Ian Fleming’s licence to steel
Some authors spend years on their first novel. Ian Fleming’s came in a matter of weeks. In January 1952, the middle-aged British journalist was enjoying a little winter’s sun on holiday in the Caribbean. One morning, after a swim and his usual breakfast of scrambled eggs and coffee, Fleming sat down to his battered Royal typewriter and hammered out the opening line of Casino Royale. Barely a month later, he had finished. James Bond had come to life.
Fleming went on to write a further 13 Bond novels, which have since sold more than 100 million copies globally. Big-screen adaptations have generated more than £5bn at the box office, making the Bond film franchise one of the most successful in history.
Bond is a phenomenon. It is rare to find a fictional character so intricately woven into one country’s self-image, and at the same time so hugely popular around the world. Diehard fans have ranged from the US president John F Kennedy to the North Korean despot Kim Jong-il.
Bond’s extraordinary popularity is rooted in the world – and the characters – Fleming created: Bond himself, along with ‘M’, Miss Moneypenny and a rogues’ gallery of villains, including Scaramanga, Goldfinger and Blofeld. But these characters were not pulled out of thin air. They are an amalgam of traits that Fleming stole from a colourful cast of personalities he encountered in his own life. “Everything I
