Ian Lancaster Fleming was born in London's Mayfair in 1908, the second son of Valentine Fleming, a wealthy London banker, and his wife Evelyn. His grandfather was Robert Fleming, a self made man born into poverty in Dundee who went on to found his own bank, Robert Fleming & Co.
In 1910 Valentine was elected conservative member of parliament for South Oxfordshire and the family lived in style between London and Braziers Park in Oxfordshire. In 1917, tragedy struck when he was killed in action while serving in France. This had a devastating effect on the young Ian.
Despite the advantage of an Eton College education, Ian was a wayward young man who lacked the application to excel academically and follow his brilliant elder brother Peter to Oxford. He enrolled at Sandhurst Military College but did not posses the necessary discipline for the army and left without a commission in 1927.
Without direction in his life, Ian travelled to Austria where he came under the influence of the educationalist and former spy Ernan Forbes who saw Ian's potential and encouraged his interest in literature and languages. This proved a formative experience and led to studies at the universities of Munich and Geneva, but further disappointment followed when he failed the examination for the foreign office.
Family connections afforded him an opening in journalism and one of his assignments was to report on the Moscow trial of six British engineers accused of spying. Having returned briefly to the family business of banking, Ian's prospects rose when he managed to secure a position with the naval intelligence division, becoming personal assistant to its director.
Suave and with an aptitude for languages, Ian proved an excellent administrator and was soon promoted to the position of commander, liaising between the director of naval intelligence and the other secret services. His responsibilities would include working on anti-German black propaganda and working on intelligence co-operation between London and Washington before the attack on Pearl Harbour. In 1941/42 he oversaw operation Goldeneye, an allied plan to monitor Spain in the event of an alliance between Franco and the axis powers, but no such event occurred and the plan was shelved in 1943.
Despite its horrors, the Second World War had given Ian purpose and fulfilment he would struggle to maintain in postwar life. After being de-mobbed in 1945, he joined the Kemsley newspaper group where he had responsibility for its worldwide network of correspondents. It was during this period that he established a second home on Jamaica naming it Goldeneye after his wartime project and it was here, in 1952, that he married his long term mistress, Ann Charteris, the aristocratic former wife of Lord Rothermere, owner of the Daily Mail. Their only child Caspar was born that same year.
1952 would also see the birth of his famous fictional creation, British secret agent James Bond, 007. Having long thought of the possibility of writing spy novels, he produced Casino Royale in a few months. Published by Jonathan Cape, the book was an immediate success, achieving critical and public acclaim. Ian Fleming would go on to write a James Bond story at Goldeneye every year until his death.
Ian Fleming viewed his fiction as entertainment, but the Bond novels undoubtedly reflect aspects of his own character as well as many influences from his wartime experience. Terse yet racy, the compelling stories afforded a sense of escape and James Bond would cut a darkly glamorous figure through the bleak realities of postwar Britain.
Despite this initial success, the later 1950s would be a period of great difficulty for Ian. His marriage was in trouble and he was drinking heavily. At the same time his work came under attack from some quarters of the press; the journalist Paul Johnson derided them for their 'sex, snobbery and sadism'.
A collaboration with two film makers on his novel Thunderball led to his being sued and the stress of the ensuing court case was a contributary factor to his suffering a heart attack. An unexpected boost to his fortunes came however, when President John F Kennedy named the Bond novels in a list of his favourite books and they became best-sellers in the United States. In 1961 he signed a film deal with Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman and Dr. No starring Sean Connery was an instant box office success when it opened in 1962. Ian Fleming's enjoyment of his newfound celebrity was short-lived; he died of heart complications on the 12 August 1964 aged just fifty-six.
Ian Fleming sold 30 million books in his lifetime, his output included a collection of travel articles, historical works and even the successful children's book Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. But it is the Bond novels, still in print, and their fictional world where the forces of good battle those of evil and win, and with their atmosphere of danger overlaid with a veneer of glamour, luxury and escape, that are his enduring legacy. The film franchise with its succession of leading actors has kept James Bond alive in the public's imagination and has become one of the most successful of all time.
