Deathday: Ian Fleming 1908-1964 British Author & Creator of James Bond

Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British author and journalist. Fleming is best remembered for creating the character of James Bond and chronicling Bond's adventures in twelve novels and nine short stories. With over 100 million copies sold worldwide, the Bond novels are in the list of best-selling book series [1] Additionally, Fleming wrote the children's story Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and two non-fiction books.

Early life

Fleming was born in Mayfair, London, to Valentine Fleming, a Member of Parliament, and his wife Evelyn St. Croix Rose. Fleming was the younger brother of travel writer Peter Fleming and the older brother of Michael and Richard Fleming (1910–77). He also had an illegitimate half-sister, the cellist Amaryllis Fleming. He was the grandson of Scottish financier Robert Fleming, who founded the Scottish American Investment Trust and merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co. (since 2000 part of JP Morgan Chase). He was step-cousin to actor Christopher Lee and actress Dame Celia Johnson was his sister-in-law (wife of his brother Peter), and great-uncle to the composer Alan Fleming-Baird.[2] His nephew Matthew Fleming played cricket for England.[3]

Fleming was educated at Durnford School, a Public School on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, which was next to the estate of the Bond family whose motto is The World Is Not Enough.[4] He also attended Sunningdale School in Berkshire, Eton College and Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He was Victor Ludorum at Eton two years running, the second person ever to do so. He found Sandhurst to be uncongenial, and after an early departure from there, his mother sent him to study languages on the continent. He first went to a small private establishment in Kitzbühel, Austria, run by the Adlerian disciples Ernan Forbes Dennis and his American wife, the novelist Phyllis Bottome, to improve his German and prepare him for the Foreign Office exams; then to Munich University, and, finally, to the University of Geneva to improve his French. He was unsuccessful in his application to join the Foreign Office, and subsequently worked as a sub-editor and journalist for the Reuters news service, including time in 1933 in Moscow, and then as a stockbroker with Rowe and Pitman, in Bishopsgate.

World War II

In 1939, on the eve of World War II, Rear Admiral John Henry Godfrey, Director of Naval Intelligence of the Royal Navy, recruited Fleming (then a reserve subaltern in the Black Watch) as his personal assistant. He was commissioned first as a Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve lieutenant and subsequently promoted to Lieutenant Commander, then Commander. His known codename was 17F.[5]

In 1940, Fleming and Godfrey contacted Kenneth Mason, Professor of Geography at Oxford University, about preparing reports devoted to the geography of countries engaged in military operations. These reports were the precursors of the Naval Intelligence Division Geographical Handbook Series produced between 1941 and 1946.[6]

He instigated a plan named Operation Ruthless to obtain a German Naval Enigma documentation by crashing a captured German aeroplane into the English Channel, where the British crew, dressed in Luftwaffe uniforms, could be rescued by a German patrol boat. The "survivors" would then kill the German crew, and hijack the ship thus obtaining the Enigma secrets. Much to the annoyance of Alan Turing and Peter Twinn at Bletchley Park, it never actually happened. His niece Lucy Fleming in "The Bond Correspondence" on BBC Radio Four on 24 May 2008, stated that the reason given was that an official at the Royal Air Force pointed out that if they were to drop a downed Heinkel bomber in the English Channel, it would sink rather than float.

He also conceived of a plan to use British occultist Aleister Crowley to trick Rudolf Hess into attempting to contact a fake cell of anti-Churchill Englishmen in Britain, but this plan was not used because Rudolf Hess had flown to Scotland in an attempt to broker peace behind Hitler's back. Anthony Masters' book The Man Who Was M: The Life of Charles Henry Maxwell Knight asserts Fleming conceived the plan that lured Hess into flying to Scotland, in May 1941, to negotiate Anglo–German peace with Churchill, and resulted in Hess's capture: this claim has no other source.[7]

Fleming also formulated Operation Goldeneye, a plan to maintain communication with Gibraltar as well as a plan of defence in the unlikely event that Spain joined the Axis Powers and, together with Germany, invaded the Mediterranean colony.

30 Assault Unit

In 1944, Fleming gained control of a specialist unit of commandos, known as 30 Commando, or 30 Assault Unit (30AU). He neither founded the organisation, nor was he their field commander. He was, however, the planner. As an intelligence officer at the Naval Intelligence Division (NID), he had an idea of what information and equipment the enemy had that was of interest to the Allies and where it was likely to be located. He detailed the "scalps" he required and his "Red Indians," as he called them, set off to acquire them. The basic idea lay in the work of the Abwehr field units, which had been noted in the early campaigns of the war and now taken up with a vengeance by their enemy.

30 Assault Unit were teams of trained commandos, specialising in targeting enemy headquarters, to secure documentation and items of equipment with an intelligence value, that the ordinary Allied soldier, or even commando, might ignore or even destroy. They trained in lock picking, safe cracking, unarmed combat, and general techniques and skills for collecting intelligence. The unit contained some of the most "gung-ho" operatives in the commandos. The term AU has no connection with the Auxiliary Units in which Fleming's elder brother had served.

The unit did not operate as a single unit, but as specialist teams that would attach themselves to whatever main force would get them closest to their individual targets. In the final stage, the teams were trained and equipped to fight their own way into a headquarters building and secure whatever items they required, before the enemy extracted it themselves, or destroyed it before leaving. To adapt a phrase, while they may not have relied on fear, they did rely on surprise, toughness and ruthless efficiency. Prior to D-Day, Fleming had only indirect access, as most of the action was away in the Mediterranean. However, because of their successes in Sicily and Italy, 30AU (based at the Marine Hotel, Littlehampton, West Sussex) became greatly trusted by naval intelligence. Having seen the scope of its achievements and its potential, with the right support and the right direction, to deliver even more, the unit was much enlarged and it was given direct tasks: specific items and documents to acquire. Fleming was the man who would give these specific directives.[8]

Fleming visited 30AU in the field during and after Operation Overlord, especially after the Cherbourg attack. He was concerned that the unit had been incorrectly used as a main line commando force, rather than in its intelligence gathering role. This wasted the men's specialist skills; hazarded them on a task not appropriate to the risk; threatened either the total loss, or devaluation through delay, of the intelligence priorities. From then on, the management of the units was revised.[9]

T-Force

Following the success of 30 Assault Unit, it was decided to establish a "Target Force", normally referred to as T-Force. Fleming sat on the committee that selected targets for the unit, helping to create what were known as the "Black Books" which were issued to officers of the unit. The infantry component of T-Force was formed by the 5th Battalion of the King's Regiment. It was responsible for securing targets of interest to the British military and included nuclear laboratories, gas research centres and rocket scientists. The unit's most notable coup was the advance on the German port of Kiel where it captured the research centre where the engines for German rockets, missiles, jet fighters and high speed U Boats had been designed. Ian Fleming used elements of this story in his 1955 James Bond novel Moonraker. The story of T-Force and Fleming's connection to its work remained unknown until revealed in Sean Longden's book on the subject.[10]

Writing career

In his position as the NID's personal assistant, Fleming's intelligence work provided the background for his spy novels. In 1953, he published his first novel, Casino Royale. In it he introduced secret agent James Bond, also famously known by his code number, 007. Legend has it that Camp X (a Second World War paramilitary and commando training installation) included Fleming, though there is evidence against this claim.[11] The character of James Bond was supposedly based on Camp X's Sir William Stephenson and what Fleming learned from him.[12] Two men have supplied the basis for Bond's character: naval officer Patrick Dalzel-Job, and Fleming's brother, Peter.[13] In Casino Royale, Bond appears with the beautiful heroine Vesper Lynd, who was modelled on SOE agent Krystyna Skarbek.[14] Ideas for his characters and settings for Bond came from his time at Boodle's. Blades, M's club (at which Bond is an occasional guest), is partially modelled on Boodle's. The name of Bond's arch enemy, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, was based on a fellow member's name.[15] Bond's name came from famed ornithologist James Bond, the son of the Bond family who allowed Fleming the use of their estate in Jamaica to write.[16] The Bonds were wealthy manufacturers whose estate outside of Philadelphia, Pa. eventually became the grounds of Gwynedd Mercy College. Fleming used the name after seeing Bond's Birds of the West Indies (1936).[17]

