered only on a parish register in Haiti and on his dossier with the FBI. He had no known vices except women, whom he consumed in quantities. He didn’t drink or smoke and his only Achilles heel appeared to be a chronic heart disease which had, in recent years, imparted a greyish tinge to his skin.
He was known to have originated an underground Voodoo temple in Harlem and to have established a link between it and the main cult in Haiti. The rumour had started that he was the Zombie or living corpse of Baron Samedi himself, the dreaded Prince of Darkness.
LIVE AND LET DIE
CHAPTER 3. A VISITING CARD
“And don’t go stirring up a lot of trouble for us. This case isn’t ripe yet. Until it is, our policy with Mr Big is ‘live and let live’.”
Bond looked quizzically at Captain Dexter.
“In my job,” he said, “when I come up against a man like this one, I have another motto. It’s ‘live and let die’.”
LIVE AND LET DIE
CHAPTER 4. THE BIG SWITCHBOARD
“Mr Big’s got the best protection of all,” said Leiter. “Fear.”
LIVE AND LET DIE
CHAPTER 5. SEVENTH AVENUE
Bond at once realized that the photographs had conveyed nothing of this man, nothing of the power and the intellect which seemed to radiate from him, nothing of the over-size features.
It was a great football of a head, twice the normal size and very nearly round. The skin was grey-black, taut and shining like the face of a week-old corpse in the river. It was hairless, except for some grey-brown fluff above the ears. There were no eyebrows and no eyelashes and the eyes were extraordinarily far apart so that one could not focus on them both, but only on one at a time. Their gaze was very steady and penetrating. When they rested on something, they seemed to devour it, to encompass the whole of it. They bulged slightly and the irises were golden round black pupils which were now wide. They were animal eyes, not human, and they seemed to blaze.
LIVE AND LET DIE
CHAPTER 7. MISTER BIG
Mr Big paused. Bond saw that his great yellow eyes were wide, as if he saw visions. He’s a raving megalomaniac, thought Bond. And all the more dangerous because of it. The fault in most criminal minds was that greed was their only impulse. A dedicated mind was quite another matter. This man was no gangster. He was a menace.
LIVE AND LET DIE
CHAPTER 8. NO SENSAYUMA
When Fleming’s American editor, Al Hart, suggested changing the name of the villain in Live and Let Die, Fleming wrote to him to say, “Nicknames have an uncanny habit of ‘exposing’ the owner. Therefore ‘Mr Big’ conveys a certain personality. The personality does not accord with the ‘educated carefully spoken man with philosophical ideas’.”