Five Things You Didn’t Know About Ian Fleming

“Never say ‘no’ to adventures. Always say ‘yes,’ otherwise you’ll lead a very dull life.” ~Colonel Pott (Chitty Chitty Bang Bang)

Today Ian Fleming (1908-1964) would have turned 103 years old.

The man who created James Bond was a late bloomer who died young.

He finished his first book, Casino Royale, at 44 and succumbed to a heart attack twelve years — and twelve books — later. But what a legacy!

Ian Fleming himself was an fascinating man. Did you know that…

1. Winston Churchill Wrote His Father’s Obituary

During World War I, Fleming’s dad Valentine joined the Queen’s Own Oxfordshire Hussars. A week before Ian turned nine, Valentine was killed when the Germans bombed his outpost in France. Winston Churchill, Valentine’s friend and fellow officer, wrote his obituary.

Fleming came from a privileged background, but lived in the shadows of his heroic father and scholarly brother, Peter, who went to Oxford.

Fleming’s academic and professional record was abysmal. Prestigious Eton boys’ school expelled him for an incident involving a girl. He went to Sandhurst Military Academy, but failed the officer’s training test. He then failed Foreign Office exam.

He finally found a job with Reuters news agency. He learned the basics of journalism, but abhorred the low pay.

2. Fleming Worked As A Stock Broker

Like Jules Verne, Fleming finally became a stockbroker to make ends meet.

He made enough money to live like a playboy. He threw parties with beautiful women and high-stakes card games. He collected first editions and surrealist art. He might have become a complete wastrel if it weren’t for the war.

The Spy Who Love Me (1962)

3. Fleming Became A Spymaster

In 1939, while still a stockbroker, Fleming took an odd freelance gig for The Times to report on a Soviet Union trade mission. However, he was probably spying for the Foreign Office, where he had friends and informants from his journalism days.

From there, Fleming became personal assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence (DNI), Admiral John Godfrey. His imagination, intelligence and charisma won him several important assignments during World War II.

In 1941 and 1942, Fleming visited Washington DC to help coordinate British/American intelligence operations. In fact, he wrote a memorandum detailing how to set up the CIA. He also spearheaded Operation Golden Eye, a plan to defend Gibraltar should the Germans attempt to invade through Spain.

Like every intelligence officer, however, Fleming had signed the Official Secrets Act. We can only guess what he did by reading into the Bond books.

But there’s no doubt Fleming excelled at his job. His boss, Admiral Godfrey, said: “Ian should have been DNI and I his naval adviser.”

4. Fleming Kept His Day Job After Hitting The Bestseller Lists

After World War II, Fleming worked for The Sunday Times as foreign manager. Then, at age 43, he began writing Casino Royale.

The official Ian Fleming site shared his rewrites of Casino Royale’s opening line:

First attempt: “Scent and smoke and sweat hit the taste buds with an acid thwack at three o’clock in the morning”

Second try: “Scent and smoke and sweat can suddenly combine together and hit the taste buds with an acid shock at three o’clock in the morning”

Finally (and satisfied): “The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning”.

There you have it! Good writing is, indeed, rewriting.

Fleming sent the book to a poet friend, who gave it to Jonathan Cape Publishers. They released it in 1953, and as the official site says, “a British cultural hero was born.”

Live and Let Die followed in 1954, Moonraker in 1955, and thereafter Fleming wrote one Bond adventure a year until his death in 1964.

He continued to write for The Sunday Times, and persuaded his employers to grant him two months annual leave. In January and February of every year from 1952, he retreated to his second home in Jamaica (called Goldeneye) and penned the newest Bond installment.

5. Fleming Wrote A Famous Children’s Book

In 1962, the first Bond film Dr No debuted, starring an unknown Scottish actor named Sean Connery.

Fleming had his first heart attack the same year. While recovering, he wrote a adventure story about a family and their magical car for his young son, Caspar. It was entitled Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and made into a movie with Dick Van Dyke.

Two years later, at age 56, Fleming suffered a second heart attack and passed away.

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.

Carte Blanche launch at St Pancras Station

Fleming’s Legacy

After Fleming’s death, his literary executors hired other authors to continue the James Bond novels, including Kingsley Amis, John Gardner and Raymond Benson.

The latest Bond book, Carte Blanche by American Jeffery Deaver, launched a few days ago under the stupendous architecture of London’s St Pancras Station.

(I’ve been there. It’s like a gothic metal cathedral.)

A model on a motorbike and the Royal Marine Commando display team dropped in for champagne (Bollinger, no doubt). It’s the first reboot of the print novels — Bond is a veteran of Afghanistan.

In a 1962 article, Fleming wrote: