A Tribute to Ian Fleming and the World of James Bond
May 28, 1908 – August 12, 1964
Born in Mayfair, London, to Valentine Fleming (a Conservative MP who died in WWI) and Evelyn St. Croix Rose. His older brother Peter became a famous travel writer. Ian attended Eton but left under a cloud. He studied briefly at Sandhurst, then abroad at the Universities of Munich and Geneva.
Failed the Foreign Office exam. Worked as a journalist for Reuters. Became a stockbroker (and hated it). Then came the war.
Personal assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence (Admiral John Godfrey). Rose to Commander. Planned operations including one to capture Enigma codebooks. His unit, 30 Assault Unit, specialized in intelligence raids. These experiences shaped Bond.
Built his Jamaican estate in 1946, naming it after a WWII operation. Here he wrote all fourteen Bond books, typically in January and February, completing a novel in about two months. The discipline was iron: 2,000 words each morning, no revisions until finished.
Casino Royale (1953) was initially rejected by multiple publishers. Jonathan Cape took a chance. The books gained momentum slowly, then exploded when President Kennedy named From Russia with Love among his favorite books in 1961. Fleming became wealthy and famous.
Married Anne Geraldine Charteris in 1952 (she was pregnant with their son Caspar). The marriage was turbulent. Fleming was a heavy smoker and drinker; his health deteriorated in his fifties. He suffered a heart attack in 1961 and another in 1963.
Died of a heart attack on August 12, 1964 — his son Caspar's twelfth birthday — at age 56. He had just completed The Man with the Golden Gun. The first Bond film, Dr. No, had premiered two years earlier; he lived to see Connery embody his creation.
The Bond films became the longest-running franchise in cinema history. The books have sold over 100 million copies worldwide. Fleming also wrote the children's book Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1964). His influence on the spy genre is immeasurable.