Lucy Williams (nee Fleming) was born May 15th, 1947. Her father
remarked that by age 10, she was a “good horsewoman”, and by age 14, a
“keen and talented shot”: “She began by hitting a woodcock and a driven cock pheasant – never having handled a shotgun before – the first time I took her out, and went on to shoot consistently well. I suppose I enjoyed her prowess and her companionship as much as I have enjoyed anything in the way of shooting.”
However, Lucy Fleming followed in her mother`s footsteps and became an actress – she wanted to be one ever since she had seen her mother
perform in the Robert Bolt play “The Flowering Cherry”. She began with
the Farnham repertory company and subsequently went on to the Royal
Court Theatre. She even appeared with her mother in several productions including a revival of the Noel Coward play “Hay Fever”, and the 1968 BBC production (co-starring Charles Gray; Ernst Stavro Blofeld in the Bond film “Diamonds Are Forever”).
These are her screen credits:
http://us.imdb.com/Name?Fleming,+Lucy
(So why don`t the Bond producers give her a cameo in a film?)
She married Joe Laycock (son of Major-General Sir Robert Laycock, an
old Peter Fleming friend) in 1971 and they had several children. After
a family tragedy in the early 1980s, she married actor/writer Simon
Williams, who portrayed Nigel Pennington-Smythe in the 1983 tv movie
*The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E.*, and wrote the novels *Talking
Oscars* (pub 1988) and *Kill The Lights* (pub 1991). Lucy Fleming`s
step-children, Tam and Amy Williams also act.
Kate Fleming writes that “Lucy and I […] were on the wild side; Lucy
was a tomboy and was always at the top of a tree or racing about on a
pony. I was very shy and shot upstairs whenever anyone visited the
house. Neither of us would put on a dress if we could possibly help it.Our manners left a lot to be desired.” Moreover their childhood home, “Merrimoles”, was intentionally overrun by many unorthodox pets:
labradors, a poodle, a cat, ponies, at least one horse, owls, a
dormouse, two fox cubs, a raven and a grey squirrel named “Nutto”.
Peter Fleming also once wrote in his diary: “Woken early by the patter
of tiny feet. Yaks, if stampeded, would make more noise, but not much
more noise, than Kate (three) and Lucy (two), who constitute a
knockabout turn known as the Reveille Girls.” [He goes on to say about
his dogs, “Wonder what Pavlov would have made of Toby and Trigger, who never budge from the bed in my dressing-room until I start brushing my hair. Have tried going downstairs without brushing my hair. Sticklers
for protocol, they stayed where they were.” He also left his family the following arrangements for his own funeral: “If there is a memorial service, I would like it to be at the Guards Chapel; the parking facilities are unrivalled.” His final instruction was, “No mourning.”] However, after they were sent off to Cranborne Chase school in Dorset (Kate in 1959, Lucy in 1960), Peter Fleming remarked that “the patter of your tiny feet is sadly missed.”
Kate and Lucy Fleming`s father – Ian`s brother – was writer/author
Peter Fleming (1907-1971); their mother was actress Celia Johnson
(1908-1982), best known for her Academy Award nominated performance in
David Lean`s film “Brief Encounter” (co-written by the Fleming family
friend Noel Coward).
Kate Grimond (nee Fleming) was born May 24th, 1946. Her father once
wrote about her: “Kate, 11, tall and rather beautiful”. She studied
Russian at Oxford (St Anne`s House) and travelled with her father
during his trip to the Caucasus during the summer of 1966, where her
Russian came in handy. She was an assistant to Alan Ross on his “London Magazine” (Ross was friends with Ian and Ann Fleming, and is mentioned in “The Man With The Golden Gun” as Commander Ross), and was also Martin Gilbert`s researcher on his official biography of Winston Churchill.
In 1973 she married the journalist John (“Johnnie”) Grimond, who is now foreign editor of the British magazine “Economist” (his father, the late Jo Grimond, led Britain`s moribound Liberal party during the
1960`s); they have three children. She wrote two books: the first, “The Churchills” (pub 1975), is a history of the famous family. Also, “Celia Johnson” (pub 1991), a biography of her actress mother.
It`s possible that the actress and journalist Rose Grimond is her daughter.