Ian Fleming: biography, family and works of the English writer

Yang Lancaster Fleming(English Ian Lancaster Fleming; May 28, 1908, London - August 12, 1964, Canterbury) - British journalist, naval intelligence officer and writer; author of novels about super-spy James Bond.

Fleming came from a wealthy family associated with the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co .; Jan's father was a member of parliament for Henley from 1910 until his death on the western front in 1917. Jan studied at Eton, Sandhurst and for a while at the Universities of Munich and Geneva. Before taking up writing, Fleming changed several jobs.

While serving in the UK Naval Intelligence Directorate during World War II, Ian was involved in the planning of Operation GoldenEye, as well as the creation and subsequent oversight of two reconnaissance units, the 30th Assault Unit and the T-Force Operations Unit. Subsequently, his service in intelligence, as well as work as a journalist allowed Fleming to fill his James Bond novels with specific detail and depth.

The first James Bond novel, Casino Royale, was written by Fleming in 1952. The novel proved to be very successful, and the publisher had to issue three runs to keep up with the demand. Eleven Bond novels and two short stories were published between 1953 and 1966. The plot of the novels was built around James Bond, an officer of the UK's secret intelligence service, commonly known as MI6. Bond is known under the code number 007 and was the commander of the Royal Naval Reserve. Bond books are among the bestsellers of all time; the number of copies sold worldwide is equal to 100 million. Fleming is also the author of the children's book Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang and two documentary works... In 2008, Fleming was ranked 14th on The Times' "50 Greatest British Writers Since 1945" list.

A family

Ian Fleming was born to socialite Evelyn Saint-Croix Rose and conservative politician Valentine Fleming. Valentine Fleming was the son of Scottish financier Robert Fleming, who founded the Scottish-American investment trust and merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co, and Keith Hindmarsh, daughter of a tax officer. Robert's five siblings died as children of diphtheria, and only Robert himself and his brother John, who later became Lord Provost of Aberdeen, reached adulthood. In addition to Valentine, Robert and Kate had a son, Philip, born in 1889, and two daughters, Dorothy, born in 1885, and Caitlin, who was two years younger than her sister. Shortly after birth youngest son the Fleming family moved to London, where they acquired several mansions. Robert's sons studied at Eton and Oxford; in 1905, Valentine graduated from Oxford Magdalene College with a degree in history and "the manner and posture of a true gentleman." In 1909, Valentine became one of his father's partners in the newly formed bank, and a year later he was elected by the Conservative Party as Member of Parliament for Henley.

A year after graduating from college, on February 15, 1906, Valentine married Evelyne Saint-Croix Rose, daughter of Justice of the Peace George Alfred Saint-Croix Rose and Beatrice Quain. Evelyn came from a highly respected family: on her father's side she was the granddaughter of Sir Philip Rose, legal adviser to Prime Minister Disraeli; maternal - Sir Richard Quain, a leading London surgeon and editor of the renowned Dictionary of Medicine. In addition to Evelyn, the family had a daughter, Caitlin, and two sons, Ivor and Hartcourt. Ivor studied at Eton and Hartcourt at Eton and Oxford, where he met Valentine Fleming. According to family legend, Valentine and Evelyn met at a ball in Oxford; in addition, the girl's father was fond of the regatta, in which Valentine also took part. Evelyn was the complete opposite of her future spouse: she played the violin and painted well with watercolors, while not a single member of the Fleming family had the ability either in music or in art. Also, Evelyn was a woman in the highest degree frivolous and wasteful, distinguished by snobbery and vanity. Despite initial disagreement with the bride's choice, Valentine's father donated a quarter of a million pounds to his son shortly after the wedding; With this money, the family acquired several houses, two of which were located in the neighborhood of the possessions of Valentine's parents. In a house in Mayfair, located around the corner of the Fleming Sr.house, Evelyn's eldest sons, Peter and Ian, were born. Peter (1907-1971), was a travel writer and was married to actress Celia Johnson. During World War II, Peter served in the Grenadier Guard, and was later transferred under the command of Colin Gubbins, where he helped create auxiliary units and was involved in operations in Norway and Greece.

In addition to Peter and Jan, the family had two more sons - Michael (1913-1940) and Richard (1911-1977). In addition, six years after her husband's death, during a lengthy romance with the artist Augustus John, Evelyn gave birth to a daughter, Amaryllis (1925-1999), who became a professional cellist.

