Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, SPY drew on his experiences in World War II intelligence to bring his agent 007 to life TALE BY DAVID HOLZEL SPINNER Horst Tappe / Contributor Tappe Horst
20 BOSS 4 s u mm e r 2016 erman U-boats were infesting the Child of Privilege waters of the Caribbean in July G 1943 when high-level American Ian Lancaster Fleming was born and British naval intelligence agents met in London on May 28, 1908, into in the British colonial outpost of wealth, although it was new wealth. Jamaica to jaw out a response. His paternal grandfather had made e head of the British team, a fortune trading railroad stocks. 35-year-old Ian Fleming, was the e family of his mother, Eve, had charming personal assistant to the chief begun humbly, but her grandfathers of naval intelligence. At the end of each had risen in their professions and had day of meetings, Fleming and his British been knighted. colleague and friend Ivar Bryce escaped Ian and his three brothers were the humidity of Kingston to an old children of privilege. eir father, Valentine Fleming, was a Conservative manor house on the mountainside USA/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom Pictures KEYSTONE above the city. ere they sat on the member of parliament and a friend balcony, drinking grenadine and of Winston Churchill. When World looking out at the tropical rain. War I broke out in 1914, Valentine Reuters in London, which led to trips to Aer the conference, on the volunteered to ght. He was killed in Berlin and Moscow. But Ian wanted to ight out of Jamaica, Fleming surprised a German attack on his squadron in live well, independent of family money. Bryce by telling him, “I am going to Picardy, France, in 1917 when Ian was 9. So he le journalism and worked for live in Jamaica, swim in the sea and In death, Valentine was remembered as a time in stockbroking. write books.” a paragon of virtue that his sons He was not a success as a Until the war, Fleming had struggled to live up to. stockbroker, but he was good at meeting dried without much focus or purpose. And Ian did struggle. e second people and making friends. When But intelligence work had brought son, he was indi erent to his studies at World War II broke out, banking and out his natural abilities, “which Eton College and no match for his stockbroking friends recommended included sociability, organization intellectual older brother, Peter. Aer him for work in navy intelligence, where and imagination,” writes biographer passing the qualifying exam for he became personal assistant to the Andrew Lycett in Ian Fleming. Sandhurst Military College, Ian director, Adm. Sir John Godfrey, and Once he discovered Jamaica, participated in an 18-month training rose to the rank of commander. Fleming had all the elements for a program for ocers, thinking that Fleming was Godfrey’s postwar livelihood that would propel perhaps he could live up to his father’s troubleshooter, acting as his “eyes and him to fame. During the three months legacy. But Ian chafed at discipline and ears, while running a worldwide he spent each year in Jamaica, he took withdrew from the program. information-gathering operation,” the raw materials of his life—notably his His mother was not about to see Ian Lycett writes. Fleming extended his experience in intelligence work that so fail, and with her help he found a job at wide network of in uential animated his imagination—and fashioned them into action novels about a dashing British intelligence ocer: An attractive rake in his navy uniform, with a broken “James Bond.” Bond’s character would take on nose he had acquired at Eton that added to his good a life of its own, rst in print, and later in lm. looks, Fleming was irresistible to many women.
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Bond was an immediate hit, and through astute marketing, Fleming’s fame spread. As Fleming delivered one new Bond book a year, his fictional hero began taking on a life of his own.
stipulated, “ e bomber pilot should be the gadgets the British were developing: a tough bachelor, able to swim.” a gas pistol disguised as a fountain pen, shaving brushes with secret cavities, shoelaces that could act as saws, Spies and Gadgets a hollowed-out golf ball to conceal e description sounded a bit like messages to prisoners of war (a similar Fleming himself. An attractive rake in device was used to transport uncut his navy uniform, with a broken nose he stones in the Bond novel Diamonds Garnade/Mirrorpix/Newscom had acquired at Eton that added to his Are Forever). Ian Fleming with his mother, Evelyn St. Croix good looks, Fleming was irresistible Fleming became senior Fleming, in November 1957. to many women. commanding ocer of the 30 Assault “He’s the right shape, size, height, Unit, an intelligence unit that acquaintances, using his power of has the right sort of hair, the right sort accompanied advancing Allied troops patronage to nd intelligence jobs for of laugh, is 36 and is beautiful,” an to capture as many German secrets as friends. And he brought together people admirer gushed. possible. He also played a role in the who could further the war e ort. Fleming also participated in drawing creation and operation of the T-Force Operating from Room 39 of the up for Operation Golden Eye in 1941 intelligence-gathering unit. Among its Admiralty in London, Fleming churned a plan of “limited sabotage” if the operations was capturing German out memos and reports and dreamed Germans marched into Spain, which, rocket scientists before they fell into the up operations that were worthy of despite its fascist government, was hands of the Soviets. In his 1955 Bond a ctional action hero. With