Was Jasper Maskelyne the real Q?
One of Jasper Maskelyne’s wartime pupils would become a Bond villain. Another has been suggested as a model for 007. Jasper himself was a stage magician who taught escape skills and helped supply concealed equipment to men going behind enemy lines. Some of those who knew his work also knew Ian Fleming. It is an inviting thought: could Jasper have been the real Q, the man behind James Bond’s gadgets? A signed photo of Major Jasper Maskelyne, Royal Engineers (Source: Author's collection) Before the war, Jasper made his living convincing audiences that they had seen the impossible. His grandfather, John Nevil Maskelyne, and his father, Nevil, had both been professional magicians. Jasper followed them onto the stage, performing at London’s St George’s Hall and in variety theatres. You can still watch him at work in a 1937 Pathé film. He appears to swallow razor blades, then draws them from his mouth threaded along a length of string.[1] Jasper Maskelyne performing the razor blade trick...