Ian Fleming

Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British writer of the mid-twentieth century, best known for the postwar James Bond series of spy novels. He was born on 28 May 1908 in Mayfair, London, into a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co. His father, Valentine Fleming, was the Member of Parliament for Henley from 1910 until his death on the Western Front in 1917. Winston Churchill wrote the obituary that appeared in The Times, and the loss of his father came early in Fleming’s life, during the First World War.

Fleming’s education took him through some of the institutions associated with Britain’s ruling class and military life. He attended Durnford School in Dorset, where he did not enjoy the food, hardship, or bullying. At Eton College he was not a high academic achiever, but he excelled at athletics, held the title Victor Ludorum for two years, and edited the school magazine The Wyvern. He later spent less than a year at Sandhurst, leaving without a commission. After time at a private school in Kitzbühel, he studied briefly at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München and the University of Geneva, improving his language skills along the way.

Before becoming a novelist, Fleming tried several careers. In 1931 he became a sub-editor and journalist for Reuters, a post arranged after his mother lobbied Sir Roderick Jones, the head of the news agency. In 1933 he went to Moscow to cover the Stalinist show trial of six engineers from Metropolitan-Vickers. While there, he applied for an interview with Joseph Stalin and received a personally signed note apologising that Stalin could not attend. Fleming later moved into banking and stockbroking, first with Cull & Co. and then with Rowe and Pitman, but he was unsuccessful in both roles.

The Second World War gave Fleming experiences that would feed directly into his fiction. While working for Britain’s Naval Intelligence Division, he was involved in planning Operation Goldeneye and in the planning and oversight of two intelligence units, 30 Assault Unit and T-Force. The background, detail, and depth of the Bond novels drew heavily from this wartime service and from his years as a journalist. His private life also left marks on his imagination. After Muriel Wright, with whom he had a long-term relationship, died during a bombing raid in London in 1944, Fleming was overcome with guilt and remorse; she is generally thought to have inspired women he later created in his novels.

Fleming wrote his first Bond novel, Casino Royale, in 1952, when he was 44. It was a success, and three print runs were commissioned to meet demand. Between 1953 and 1966, eleven Bond novels and two collections of short stories followed. Their central figure, James Bond, is an officer in the Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6, also known by the code number 007 and as a commander in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve. The Bond books became one of the best-selling fictional series of all time, with more than 100 million copies sold worldwide. Fleming also wrote the children’s story Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang in 1964 and two works of non-fiction.

Fleming married Anne Charteris, and they had a son, Caspar. A heavy smoker and drinker for most of his life, he died from complications of heart disease on 12 August 1964, at the age of 56. Two of his Bond books were published after his death, and other writers later continued the series. His creation has appeared in film twenty-seven times, played by six actors in the official film series. For readers drawn to sharp lines, danger, style, and controlled tension, Fleming’s words still carry the stamp of a man who knew journalism, intelligence work, and the appetite of the postwar public for a new kind of spy story.