Francisco Scaramanga cannot whistle has homosexual tendencies. As with Blofeld, the name is believed to have come from a schoolmate of Fleming's, George Ambrosios (Ambrose) Scaramanga. In the film "The Man with the Golden Gun", Francisco is a high-priced assassin, supposedly the best in the world, charging one million dollars per kill. He is best known for being "The man with the golden gun", for using only bullets made of gold in a (fictional) 4.2 mm cartridge with a disassemblable golden handgun made of a gold cigarette case, gold cigarette lighter, gold fountain pen and gold cufflink as the gun's trigger. All
The Man with the Golden Gun (novel) published in the UK on 1 April 1965 by Jonathan Cape, was 221 pages long and cost eighteen shillings. Cover artist Richard Chopping undertook the cover design again and was paid 300 guineas for the artwork. "The Man with the Golden Gun" was published in the US in August 1965, was 183 pages long and cost $4.50. Even before the US edition was published, "The Man with the Golden Gun" was ninth place on the best-seller lists, with 80,000 pre-orders for the hardback version. Critics did not praise "The Man with the Golden Gun", although much of the criticism was