Initially, Fleming's Bond novels were not bestsellers in America, but when President John F. Kennedy included From Russia With Love on a list of his favourite books, sales quickly jumped.[18] Fleming wrote 14 Bond books in all: Casino Royale (1953), Live and Let Die (1954), Moonraker (1955), Diamonds Are Forever (1956), From Russia with Love (1957), Dr. No (1958), Goldfinger (1959), For Your Eyes Only (short story collection, 1960), Thunderball (1961), The Spy Who Loved Me (1962), On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1963), You Only Live Twice (1964), The Man with the Golden Gun (1965), and Octopussy and The Living Daylights (short story collection, 1966).

In the late 1950s, the financial success of Fleming's James Bond series allowed him to retire to Goldeneye (above), his estate in Saint Mary Parish, Jamaica. The name of the house and estate where he wrote his novels has many sources. Notably, Ian Fleming himself cited Operation Goldeneye, a plan to bedevil the Nazis should the Germans enter Spain during World War II. He also cited the 1941 novel, Reflections in a Golden Eye by Carson McCullers. The location of the property may also have been a factor: Oracabessa, from the Spanish for "golden head." There is also a Spanish tomb on the property with a bit of carving that looks like an eye on one side. It is likely that most or all of these factors played a part in Fleming's naming his Jamaican home. In Ian Fleming's interview published in Playboy in December 1964, he states, "I had happened to be reading Reflections in a Golden Eye by Carson McCullers, and I'd been involved in an operation called Goldeneye during the war: the defence of Gibraltar, supposing that the Spaniards had decided to attack it; and I was deeply involved in the planning of countermeasures which would have been taken in that event. Anyway, I called my place Goldeneye." The estate, a few miles away from that of Fleming's friend Noel Coward, is now the centerpiece of an exclusive resort by the same name.

The Spy Who Loved Me (1962) departs stylistically from other books in the Bond series as it is written in the first person perspective of the (fictional) protagonist, Vivienne Michel, whom Fleming credits as co-author. It is the story of her life, up until when James Bond serendipitously rescues her from the wrong circumstance at the wrong place and time.

Besides writing twelve novels and nine short stories featuring James Bond, Fleming also had a hand in creating another spy series, The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,[19] and wrote the children's novel Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. He also wrote a guide to some of the world's most exciting cities of the 1950s, Thrilling Cities (originally a round-the-world series for The Sunday Times newspaper of London), and a study of international crime, The Diamond Smugglers. During the Istanbul Pogroms, which many Greek and some Turkish scholars attributed to secret orchestrations by Britain, Fleming wrote an account of the events, "The Great Riot of Istanbul," which was published in the The Times on 11 September 1955.

In 1961, he sold the film rights to his already published as well as future James Bond novels and short stories to Harry Saltzman, who, with Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli, co-produced the film version of Dr. No (1962). For the cast, Fleming suggested friend and neighbour Noël Coward as the villain Dr. Julius No, and David Niven or, later, Roger Moore as James Bond. Both were rejected in favour of Sean Connery, who was both Broccoli and Saltzman's choice (although Moore would later become Bond between 1973 and 1985). Fleming had also suggested his cousin, Christopher Lee, either as Dr. No or even as James Bond. Although Lee was selected for neither role, in 1974 he portrayed assassin Francisco Scaramanga, the eponymous villain of The Man with the Golden Gun. Fleming at first disapproved of Connery taking the role of his creation.

