Who Was Ian Fleming?

If, like me, you always imagined Ian Fleming as a suave, sophisticated man in the mould of his famous invention, James Bond, then prepare for a rude awakening. Although undeniably creative and talented as a writer Fleming was also privileged, enjoyed rich food and alcohol in liberal quantities and always used a cigarette holder. He was born into money and received a terrific education and all the advantages his standing might bestow. His family owned a merchant bank and their contacts extended all over the world where they seemed to derive all of their vast income from Anglo imperialist interests.

Fleming was educated at Eton and then the military academy of Sandhurst. He went on to a brief stint in the army where he was recruited by Rear Admiral John Godfrey and served as a personal assistant. He worked on naval intelligence and generated a number of bizarre plans while in service there, including the idea of using Aleister Crowley to trick Rudolf Hess into believing there was an anti-Churchill movement in Britain. Throughout the war and in the aftermath Fleming travelled all over the world extensively and this surely informed his later writing.

After the army Fleming worked for Reuters as a journalist and honed his writing skills before using his family contacts to get a lucrative job as a stockbroker in London. He enjoyed a rich lifestyle and never had to work hard for his rewards. To escape the harsh weather of Britain he bought a house on Jamaica and spent each winter there tapping out Bond novels on his typewriter. He was also growing increasingly fed up with the direction Britain was taking as the empire collapsed and the economy struggled to recover.

He was married to Ann Charteris in 1952 in Jamaica around the same time he started writing the first Bond novel, Casino Royale. Ann Fleming had long been a striking figure in British high society and had been previously married to Lord Rothermere, the owner of the Daily Mail newspaper and she also had a relationship with Hugh Gaitskell the leader of the Labour Party amongst many others. Their tempestuous relationship fuelled Fleming’s writing and provided him with a real motivation to be successful.

Fleming wrote a new Bond book every year and they were released like clockwork, twelve novels and two short story collections at the rate of one a year from 1953 until 1966. There is no doubt he drew on his privileged lifestyle to write the books and his descriptions of fine hotels, beautiful meals, expensive booze and classy cigarettes were all personally inspired. The exotic locations were also described from memory and Fleming had a fascination for great locations. He had been well travelled as part of the extensive privileged network which was rapidly disappearing as the British Empire collapsed.

In 1964 at the age of 56 a life of excess caught up with the author and Fleming had a massive heart attack. He was buried in the churchyard at Sevenhampton village near Swindon. He had died just as Bond was beginning to reach new levels of fame, a month before the film premiere of Goldfinger. The books and films would continue without him but despite various writers having a go, including the talented Kingsley Amis, no-one could recapture Fleming’s peculiar style.