Ian Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming (
May 28,
1908 –
August 12,
1964) was an
English author and
journalist, best remembered for writing the
James Bond series of
novels as well as the children's story,
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Ian Fleming was born in
Mayfair,
London, to
Valentine Fleming, a
Member of British Parliament, and his wife Evelyn St. Croix Fleming (née Rose). Ian was the younger brother of the travel writer
Peter Fleming and the older brother of
Michael and Richard Fleming. He is also the grandson of the late
Robert Fleming, founder of the
Scottish American Investment TrustIan was educated at
Eton College and
Sandhurst military academy. He won the
Victor Ludorum, at Eton, two years running, something that had only been achieved once before him. After an early departure from Sandhurst which he found uncongenial, he was sent by his mother to study
languages on the continent, first at
Kitzbühel, Austria, at a small private establishment run by the
Adlerian disciples,
Ernan Forbes Dennis and his American-born wife, the novelist
Phyllis Bottome, to improve his German and prepare him for the Foreign Office exams then at Munich University, Germany and finally to improve his French at the
University of Geneva in
Switzerland.
Fleming was unsuccessful at the attempt to join the Foreign Office and subsequently worked as, firstly as a
sub-editor and
journalist for the
Reuters news service, including for a time in 1933 in
Moscow,
Russia and later as a
stockbroker with Rowe and Pitman, in
Bishopsgate.
World War II
In 1939, on the eve of
World War II,
Rear Admiral John Godfrey, Director of
Naval Intelligence of the Royal Navy, recruited Fleming (who at the time held the rank of reserve
subaltern in the
Black Watch) as personal assistant. Initially commissioned as a
Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve lieutenant, he was subsequently promoted to
Lieutenant commander, then as
Commander.
While in Naval Intelligence, Fleming conceived, and was author of
Operation Ruthless, a plan — left unexecuted — for capturing the German naval version of the Wehrmacht's
Enigma communications encoder. He also came up with an attempt to use British
occultist Aleister Crowley to trick
Rudolph Hess into attempting to contact a faux cell of anti-Churchill Englishmen in Britain. This plan wasn't used, however, as Rudolph Hess had flown to Scotland and parachuted in an attempt to broker peace behind Hitler's back. Anthony Masters's book
The Man Who Was M: The Life of Charles Henry Maxwell Knight asserts Fleming conceived the plan that successfully lured Hess into flying to Scotland — in May 1941, to negotiate Angloâ€"German peace with Churchill — and consequent captivity; this claim has no other source. Fleming also formulated
Operation Goldeneye, a plan to maintain communication with
Gibraltar as well as a plan of defence if
Spain had joined the
Axis Powers and along with Germany had invaded the land.
In June 1941
General William Donovan requested that Fleming write a memorandum describing the structure and functions of a secret service organisation, which Fleming did and was rewarded with a .38 Police Positive Colt revolver with the inscription, "
For Special Services." Parts of this memorandum were later used in the official charter for the
OSS, which was later dissolved after
World War II in 1945. The descendant of the OSS, the
Central Intelligence Agency was proposed and created 2 years later.
In 1942 Fleming formed an
Auxiliary Unit known as 30 AU, which he nicknamed as his own "Red Indians." 30 AU was specifically trained at lock-picking, safe-cracking, various forms of unarmed combat, and other techniques and skills for collecting intelligence. As Fleming's responsibility, he meticulously planned all their raids, going so far as to memorize aerial photographs so that their missions could be planned out to the detail. Although very successful, 30 AU was eventually taken away from Fleming on
D-Day.
It is often reported, and perpetuated by Fleming, that he travelled to
Whitby, Ontario to train at
Camp X, a top secret training school for
Allied forces. This is, however, most likely not true, as no evidence to Fleming being at Camp X has ever been retrieved, nor do any of the staff recall Fleming ever being there.
Writing career
As the DNI's personal assistant, Fleming's intelligence work was the background and experience for writing the James Bond novels. The first Bond novel was
Casino Royale, published in 1953. It is believed the woman character, Vesper Lynd, was inspired by real-life
SOE agent,
Christine Granville; likewise, various
inspirations for James Bond, the protagonist, have been suggested. Besides writing the twelve
novels and nine
short stories featuring James Bond, secret agent 007, Ian Fleming also is known for writing the children's novel,
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. The James Bond books became wildly successful and part of 1950s popular culture even before being filmed, permitting Fleming to retire comfortably to his home he had in
Jamaica, a small cottage he called '
Goldeneye' where he wrote all the Bond novels.
It is not known specifically why Fleming chose that name, however, it could have been done so for a number of reasons. The first is that the estate is located in
Oracabessa, which is
Spanish for 'golden head'. Fleming is also reported to have read
Carson McCullers' novel
Reflections In A Golden Eye around the time he had his house built in Jamaica. More notably, Fleming was in charge of the defence of
Gibraltar during the Second World War; the operation dubbed by Fleming,
Operation Goldeneye.
His 1962 Bond novel,
The Spy Who Loved Me was somewhat of a departure from the other books in the series in that he wrote the book in the
first person from the point of view of a female protagonist, Vivienne Michel. Fleming gave the fictitious character co-author credit.
