"I need the dullest name I can find," pondered Ian Fleming as he looked around his Jamaican home 'Goldeneye'. He didn't have to look too far, for on his coffee table was one of his favorite books Birds of the West Indies written by an ornithologist named James Bond. The year was 1952 and Fleming was soon to be married to Anne Rothermere at the age of 43. To soften the shock, Fleming relieved his stress by creating a spy novel that would change British literature and films as well as millions of lives for years to come. The novel soon became Casino Royale and OO7 was born.
Ian Lancaster Fleming was born on May 28, 1908 in London, England. His parents were Valentine and Evelyn Fleming. Ian was a precocious and mischievous child and disliked everything his family loved such as horses and dogs and family outings. His father was very patriotic and was a major in the army. He was killed in action in 1917. His mother, a very dominant and independent woman, sent both Ian and his brother Peter off to Eton in 1921. Ian loathed Eton and felt out of place. But despite this he excelled in athletic games such as track where he was named 'champion of the games'. At eighteen he broke his nose playing football and when it had healed it gave his features a worldly look. Unfortunately, his marks dropped and his mother pulled him out of Eton and enrolled him in the Royal Military College at Sandhurst.
Fleming did very well at Sandhurst and by 1927 he had been placed on His Majesty's List for the King's Royal Rifle Corps. However, he chose to give up his commission and later went to the Universities of Munich and Geneva where he learned to speak French, German and Russian. It is during this time that Ian discovered his passion for writing and even wrote a short story called "Death On Two Occasions."
By the early 1930s, Fleming took a job with Reuters News Service. He quickly learned the trade of a journalist and eventually was assigned to cover an important trial in Moscow of British citizens who had been accused of spying against Russia.
By 1933, Fleming had quit his position with Reuters and became a stockbroker with merchant bankers. During this time he founded a gentlemen's club called 'The Cercle' and continued his bachelor nightlife with many different lady friends.
During World War II, Fleming worked in Naval Intelligence and was under Rear Admiral John Godfrey. Godfrey was perhaps the inspiration for the character of Bond's superior 'M'. During the war Fleming met famous people such as Sir William Stephenson, the man called "Intrepid" and Ernest Cuneo who would travel with Fleming to places that eventually ended up in his novels.
By 1945, Fleming, now discharged from the military, had taken the position of Foreign Manager at Kemsley Newspapers. It is here Fleming did some of his best writing especially about buried and sunken treasure stories. He also had bought some land in Jamaica and built his house where he would retire every year to write the latest chapters of Her Majesty's best secret agent, James Bond.
Between the years of 1952 and 1964, Ian Fleming wrote twelve novels and eight short stories featuring his famous character. Nearly all of them have been made into films. He also wrote the children's classic Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang.
Ian and Anne Fleming gave birth to a son, Casper in August 1952 and soon afterwards his marriage became stagnant and distant. His Bond stories seemed to reflect this frustration. So much so that the sexual relationships which developed between Bond and his heroines were distant and shallow. Even when Fleming had his literary hero married off, the relationship would be tragically short-lived. Anne never gave Ian the appreciation of his work that his fans would come to love. At one point, Fleming became tired with his hero and decided to kill him off in the final sentence. But it was the encouragement from friends like novelist Raymond Chandler, who would go on record by saying to Ian that his stories were well done thrillers, that Fleming would certainly resurrect his hero in the next novel.
Through the last years of Fleming's life, he would be faced with the frustrations of trying to get his books made into films. At one point he met film producer Kevin McClory and, with the help of screenwriter Jack Whittingham, they would work on several screen treatments that pitted OO7 against a terrorist organization known as SPECTRE. When their efforts seemed fruitless, Fleming decided to write his next novel using the ideas from the screen treatment. Although in the past, Fleming had translated screenplays that failed into Bond stories. This time it cost him dearly and McClory sued Fleming and won the literary rights of the novel Thunderball. With the stress of the trial affecting Fleming, he would have his first of two heart attacks.
While he was recuperating in the hospital, Fleming was approached by Harry Saltzman and Albert R. (Cubby) Broccoli. They wanted to purchase all of his novels and begin filming the first Bond movie. Fleming had finally arrived. He sold all his stories except Casino Royale and Thunderball (Casino Royale was bought by Gregory Ratoff years earlier and Thunderball belonged to McClory). The Bond machine was finally moving and with the help of President John F. Kennedy, who listed the novel From Russia with Love as one of his top ten favorite books, Ian Fleming was going to be a wealthy man.
Doctor No and From Russia with Love were blockbuster hits and Fleming was looking to the future of James Bond. He incorporated many hints of Hollywood in his later novels such as Ursula Andress vacationing at Piz Gloria in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Actor David Niven is mentioned as Kissy Suzuki's mentor in You Only Live Twice. And Sean Connery's Scottish background is added to Bond's obituary at the end of You Only Live Twice.
During the summer of 1964, Fleming visited the set of the third Bond movie, Goldfinger. Little did he know that it would be this film that would make his literary character famous for generations to come. On August 12, 1964, Ian Fleming died from his second major heart attack at the age of fifty-six. He never lived long enough to see the popularity of his incredible creation.
Continue to the first James Bond novel
