Carte Blanche

IAN FLEMING

Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, was born in London on 28 May 1908. He was educated at Eton and later spent a formative period in Kitzbuhel, Austria, where he learned languages and made his first tentative forays into fiction writing. In the 1930s he worked for Reuters, where he honed his writing skills and, thanks to a Moscow posting, gained valuable insights into what would become his literary bête noire- the Soviet Union.

He spent the Second World War as Assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence where his fertile imagination spawned a variety of covert operations, all of them notable for their daring and ingenuity. The experience would provide a rich source of material in the future.

After the war he worked as foreign manager of the Sunday Times, a job that allowed him to spend two months each year in Jamaica. Here, in 1952, at his home Goldeneye, he wrote a book called Casino Royale. It was published a year later – and James Bond was born. For the next twelve years Fleming produced a novel a year featuring agent 007, the most famous spy of the century. His interest in cars, travel, good food and beautiful women, as well as his love of golf and gambling, was reflected in the books that were to sell in their millions, boosted by the vastly successful film franchise.

His literary career was not restricted to Bond. Apart from being an accomplished journalist and travel writer he also wrote Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, a much-loved children’s story about a car that flies, which has inspired both film and stage productions. He was a notable bibliophile, amassing a library of first editions which was considered so important that it was evacuated from London during the Blitz. And from 1952 he managed his own specialist publishing imprint, Queen Anne Press.

Fleming died of heart failure in 1964 at the age of fifty-six. He lived to see only the first two Bond films, Dr Noand From Russia With Love, and can scarcely have imagined what he had set in motion. Yet today, with a Bond film having been seen by an estimated one in five of the planet’s population, James Bond has become not only a household name but a global phenomenon.

For further information about Ian Fleming and his books please visit www.ianfleming.com.