EXTRACTS: The Modesty Blaise Companion Expanded Edition © 2018 The Book Palace (425 PAGES in Full edition)

T H E M O D E S T Y B L A I S E C O M P A N I O N I I TURNER, Ben STORY 33: “THE GREENWOOD MAID”: STRIP 3739 Ex-Network penman in prison for a half a million pound bank robbery. None of the cash has ever been recovered. When his daughter dies from an overdose of drugs he asks Modesty, his former boss, please to come and visit him in prison. When she does so he tells her about his daughter and manages to slip her a beautifully written letter in tiny script telling her where the loot is hidden. He asks her to recover it and establish an organisation to help drug addicts. Soon afterwards he is sprung from prison by Friar Tuck, a vicious criminal, who also wants to find the loot. Tuck has him tortured by Mr. Sangro, his equally nasty second in command, to make him reveal its location. He eventually does so but the torture proves fatal. TURNER, Hannah and Mark STORY 89: “THE SPECIAL ORDERS”: STRIP 9445 The married couple, highly experienced couriers, engaged by Modesty and Willie to be in charge of Samantha Brown and the party of boys and girls from the east end of London judo club where Willie is an instructor. They are on the trip to the Far East provided by Modesty and Willie. When their group visits a floating market in Bangkok where they would be unable to get lost, they take a rest. It is from here that Sam is abducted. It is unlikely that they could have stopped the abduction even if they had been there. It was a very professional job. TURNER, James STORY 1: “LA MACHINE” TEXT ONLY STRIP 11 Derelict and alcoholic Englishman in Beirut who was paid by Modesty to marry and divorce her for the sole purpose of enabling her to obtain British nationality. Her ex-husband died of his alcoholism in Singapore very soon afterwards. Unfortunately he was already married and Sir Gerald Tarrant has the marriage certificate which is the only evidence that his later marriage to Modesty was bigamous. If this was brought to the attention of the authorities her marriage would be void, negating her British citizenship, and it would mean she would revert to the status of a stateless person. That could mean deportation. Rather than blackmailing Modesty with it, and knowing her to be a compulsive payer of debts, Tarrant burns the certificate. He removes the threat, creates an obligation and at the same time provides the excuse Modesty requires to take up a more active life. TURNER, James (continued) Special note. In the 1962 novel “Modesty Blaise” the first meeting between Modesty and Sir Gerald Tarrant and Jack Fraser is much the same as in Story 1, “La Machine” . However, although in the novel it is stated that Modesty married and divorced a derelict Englishman in Beirut for the purposes of gaining British nationality, the man is not named and his ultimate fate is not mentioned. The bigamous marriage in “La Machine” is changed to the much more dramatic rescue by Modesty of Willie Garvin from a South American prison, where he is awaiting execution. The overall approach by Tarrant is still the same. The information that will save Willie is freely given rather than used as a threat, just as the certificate which is the only existing proof of Turner’s previous marriage is burned. 174 Drawn by Romero Strip 9445 29th April, 1998 Drawn by Romero Strip 3741 20th August, 1975