Dr. No was far more of a success than even Saltzman or Broccoli had expected: an instant worldwide sensation that sparked a spy craze in film and television that lasted through the rest of the 1960s and beyond. The film series continued, as planned, with ever-increasing budgets and profits. It continues to this day, including token references to Fleming and his writing. Dr. No was followed by From Russia with Love (1963), with twice the budget of its predecessor. This second James Bond film was to be the last that Ian Fleming saw. Having visited the set, he had come to approve of the casting and even wrote a Scottish lineage for Bond into his later works, in deference to Connery's portrayal. Close viewing of the Orient Express sequence appears to show Fleming himself alongside the track, caught on camera during his visit to the shoot in Europe. The third Bond film, Goldfinger (1964), was in production at the time of the author's passing and he had again visited the set, at Pinewood Studios, and viewed rushes with the producers.

Later life and death

“I have always smoked and drunk and loved too much. In fact I have lived not too long but too much. One day the Iron Crab will get me. Then I shall have died of living too much.”

Fleming was a bibliophile who collected a library of books that had, in his opinion, "started something," and therefore were significant in the history of Western civilization. He concentrated on science and technology, e.g. On the Origin of Species, but also included other significant works ranging from Mein Kampf to Scouting for Boys. He was a major lender to the 1963 exhibition Printing and the Mind of Man. Some six hundred books from Fleming's collection are held in the Lilly Library at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, U.S.A.

He was a member of Boodle's, the gentleman's club in St. James's Street, from 1944 until his death in 1964.[20]

His marriage in Jamaica in 1952 to Anne Charteris, granddaughter of the 11th Earl of Wemyss and former second wife of the second Viscount Rothermere and widow of the third Baron O'Neill, was witnessed by his friend, playwright Noel Coward. This made him a brother in law of the Scottish novelist, Hugo Charteris.

In March 1960, Fleming met John F. Kennedy through Marion Oates Leiter who was a mutual friend and invited both to dinner. Leiter had introduced Kennedy to Fleming's books during his recovery from an operation in 1955. After dinner, Fleming related his ideas on discrediting Fidel Castro; these were reported to Central Intelligence Agency chief Allen Welsh Dulles, who gave the ideas serious consideration.[21]

In 1961, Fleming, a heavy smoker and heavy drinker, suffered a heart attack.

Fleming died at the age of 56 after another heart attack on the morning of 12 August 1964, in Canterbury, Kent, England, and was later buried in the churchyard of Sevenhampton village, near Swindon. Upon their own deaths, Fleming's widow, Anne Geraldine Mary Fleming (1913–81), and son Caspar Robert Fleming (1952–75), were buried next to him. Caspar committed suicide with a drug overdose.

After Fleming's death, his literary executors periodically hired other authors to continue the James Bond novels. They were Kingsley Amis (writing as "Robert Markham"), John Gardner, and Raymond Benson. In observance of what would have been Fleming's 100th birthday in 2008, Ian Fleming Publications commissioned Sebastian Faulks to write a new Bond novel entitled Devil May Care. The book, released in May 2008, is credited to "Sebastian Faulks, writing as Ian Fleming."[22] Also in 2008, The Times ranked Fleming fourteenth on their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".[23]

James Bond books

1. Casino Royale 1953
2. Live and Let Die 1954
3. Moonraker 1955
4. Diamonds Are Forever 1956
5. From Russia, with Love 1957
6. Dr. No 1958
7. Goldfinger 1959
8. For Your Eyes Only 1960
9. Thunderball 1961
10. The Spy Who Loved Me 1962
11. On Her Majesty's Secret Service 1963
12. You Only Live Twice 1964
13. The Man with the Golden Gun 1965
14. Octopussy and The Living Daylights 1966

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.[38]

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.

