Krystyna Skarbek Prince's Gate, Kensington, London. In May 2017, a bronze bust, by Ian Wolter, was unveiled at the Polish Hearth Club ("Ognisko Polskie") in Kensington, London. It has been said that Ian Fleming, in his first James Bond novel, "Casino Royale" (1953), modelled Vesper Lynd on her. According to William F. Nolan, Fleming also based Tatiana Romanova, in his 1957 novel "From Russia, with Love", on Skarbek. Skarbek biographer Clare Mulley, however, wrote that, "if Christine was immortalized as the carelessly beautiful double agent Vesper Lynd, Fleming is more likely to have been inspired by the stories he heard than the
Vesper Lynd feelings for her, and even dreams of leaving the service and marrying her. After he is released from the hospital, they go on a holiday together and eventually become lovers. Vesper has a terrible secret, however: She is a double agent working for Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) and only worked with Bond because she was ordered to see that he did not escape Le Chiffre. (Her kidnapping was staged to lure Bond into Le Chiffre's clutches.) Before she met Bond, she had been romantically involved with a Polish RAF operative. This man had been captured by SMERSH, and