In 1914, with the outbreak of World War I, Valentine joined the squadron WITH Royal Oxfordshire Hussars, where he received the rank of major. Shortly before being sent to the front, Valentine signed a will giving his widow a house near Hampstead Heath, as well as a substantial pension, which could be cut if Evelyn remarried; most of the estate was transferred to a trust for the welfare of Valentine's four sons and their future families. Valentine was killed during a German shelling on the western front on 20 May 1917; Winston Churchill, who was a close friend of Fleming Sr. and his brother Jack served with Valentine at the start of the war, wrote an obituary published in The Times. Since the family owned an estate in Arnisdale, Valentine's name appears on the Glenelg war memorial.

early years

Ian Lancaster Fleming was born on May 28, 1908. Unlike his older brother, Yang, who weighed just under nine pounds at birth, was a large, healthy baby. The middle name was given to the boy by his mother to support the snobbish legend about the origin of Evelyn's ancestors from John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the fourth son of Edward III. Evelyn later insisted that her own family nicknamed "wild roses" was actually from the Highland, as opposed to the "upstarts" -Fleming, who were from Lowland; To prove this, Evelyn dressed her sons in the kilts of the Rose clan.

In the early years, Jan was inextricably linked with his older brother: he and Peter spent their childhood in Breziers Park, which was truly a children's paradise with numerous playrooms and extensive playgrounds on fresh air, and at Pitt House, an Edwardian mansion on Hampstead Heath. In 1910 began political career Ian's father, and a lot of attention began to be drawn to the Fleming family, including children. At the same time, Peter began to suffer from a debilitating form of colitis; in view of this circumstance, Jan, along with his entire family, visited Switzerland four times. The attention that was shown to his brother made Jan jealous: while in Lausanne, five-year-old Jan threw a tantrum in the hotel restaurant, for which he was removed from the table along with his nanny under the supervision of an unyielding grandmother, whom he respected very much. The more "fragile" Peter received attention, and later rewards for good behavior, the more rancorous Ian became. According to the recollections of relatives, the brothers lived "like a cat and a dog"; Peter later said that his relationship with his brother was very close - "like two little foxes", but Ian, who considered his brother too perfect, did not agree with this. Ian and Peter spent three consecutive summers with their father's relatives and the children of their mother's friends in Salcombe, a resort town in Devonshire. Yang quickly resigned himself to the role of the naughty brother and did not even try to change anything. Later, childhood memories of the summer holidays in Salkomb were reflected in Ian's novel On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

Education and early career

In November 1914, when Valentine went to war, Evelyn placed her sons at Darnford Preparatory School in Dorset. This school was famous for preparing its graduates for admission to Eton, where, in turn, in the footsteps of their father, Peter and Ian were to go. Ian, previously raised by a French governess, ended up in Darnford in the fall of 1916. He, like Peter, who got to this school earlier, found it difficult to find friends: the students at the school, as the mothers Jan and Peter wrote, were "dirty and disrespectful" and hated the Fleming. In connection with this circumstance, the brothers, who had previously conflicted with each other, became very close.

Evelyn, who sought to control the lives of her sons, maintained direct contact with the headmaster, Tom Pellatt. The director, nicknamed TP by the students and their parents, adhered to the policy of freedom in teaching, which often led to anarchy in the school. The conditions in the educational institution also left much to be desired: for example, there were no toilet rooms in the building (there was only a street toilet), the food was bad and with the arrival of the war it became even worse, and the bully remained unpunished; Ian did not like all this, and he often complained to his mother about the school environment. Despite the difficult conditions, it was in Darnford that Ian took his first steps in golf, which remained the hobby of the future writer for life. To support her son, Evelyn often sent him gifts, which were often taken away by Pellatt. Yang openly clashed with the director and was often punished. Towards the end of his studies, the young man was carried away by Pellatt's daughter Hester, with whom, as he later bragged to friends, he experienced "the first longing of heterosexual passion."

Yang constantly exchanged letters with his father, in which he said that the school was very tolerable, and expressed the hope for "an early end to the war." In return letters, Valentine told his son tales and war stories, often hiding and embellishing the horrors of war. Fleming Sr. was killed in May 1917; Ian received word of his death in Darnford, where he was alone this time, as Peter had gone home shortly before for treatment. For several months after Valentine's death, Yang spent with his brothers at his father's house, leaving him only on weekends to visit his mother. Later, Valentine was actually raised to the rank of a saint in the family: Evelyn often set her husband as an example to children, and his Lowland origin was no longer bad; Peter and Jan ended their evening prayer with the words "... and please, dear Lord, let me grow up like Moki." Already as an adult and living in different houses Yang invariably hung on the wall a copy of his father's obituary from Times signed by Churchill. Changes also took place in Jan's school life with the death of his father. As noted former student Lawrence Irving School, who visited Darnford at the end of the summer semester of 1917, "not much had changed in the school itself ... but the Fleming brothers were now in charge of all the fun."

Eton College - Ian Fleming's alma mater

In 1921 Fleming entered Eton College. Ian was not an excellent student, but excelled in athletics and retained the title Victor ludorum(Games winner) for two years: 1925-1927. In addition, he was the editor of the school magazine The wyvern... Fleming's lifestyle led to a conflict with educator Slater, who condemned Ian for his appearance, driving style and numerous casual relationships with women. Slater persuaded Fleming's mother to take her son from Eton at the beginning of the second semester so that the young man could take preparatory courses before entering the Royal Military College in Sandhurst. In Sandhurst, Ian did not spend even a year: he left college in 1927 without passing the commission and contracting gonorrhea.