In 1960, Fleming was commissioned by the Kuwait Oil Company to write a book on the country and its oil industry. The typescript is titled State of Excitement: Impressions of Kuwait but was never published due to Kuwait Government disapproval. According to Fleming: "The Oil Company expressed approval of the book but felt it their duty to submit the typescript to members of the Kuwait Government for their approval. The Sheikhs concerned found unpalatable certain mild comments and criticisms and particularly the passages referring to the adventurous past of the country which now wishes to be 'civilised' in every respect and forget its romantic origins."[39]

Biographies

Henry A. Zelger, Ian Fleming: The Spy Who Came in with the Gold (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1965)
Eleanor and Dennis Pelrine, Ian Fleming: Man with the Golden Pen (Toronto: Swan Publishing, 1966)
John Pearson, The Life of Ian Fleming (London: Jonathan Cape, 1966)
Richard Gant, Ian Fleming: Man with the Golden Pen (London: Mayflower-Dell, 1966) – a different work than the Pelrine book
Ivar Bryce. You Only Live Once: Memories of Ian Fleming (London: Weldenfeld and Nicolson, 1975)
Bruce A. Rosenberg and Ann Harleman Stewart, Ian Fleming (Boston: Twayne, 1989)
Donald McCormick, 17F: The Life of Ian Fleming (London: Peter Owen, 1993)
Andrew Lycett, Ian Fleming (London: Weldenfeld and Nicolson, 1995)

Biographical films

Goldeneye: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming, 1989. A TV movie starring Charles Dance as Fleming. The movie focuses on Fleming's life during World War II, his love life, and the writing 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 dramatisation of his career in British intelligence.

Ian Fleming: Bondmaker, 2005. A TV documentary/drama by Wall to Wall first broadcast on BBC in August 2005. Laurence Olivier Theatre Award-winning British actor Ben Daniels portrays Ian Fleming.[40]

Ian Fleming: Where Bond Began, 2008. TV documentary about the life of Ian Fleming broadcast 20 October 2008 by the BBC. Presented by former Bond girl Joanna Lumley.

