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Ian Lancaster Fleming gave birth to his character
James Bond in "Casino Royale" on April 13th
1953. Fifty years on from this historic event, MI6
looks back on his life and career...
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Ian Fleming Biography
13th April 2003
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Ian Lancaster Fleming was born on 28th May 1908 in London,
England. His father Major Valentine Fleming, a Conservative
MP, was killed in the first World War. He was raised through
his teenage years by his mother, Evelyn St. Croix Fleming.
Fleming, like many children from wealthy families, was
educated at Eton, although he resigned from the private
school - much to the chagrin of his mother.
He moved to continental Europe and studied foreign languages
at the universities of Geneva and Munich before arriving
back in England to take, and fail, the Foreign Service exam.
In 1929, at the age of 23, Fleming worked as a journalist
in Moscow for four years. He covered the famous show trial
of Royal Engineers being charged with espionage in Russia,
and later returned to England in 1935 when he took a job
as a stock broker in London.
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World War II broke out in 1939 and thrust Fleming into the military.
His previous study of languages helped him gain a respectable
position assisting Admiral John H. Godfrey (Fleming used Godfrey
as a base for his "M" character). Many of his war experiences
are still classified, although a couple of his tales are now known
and were used as influences for the James Bond adventures.
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When the war ended, Fleming left British Navel Intelligence
at the rank of Commander and became the foreign manager
of Kemsley Newspapers, until the newspaper was taken over
in 1959.
Fleming's first published novel was not a James Bond adventure,
but a more mundane guidebook for foreign corespondents.
In 1952 Fleming married Lady Anne Rothmere in Jamaica, and
started work on his first James Bond novel in his house
"GoldenEye". Casino Royale was published in 1953
and was loosely based on a real life experience Fleming
had during the war, where he lost a large some of money
gambling in Lisbon during the war.
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| The Bond series of novels spanned fourteen titles (although
"For Your Eyes Only" and "Octopussy & The
Living Daylights" contained more than one story) over
thirteen years. In 1963, Fleming released "On Her Majesty's
Secret Service" in the same year that the first cinematic
007 adventure, "Dr. No", was released in the UK.
Fleming attended the filming of "Dr. No", "From
Russia With Love", and "Goldfinger", although
never appeared on screen (the myth about Fleming appearing
to stand next to the train tracks in "From Russia With
Love" is false). |
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Fleming undertook adventurous pursuits between writing the Bond
novels, and despite warnings from doctors, he continued on his
treasure hunting ways in the Caribbean and England. On 12th August
1964, at the Royal St. George's Sandwich golf course in Kent,
Fleming suffered a heart attack and died
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