Ian Fleming - The Man Behind James Bond

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British journalist, secret service agent, writer, whose most famous creation was the superhero James Bond, agent 007. Fleming spent some years with British Intelligence, but his books are far from reality - they offer colorful locations, beautiful women, and exciting and inventive adventures. Nowadays the character of James Bond is as integral part of the popular culture as Winnie-the-Pooh or Tarzan. Although Bond's attitude toward's women is considered dated, the books have not lost their popularity.

"It was a dark, clean-cut face, with a three-inch scar showing whitely down the sunburned skin of the right cheek. The eyes were wide and level under straight, rather long black brows. The hair was black, parted on the left, and carelessly brushed so that a thick black comma fell down over the right eyebrow. The longish straight nose ran down to a short upper lip below which was a wide and finely drawn but cruel mouth. The line of jaw was straight and firm. A section of dark suit, white short and black knitted tie completed the picture." (James Bond in "From Russia, with Love", 1957)

Ian Fleming was born in London on May 25, 1908 as the son of Major Valentine Fleming, a Conservative M.P., who was killed in World War I, and Evelyn St. Croix Fleming. He was educated at Eton, Sandhurst. After resigning from Sandhurst, which infuriated his mother, Fleming studied languages at the universities of Munich and Geneva. He took the Foreign Service exam, but found himself at the age of twenty-three without a career. From 1929 to 1933 he worked as a journalist in Moscow, then a banker and a stock-broker in London (1935 to 1939).

During World War II Fleming was a high ranking naval officer in the British intelligence. Owing in part to his facility with languages, he was a personal assistant to Admiral John H. Godfrey, who served as the model for James Bond's commanding officer, "M". Fleming organized the No. 30 Assault Unit - the Germans had successfully used similar Intelligence assault unit in Crete in 1941. During a training exercise Fleming had to swim underwater and attach a mine to a tanker. This act became material for the climax of "Live and Let Die" (1954). After the war Fleming was a foreign manager of Kemsley Newspapers. He held this post until the newspaper group became Thomson Newspapers in 1959.

Fleming's first book was not a spy novel but a foreign correspondent's guide-book which was issued for the education of his staff. In 1952 he married Anne, Lady Rothmere, in Jamaica, where most of the Bond books were written after his marriage. The first Bond adventure, "Casino Royale", appeared in 1953, and it was followed by 13 others. "Casino Royale" was partly based on Fleming's less fortunate gambling experience in Lisbon during the war. The work set up what became the basic structure for most of the Bond books. Bond travels to some colorful place where he meets one or two beautiful women who have secrets in their past. Sometimes Bond is captured by his enemies but always he destroys the villain with delusions of grandeur, saves the world, and gets the good girl.

James Bond (the name was taken from that of an American ornithologist), is the son of a Highland Scots father and a Swiss mother. Both of Bond's parents were killed in a climbing accident when he was eleven, and an inheritance of L1000 a year let him add some other educational experiences to his boarding school years. At the age of sixteen Bond lost his virginity in Paris. He joined in the late 1930s the British secret service, but switched to the navy when the war broke out, attaining the rank of commander. Bond is a skilled golfer and the best cardplayer, expert driver and a crack shot. Among his friends is American Felix Leiter from the CIA. Bond's favorite drink is vodka martini, shaken, not stirred, and he trusts on Walther PPK, originally designed for the German plain-clothes police. However, "Bond mythology" is now mixed with elements from the films. In 2000 appeared an illustrated book, James Bond: The Secret World of 007 by Alastair Dougall, which do not mention the writer Ian Fleming - in tune with the idea of the book. Dougall's work sheds light on '"Agent Double-O-Seven and, perhaps most exciting of all, the extraordinary vehicles and gadgetry supplied by Q Branch for his use "in the field".' The consultant editor was Dave Worrall, who founded The James Bond Collectors Club.

"From Russia, with Love" (1957) broke the formula: 007 appeared in the eleventh chapter. President John F. Kennedy listed it in 1961 as one of his favorite books. In the story Tatiana Romanova, a beautiful Russian intelligence clerk, engineers a plot which would lure Bond to Istanbul. At the same time the Russian SMERSH agency is planning to get rid of the almost "mythological force upon whom the British Secret Service depends." Bond is helped in Istanbul by Darko Kerim, the local station chief. Tatiana meets Bond - against all suspicions she has fallen in love with him. They travel through the Balkans on the Orient Express, where they are pursued by Russian agents. Bond wins Donavan "Red" Grant, an executioner, and Rosa Klebb, who has deadly boots. The novel was a hit, and reviews were generally favorable. The film version was made at London's Pinewood Studios and on locations in Turkey, Scotland, and Madrid.