In 1961 Fleming sold the film rights to his existing and future James Bond novels and short stories to
Harry Saltzman who eventually co-produced with
Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli a film based on
Dr. No (1962). Fleming suggested his neighbour, actor Sir
Noel Coward to play
Dr. Julius No and
David Niven for the role of Bond. Some sources make claims and wild speculation to other Fleming favourites such as
Roger Moore for the role of Bond and Fleming's cousin
Christopher Lee for the role of Dr. No and even Bond himself. Although Lee was not selected for either role, he was later cast as the eponymous villain from
The Man with the Golden Gun,
Francisco Scaramanga.
Dr. No became a huge hit, and was followed by
From Russia with Love (1963), which would be the last Bond picture Fleming would live to see released.
He was seen during the
Istanbul Pogroms, which many
Greek and some
Turkish scholars blamed
Britain's secret hand behind its orchestration. His account, entitled "The Great Riot of Istanbul", appeared in
Sunday Times on
11 September 1955.
Later life
Ian Fleming was also a noted
bibliophile, and put together an important library on the theme of significant books in the history of western civilization, books which had "started something". He particularly collected books relating to science and technology such as
On the Origin of Species, but also included such milestones as
Mein Kampf and
Scouting for Boys. He was a major lender to the 1963 exhibition
Printing and the Mind of Man and 600 books from his collection are now in the Lilly Library at
Indiana University.
Early on the morning of
August 12,
1964, Ian Fleming died of a
heart attack in
Canterbury, Kent, at age 56, and was interred in the churchyard cemetery in the village of
Sevenhampton, near
Swindon. His wife Anne Geraldine Mary Fleming (
1913â€"
1981), and their only son, Caspar Robert Fleming (
1952â€"
1975), were later buried next to him. Ian's heart attack was most likely the result of his lifestyle of heavy drinking and heavy smoking (seventy cigarettes and a bottle of
gin a day) in addition to the added stress of the
Thunderball court cases of the early 60s in which Fleming was sued by
Kevin McClory for adapting a screenplay that was co-written by, most notably, Fleming, McClory, and
Jack Whittingham.
James Bond novels
Notes1 First U.S. paperback edition was retitled
You Asked for It.
2 First U.S. paperback edition was retitled
Too Hot to Handle.
3 Short story collection: (i) "From a View to a Kill," (ii) "For Your Eyes Only," (iii) "Risico," (iv) "Quantum of Solace", and (v) "The Hildebrand Rarity."
4 Subject of a legal battle over story credit which led to the book's storyline also being credited to
Kevin McClory and
Jack Whittingham; see
the controversy over Thunderball5 Fleming gives co-author credit to "Vivienne Michel", the fictional heroine of the book; Fleming refused to allow a paperback edition to be published in the UK, but one was eventually published after his death. His agreement with Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman only allowed the use of the title for a movie.
6 For years, it has been alleged that
Kingsley Amis, and/or others, completed this novel as Fleming died before a finished manuscript was created. Many Fleming biographers dispute this; see
the controversy over ''The Man with the Golden Gun.
7 Posthumously compiled short story collection. Originally published with two stories: (i) "Octopussy" and (ii) "The Living Daylights". The 1967 paperback edition's title was shortened to
Octopussy and a third story, "The Property of a Lady", increased its page count. In the 1990s, the collection's longer, original title was restored, and with the 2002 edition, the story, "007 in New York" (originally published in some editions of
Thrilling Cities (see below) was added.
Children's story
*
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1964)
Non-fiction
*
The Diamond Smugglers (1957)
*
Thrilling Cities (1963; the American editions contain the short story "007 in New York")
Unfinished/unpublished works
* Fleming kept a scrapbook containing notes and ideas for future James Bond stories. It included fragments of possible short stories or novels featuring Bond that were never published. Excerpts from some of these can be found in
The Life of Ian Fleming by
John Pearson[
1].
* The author
Geoffrey Jenkins worked with Fleming on a James Bond story idea between 1957 and 1964. After Fleming's death, Jenkins was commissioned by Bond publishers Glidrose Productions to turn this story,
Per Fine Ounce into a novel, but it was never published.
Goldeneye: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming,
1989. A
TV movie starring
Charles Dance as Ian Fleming. The movie focuses on Fleming's life during
World War II, and his love life that led to the creation of James Bond.
Spymaker: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming,
1990. A TV movie starring
Jason Connery (son of
Sean) as the writer in a fanciful dramatisation of his career in British intelligence which is depicted with the kind of Bond-like action and glamour that Fleming secretly wished it could have been.
*
Ian Fleming: Bondmaker,
2005. A TV docudrama first broadcast on
BBC in August 2005. [
2]
*
The controversy over Thunderball — details of the lawsuit between Fleming and
Kevin McClory over possible plagiarism as well as the film rights to the story and the character of James Bond that lasted for decades after Fleming's death.
*
The controversy over The Man with the Golden Gun — details of the controversy surrounding Ian Fleming's final novel that was published after his death in 1965.
*
The Life of Ian Fleming, the first biography of Ian Fleming, written by his assistant at the London
Sunday Times,
John Pearson, in 1966.
*
Ian Fleming: The Man Behind James Bond, the second biography of Ian Fleming, written by
Andrew Lycett, in 1996.
*
Inside Camp X by Lynn Philip Hodgson, with a foreword by Secret Agent 'Andy Durovecz (2003) - ISBN 0-9687062-0-7
*
Ian Fleming Publications*
The Ian Fleming Foundation - a group dedicated to the study of Ian Fleming and his works. Publishers of
Goldeneye magazine and other publications.
*
Ian Fleming bibliography of James Bond first editions
*
Ian Lancaster Fleming biography
