Ian Fleming

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Fleming

Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British author, journalist and naval intelligence officer who is best known for his James Bond series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., and his father was the Member of Parliament for Henley from 1910 until his death on the Western Front in 1917. Educated at Eton, Sandhurst and, briefly, the universities of Munich and Geneva, Fleming moved through several jobs before he started writing.

Best known for his novels about the British spy James Bond, Ian Fleming was ranked by The Times (of London) fourteenth on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945." Fleming chronicled Bond's adventures in twelve novels and nine short stories, a literary output that has sold over 100 million copies worldwide, making it one of the most popular series of related novels of all time. He also wrote the children's story Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and two works of non-fiction.

Fleming was born on May 28, 1908 in Mayfair, a wealthy district of London. His father was Valentine Fleming, a British Member of Parliament and his mother Evelyn St. Croix Rose. Fleming's elder brother Peter became a travel writer. He also had two younger brothers, Michael and Richard Fleming (1910–77) and an illegitimate half-sister, the cellist Amaryllis Fleming. Ian was a grandson of the Scottish financier Robert Fleming, who founded the Scottish American Investment Trust and the merchant bank Robert Fleming and Co (since 2000, part of JP Morgan Chase). Sir Christopher Lee, who went on to become a well-known British horror film actor, was his step-cousin and his brother Peter married the stage actress Celia Johnson, later Dame Celia Johnson. Ian Fleming had nephews Rory Fleming, Matthew Fleming who played cricket for England, and a great-nephew, the composer Alan Fleming-Baird.

He was educated at three independent schools: first at Durnford School, a preparatory school on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, near to the estate of the Bond family, who could trace their ancestry back to an Elizabethan spy called John Bond and whose motto was Non Sufficit Orbis - The World Is Not Enough. He then attended two independent schools in Berkshire: first, Sunningdale School near Ascot, and then Eton College at Eton, Berkshire, and the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. After an early departure from the prestigious officer training school, he opted to study languages at a private school in Austria.

Following an unsuccessful application to join the Foreign Office, Fleming worked as a sub-editor and journalist for the Reuters news agency, and then as a stockbroker in the City of London.

On the eve of World War II, Fleming was recruited into naval intelligence. Owing in part to his facility with languages, he was a personal assistant to Admiral John H. Godfrey, who served as the model for James Bond's commanding officer, "M".

Fleming was put in charge of a special commando unit (from behind his desk in Whitehall) and was involved in the plot to wash up a dead body on occupied Europe containing false intelligence about Allied landings.

During the last year of the war Fleming visited Jamaica on military business and decided that he would work to make this tropical paradise his home. He set about making this goal happen and did it with style. He designed and built a home in Jamaica he called Goldeneye.

He left naval intelligence after the war, having attained the rank of Commander, and kept up his rank with the Royal Naval Voluntary Reserve for some years, having to undergo two weeks training a year. There is little evidence that Fleming carried out any of the exploits that he later attributed to James Bond, however what is clear is that Bond would have been unlikely to come about had Fleming not spent the time he did in the intelligence services.

Indeed Fleming's intelligence work provided the background for his spy novels. In 1953, he published his first novel, Casino Royale. In it he introduced secret agent James Bond, also famously known by his code number, 007 - which gave him a “licence to kill”. It is believed that in this initial story he based the female character "Vesper Lynd" on real life SOE agent, Christine Granville.

Besides the twelve novels and nine short stories he wrote featuring James Bond, Fleming is also known for the children's story, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

In 1961, he sold the film rights to his already published as well as future James Bond novels and short stories to Harry Saltzman, who, with Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli, co-produced the film version of Dr. No (1962). For the cast, Fleming suggested friend and neighbour Noël Coward as the villain Dr. Julius No, and David Niven or, later, Roger Moore as James Bond. Both were rejected in favour of Sean Connery, who was both Broccoli and Saltzman's choice.

Dr. No proved to be an instant sensation and sparked a spy craze through the rest of the 1960s. It was followed by From Russia with Love (1963), the second and last James Bond movie Ian Fleming saw.

Fleming died of a heart attack in Kent in August, 1964. He was only 56. His widow, Ann Geraldine Mary Fleming (1913-1981), and son Caspar Robert Fleming (1952–1975), are buried next to him in Sevenhampton, Swindon, Wiltshire.

Sources

• http://www.thebiographychannel.co.uk/biographies/ian-fleming.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Fleming
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Bond_in_film
• http://www.swindonweb.com/?m=2&s=87&ss=91&c=2038&t=Swindon%20writte...
• http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6997

English Author. He is best remembered for creating the character of British agent 007, better known as James Bond. Born in London in 1908, Fleming was the second son of four boys to Valentine and Evelyn Beatrice St. Croix Rose Fleming, wealthy members of British aristocracy and a Member of Parliament. When his father was killed in France during World War I, on November 20, 1917, future Prime Minister Winston Churchill wrote the obituary for the London Times. Ian was educated at Durnford School in Dorset, and later at Eton College and the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, and although he achieved some recognition at Eton for academic excellence, he dropped out of both Eton and Sandhurst, when he felt that both schools were not challenging him. His mother sent him to study languages in Austria, and later to both the University of Munich and the University of Geneva, where he learned German and French. After an unsuccessful attempt to join the Foreign Office, he became a journalist for the Reuters News Service. In 1939, he was recruited by Rear Admiral John Godfrey, Director of Naval Intelligence, to be his personal assistant. He was quickly commissioned a Reserve Lieutenant, and later promoted to Lieutenant Commander. During the war, he worked on various intelligence plans, including one to capture the German Enigma communications decoder and another plan to defend Gibraltar should Spain join the Axis powers (neither plan was used). In 1942, Fleming created the 30th Assault Unit, specifically trained for behind-the-lines intelligence gathering work, which made successful missions in Sicily and Italy. After the war, he married Anne Geraldine Mary Fleming, and they had one child, a son, Caspar Robert Fleming in 1952. Using his background in intelligence, Fleming decided to write a spy novel of the modern day, using his wartime friend and commando Patrick Dalzel-Job, as the inspiration for James Bond. James Bond first appears in the book, "Casino Royale" (1953), and then reappears in eleven novels and a collection of short stories. Starting in 1962, adaptations of the novels were made into movies which helped to make the books more popular. One book, "The Spy Who Loved Me" (1962) stands out as it is written in the first person point of view of the character of Vivienne Michel, rather than in the third person as the other books are done. In 1964, after reading the book, "Peter Rabbit," which he decried as a terrible children's book, one of his literary friends challenged him to do better, and Fleming wrote the children's novel, "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," about an old racing car that could fly, which was later made into a successful movie of the same title. A heavy smoker and drinker, Fleming died of a sudden heart attack at his home in Canterbury, Kent, England, on the morning of August 12, 1964. (bio by: [fg.cgi?page=mr&MRid=46483611" target="_blank Kit and Morgan Benson)] Maintained by: Find A Grave Record added: Nov 16, 1999

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