"Less dependent on the fantastic element that would predominate in later Bond pictures, it resembles, in the opinion of Bond biographer John Brosnan, more of a Hitchcockian style thriller like "North by Northwest". In general, this is a grittier, more "realistic," relatively less tongue-in-cheek James Bond - before technology, scenery, and endless strings on "Bond Girls" became the foci of the productions." (from "Novels into Film" by John C. Tibbetts and James M. Welsh, 1999)

In "Doctor No" (1958) Fleming combined elements of science fiction in the story. The villain, Dr. No., has developed a radio beam and intends to deflect U.S. test missiles from their projected course. "Live and Let Die" introduced Mr. Big, a new member of SMERSH, the enemy agency Bond so often found working against. Other famous villains include Auric Goldfinger from "Goldfinger" (1959), KGB killers Rosa Klebb and Donovan Grant ("From Russia, with Love") and Scaramanga ("The Man with the Golden Gun", 1965). Bond's arch nemesis was the half-Polish, half-Greek Ernst Stavro Blofeld, the founder of SPECTRE, an acronym for Special Executive for Counterespionage, Terrorism, Revenge, and Extortion. Blofeld appeared in three novels: "Thunderball" (1961), "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1963), and "You Only Live Twice" (1964). In the latter book the character of Dikko Henderson was based on Richard Hughes, the Sunday Times correspondent in the Far East. Also other Fleming's friends were put into Bond books.

In 1956 Fleming started selling his novels to be adapted for a comic strip. He was asked to contribute to a series of articles for London's Sunday Times on diamond smuggling. The articles appeared in book form in 1957. Fleming published a successful children's book about a magical car, "Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang". "But some motorcars - mine, for instance, and perhaps yours - are different. If you get to like them and understand them, if you are kind to them and don't scratch their paint and bang their doors, if you fill them up and pump them up when they need it, of you keep them clean and polish and out the rain and snow as much as possible, you will find, you MAY find, that they become almost like persons - MORE than just ordinary persons - MAGICAL PERSONS!!!" The story was adapted into a musical film in 1968. Fleming wrote the book for his son, Caspar, who committed suicide at the age of 23.

Fleming also contributed to many periodicals under the pseudonym Atticus. Among his non-fiction is the travel book "Thrilling Cities" (1963). It was based on articles published in Sunday Times in 1959-60. Fleming's first journey, paid by Roy Thomson, the publisher, took him around the world, and the second to European cities. His text was edited in the newspaper but in the book it appeared in original length. According to Fleming, the best hotel in Honk Kong is Peninsula Court. In Japan a traveler must remember that sake should be taken warm and in Monte Carlo the best casino is Beaulieu. Fleming did not like New York - he felt that it is losing its heart - but in Hamburg he followed with enthusiasm mud wrestling in the middle of the night.

"When Bond was in Paris he invariably stuck to the same addresses. He stayed at the Terminus Nord, because he liked station hotels and because this was the least pretentious and most anonymous of them. He had luncheon at the Café de la Paix, the Rotunde or the Dôme, because the food was good enough and it amused him to watch the people. If he wanted a solid drink he had it at Harry's Bar, both because of the solidity of the drinks and because, on his first ignorant visit to Paris at the age of sixteen, he had done what Harry' s advertisement in the Continental Daily Mail had told him to do and said to his taxi-driver 'Sank Roo Doe Noo'. That had started one of the memorable evenings of his life, culminating in the loss, almost simultaneous, of his virginity and his notecase." (from "For Your Eyes Only", 1960)

The spring of 1963 saw the publication of "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", including a limited edition of 250. The cover featured the Bond family coat of arms complete with the motto 'The World Is Not Enough.' In between writing Fleming developed a passion for treasurehunting, not merely in the Caribbean Islands and Seychelles, where he followed old pirate's maps and tales, but also in England. In spite of warning's from doctors, Fleming did not give up his outdoor activities, and the final heart attack which ended his life came at the Royal St. George's Sandwich golf course in Kent on 12 August, 1964. "The Man with the Golden Gun", finished by Fleming's literary executors, was published posthumously. "Octopussy", a collection containing two of Fleming's Bond stories, appeared in 1966.

In 1981 John Gardner started to write James Bond books and later the series was continued by Raymond Benson. Also Robert Markham (pseudonym of Kingsley Amis) has written 007 sequels.

Ian Fleming novels and stories:

1.Casino Royale (1952/1953)
2.Live and Let Die (1954)
3.Moonraker (1955)
4.Diamonds are Forever (1956)
5.From Russia, with Love (1957)
6.The Diamond Smugglers (1957, non Bond novel)
7.Doctor No (1958)
8.Goldfinger (1959)
9.For Your Eyes Only (1960, five stories)
10.Thunderball (1961)
11.The Spy Who Loved Me (1962)
12.On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1963)
13.Thrilling Cities (1963, non Bond novel)
14.You Only Live Twice (1964)
15.Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang (1964, non Bond novel)
16.The Man with the Golden Gun (1965)
17.Octopussy and the Living Daylights (1966,
with extra story in a 1967 edition)

For further reading: "Alias James Bond - The Life of Ian Fleming by John Pearson" (1966); "The Man With the Golden Pen" by Eleanor Perline and Dennis Perline (1966); "Ian Fleming: The Man Behind James Bond" by Andrew Lycett (1996 ) "17F: The Life of Ian Fleming" by Donald McCormick; "Ian Fleming" by Bruce A. Rosenberg; "Ian Fleming" by Iain Campbell.

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