British ocially neutral in the war. e plan novel Moonraker, Fleming used intelligence struggling to break the never had to be implemented, but elements of T-Force’s activities. German Enigma code, Fleming during preparations, Fleming met with Aer the war, Fleming used his proposed to y a German plane that William J. “Big Bill” Donovan, head of charm and good breeding to land the British had captured, man it with the pre-CIA Oce of Strategic Services a plum role in British journalism. a German-speaking British crew and in the United States. ese and other e Sunday Times newspaper hired crash it. When the Germans came to meetings helped Britain develop its him as its foreign manager—a title that the rescue of their fellows, the British intelligence relationship with the U.S. gave him two months of guaranteed ocers would overpower them and It won’t surprise anyone with even vacation a year. get the sea codes for Enigma. a passing knowledge of James Bond and He spent those vacations in Jamaica, In his proposal for the plan, which the spy craze he set o to learn that writing the Bond books, in a house on was never carried out, Fleming Fleming was particularly intrigued with the island’s north shore that he named
22 BOSS ᔢ SUMMER 2016 BOND BOOKS by Ian Fleming
• Casino Royale, 1953 (movie, 2006) • Live and Let Die, 1954 (movie, 1973) Geoff Wilkinson/REX/NewscomGeoff • Moonraker, 1955 (movie, 1979) The interior of Goldeneye, the house in Jamaica, West Indies, where Fleming wrote his Bond books. • Diamonds Are Forever, 1956 Goldeneye. One of Fleming’s neighbors marriages, and Ann was pregnant with (movie, 1971) was English playwright Noel Coward. Fleming’s child. On Aug. 12, 1952, their • From Russia, with Love, 1957 e two became close friends. When he son and only child, Caspar, was born. (movie, 1963) rst saw Goldeneye, Coward described In later years, Fleming downplayed it as “quite perfect. A large sitting room, the literary importance of Bond: “Bang, • Dr. No, 1958 (movie, 1962) sparsely furnished, comfortable beds bang, kiss, kiss, that sort of stu . It’s and showers, an agreeable sta , a small what you would expect of an adolescent • Goldfinger, 1959 (movie, 1964) private coral beach with lint-white sand mind—which I happen to possess.” • For Your Eyes Only, 1960 and warm, clear water.” But others saw more. Casino Royale (movie, 1981) re ected the moral ambiguities of the Thunderball ‘Bond, James Bond’ Cold War and the attractions of the • postwar consumer culture. (based on a screen treatment with At Goldeneye, Fleming followed an Reviews of Casino Royale, Kevin McClory and Jack Whittingham), 1961 unvarying routine: Awake, swim, eat written by Fleming’s journalistic (movie, 1965) breakfast and then three hours of friends, were uniformly positive. • The Spy Who Loved Me, 1962 writing at his typewriter, emerging e review in the Manchester Evening (movie, 1977) at noon. News by Julian Symons, whom Over the years, Fleming had Fleming didn’t know, called the plot • On Her Majesty’s been toying with the idea of a book. “staggeringly implausible,” yet the Secret Service, 1963 (movie, 1969) According to Lycett, he began writing book was “thoroughly exciting and on the morning of Jan. 15, 1952, absorbingly readable.” • You Only Live Twice, 1964 nishing 63,000 words later on March Bond was an immediate hit, and (movie, 1967)
18 with the James Bond debut, through astute marketing, Fleming’s ©iStockphoto.com/enscap67 The Man with the Golden Gun, 1965 fame spread. As Fleming delivered one • Casino Royale. (movie, 1974) Less than a week later, the lifelong new Bond book a year, his ctional hero bachelor, at 43, married Ann began taking on a life of his own. • Octopussy Rothermere. He had engaged in an But Fleming was a heavy drinker (a compilation of short stories), 1966 a air with her through her two earlier and smoked 70 cigarettes a day. In 1961, (movie, 1983) Book” “Casino Royale
WWW.DIXONVALVE.COM SUMMER 2016 ᔢ BOSS 23 at the age of 52, he su ered a massive to Matthew Parker, author of heart attack. While in the hospital, he Goldeneye Where Bond Was Born: began writing down the children’s Ian Fleming’s Jamaica. stories he used to tell his son about Connery created the eternally vital a family who owned a ying car. Bond we think of today. Yet the Bond of Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang, published the novels kept aging. In You Only Live in 1964, was Fleming’s only children’s Twice, published in 1964, the hero is in book. e motto of the story’s father, serious decline. While in hiding, Bond’s Commander Pott—“Never say ‘no’ to need for a smoke becomes so strong adventures. Always say ‘yes,’ otherwise that he puts his life in danger just to you’ll lead a very dull life”—could have have a cigarette. been Fleming’s own. If anything, Bond was in better James Bond seemed a character shape than his creator. On Aug. 11, born for Hollywood, but it wasn’t until 1964, Fleming collapsed in London and 1962 that the lming of the rst Bond was rushed to a hospital. He died of movie, Dr. No, began. As Bond, Fleming a heart attack at age 56. It was his son had envisioned David Niven, an actor Caspar’s 12th birthday. with a British upper-class bearing much Bond has far outlived his creator. like Fleming’s. e role went instead to A half-century a er Fleming’s death, 31-year-old unknown Sean Connery, 007 is an indelible part of our culture who was selected for his sex appeal, and whose popularity only seems to
UNITED / Album/Newscom ARTISTS who also was “younger, tougher and be growing. Sean Connery in Dr. No somehow more modern and classless” than the Bond of the books, according
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