References

1.^ 007.info, The Bond novels and legacy are a publishing phenomenon and the Fleming works alone have sold over 100 million copies worldwide
2.^ Henry A. Zelger, Ian Fleming: The Spy Who Came in with the Gold (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1965)
3.^ Fleming fears he's a one-day wonder by Alasdair Ross (18 Jauary 1998) Sunday Mirror
4.^ BBC News item 31 October 2008
5.^ Richard Gant, Ian Fleming: Man with the Golden Pen (London: Mayflower-Dell, 1966)
6.^ The Naval Intelligence Handbooks: a monument in geographical writing Clout and Gosme Prog Hum Geogr.2003; 27: 153–173 – Progress in Human Geography – Requires Sign In
7.^ Ivar Bryce. You Only Live Once (London: Weldenfeld and Nicolson, 1975)
8.^ John Pearson, The Life of Ian Fleming (London: Jonathan Cape, 1966)
9.^ Bruce A. Rosenberg and Ann Harleman Stewart, Ian Fleming (Boston: Twayne, 1989)
10.^ T Force, The Race for Nazi War Secrets, 1945. Published by Constable & Robinson Sep 2009
11.^ Eric Walters (2002). Camp X. Puffin Canada. pp. 229. ISBN 0-14-131328-5.
12.^ Inside Camp X by Lynn Philip Hodgson, with a foreword by Secret Agent Andy Durovecz (2003) – ISBN 0-9687062-0-7
13.^ James Bond: The True Story. 576i (PAL SDTV). Five (channel). 23 April 2008.
14.^ McCormick, Donald (1993). The Life of Ian Fleming. Peter Owen Publishers. pp. 151.
15.^ Griswold, John (2006). Ian Fleming's James Bond: annotations and chronologies for Ian Fleming's Bond Stories. AuthorHouse. p. 67. ISBN 1425931001. http://books.google.com/books?id=uariyzldrJwC&pg=PA67&dq=Blofeld+Boodle&lr=&cd=5#v=onepage&q=&f=false. "Surname appropriated from Thomas Robert Calthorpe Blofeld (b. 1902 or 1903 d. 1986)."
16.^ Lycett, Andrew Ian Fleming: The Man Behind James Bond (London: Turner Pub, 1995) ISBN 1-57036-343-9
17.^ Comentale, Edward P.; Watt, Stephen; Willman, Skip (2005). Ian Fleming and James Bond: the cultural politics of 007. Indiana University Press. p. 95. ISBN 0253345233. http://books.google.com/books?id=MzWajYxgfOkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Fleming+Bond&lr=&cd=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false. "The name's Bond, James Bond..."
18.^ Donald McCormick, The Life of Ian Fleming (London: Peter Owen, 1993)
19.^ Manfromuncle.org
20.^ Eleanor and Dennis Pelrine, Ian Fleming: Man with the Golden Pen (Toronto: Swan Publishing, 1966)
21.^ Chancellor, Henry James Bond the Man and His World (2005)
22.^ Gregory Kirschling, "James Bond's New Book", Entertainment Weekly/EW.com, Feb. 29, 2008, accessed 4 March 2008.
23.^ (5 January 2008). The 50 greatest British writers since 1945. The Times. Retrieved on 2010-02-01.
24.^ Fleming, Ian (13 April 1953). Casino Royale. James Bond. Jonathan Cape. p. 213. http://www.ianflemingcentre.com.
25.^ Fleming, Ian (5 April 1954). Live and Let Die. James Bond. Jonathan Cape. p. 234. http://www.ianflemingcentre.com.
26.^ Fleming, Ian (7 April 1955). Moonraker. James Bond. Jonathan Cape. http://www.ianflemingcentre.com.
27.^ Fleming, Ian (26 March 1956). Diamonds Are Forever. James Bond. Jonathan Cape. http://www.ianflemingcentre.com.
28.^ Fleming, Ian (8 April 1957). From Russia with Love. James Bond. Jonathan Cape. http://www.ianflemingcentre.com.
29.^ Fleming, Ian (31 March 1958). Dr. No. James Bond. Jonathan Cape. http://www.ianflemingcentre.com.
30.^ Fleming, Ian (23 March 1959). Goldfinger. James Bond. Jonathan Cape. http://www.ianflemingcentre.com.
31.^ Fleming, Ian (11 April 1960). For Your Eyes Only. James Bond. Jonathan Cape. http://www.ianflemingcentre.com.
32.^ Fleming, Ian (27 March 1961). Thunderball. James Bond. Jonathan Cape. http://www.ianflemingcentre.com.
33.^ Fleming, Ian (16 April 1962). The Spy Who Loved Me. James Bond. Jonathan Cape. http://www.ianflemingcentre.com.
34.^ Fleming, Ian (1 April 1963). On Her Majesty's Secret Service. James Bond. Jonathan Cape. http://www.ianflemingcentre.com.
35.^ Fleming, Ian (16 March 1964). You Only Live Twice. James Bond. Jonathan Cape. http://www.ianflemingcentre.com.
36.^ Fleming, Ian (1 April 1965). The Man with the Golden Gun. James Bond. Jonathan Cape. http://www.ianflemingcentre.com.
37.^ Fleming, Ian (1966). Octopussy and The Living Daylights. James Bond. Jonathan Cape. http://www.ianflemingcentre.com.
38.^ Ian Fleming’s Unpublished Legacy – ajb007.co.uk
39.^ Annotation by Fleming in the original typescript. Fleming mss., Lilly Library, Indiana. Indiana.edu
40.^ Ian Fleming: Bondmaker (2005) (TV) – Full cast and crew

Further reading

David Giammarco, For Your Eyes Only: Behind the Scenes of the James Bond Films (ECW Press, 2002)

Conant, Jennet The Irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington (Simon and Schuster, 2008)