In 1927, Evelyn sent her son to Tennerhof in Kitzbühel, Austria, a small private school run by Adlerian follower and former British spy Hernan Forbes Dennis and his writer wife Phyllis Bottom; here Jan had to prepare for a possible job at the Foreign Office. After receiving language practice at Tennerhof, Fleming studied for some time at the University of Munich and Geneva. In Geneva, he began an affair with Monique Panshad de Bott, the couple was not even engaged for long during 1931, but Fleming's mother insisted on breaking the relationship. Yang applied to join the Foreign Office but failed his exams. Evelyn intervened again in her son’s affairs, agreeing in October 1931 with Sir Roderick Jones, head of the Reuters news agency, about the position of assistant editor and journalist for Ian. In 1933, Fleming spent some time in Moscow, where he covered the Stalinist show trial of six engineers from the British company Metropolitan-Vickers accused of espionage. In Moscow, Ian tried to arrange an interview with Joseph Stalin and was shocked to receive a note personally signed by the Soviet leader, in which he apologized for not being able to meet with Fleming.

In October 1933, Ian succumbed to his family's persuasion and went to work in the banking sector, whose representative was his uncle Hartcourt. There Fleming was promoted to financier at Cull & Co. In 1935 he joined Rowe and Pitman in Bishopsgate as a stockbroker. Jan did not succeed as a financier or a broker. In early 1939, Fleming began an affair with Anne O'Neill (née Charteris), who was married to Shane O'Neill, 3rd Baron O'Neill; at the same time, Anne had a relationship with the owner of the Daily Mail and heir to Lord Rosemer, Esmond Harmsworth.

The Second World War

In May 1939, Fleming was recruited to the position of personal assistant by Rear Admiral John Godfrey, who was director of the Royal Navy's Intelligence Directorate. Jan entered the service in August 1939; he got a codename 17F and a room for work No. 39 in the Admiralty. Writer's biographer Andrew Lisette notes that Fleming "had no obvious qualifications" for the position. As part of the appointment, Fleming was admitted to the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in July 1939; enrollment was carried out with the rank of lieutenant, but a few months later Yang was promoted to commander.

Fleming proved invaluable as Godfrey's assistant and excelled in administrative work. Godfrey was known for his harsh temper and had enemies in government circles. He often used Fleming as a liaison between Naval Intelligence and other military directorates such as MI6, Propaganda Directorate, Directorate special operations, The Joint Intelligence Committee and the Office of the Prime Minister.

According to historian Ben McIntyre, on September 29, 1939, shortly after the outbreak of war, Godfrey circulated a memorandum in which "there were all the signs ... of Lieutenant Commander Ian Fleming." The document was titled "Trout Memo"; the schemes to deceive the enemy during the war, described in the memorandum, have been compared to fly fishing. The memo described how to lure submarines of the Axis countries and German surface ships to the minefields. The 1939 memo was titled "Suggestions (not very good)" and ended with the words "The following sentences are used in Basil Thompson's book: a corpse dressed as a pilot, with dispatches in its pockets, can be dumped on the coast with a parachute that allegedly did not open. I understand that there is no difficulty in obtaining a corpse at a naval hospital, but it must be fresh. " The scheme in which it was proposed to plant a corpse with false documents and misleading military plans on enemy territory was listed in memo number twenty-eight. The disinforming corpse idea was proposed by Charles Cholmondoli in October 1942 for Operation Mincemeat, which convinced the German high command that the allied forces were planning to invade Greece and Sardinia in mid-1943, when the real target was Sicily.

In 1940, Fleming and Godfrey recruited Kenneth Mason, professor of geography at the University of Oxford, to prepare reports on the geography of the countries involved in the military operation. These reports were the forerunners of the Naval Intelligence Directory, created between 1941 and 1946.

On September 12, 1940, Fleming sent a memorandum to Godfrey proposing a plan of operation to obtain information on the Enigma codes used by the German naval forces. The idea of ​​the plan was to "get" a German bomber, put a man with a German-speaking crew and dressed in Luftwaffe uniforms in it, and crash the bomber into the English Channel. The bomber team was to attack their German rescuers, take their boat and bring the Enigma back to England. Much to the annoyance of Alan Turing and Peter Twinn of Bletchley Park, the mission never came to fruition. According to Fleming's niece Lucy, the Air Force official believed that if they shot down a bomber over the canal, it would sink very quickly.

Fleming also worked with Colonel "Wild Bill" Donovan, President Roosevelt's special envoy for intelligence cooperation. In May 1941, Ian accompanied Godfrey to the United States, where he helped create the concept of the Bureau of Information Coordination, a department that would later become the Office of the United States. strategic services and the Central Intelligence Agency.

Fleming was involved in the development of Operation Goldeneye in 1941-1942; the operation was a plan to maintain a working intelligence structure in Spain in the event of a German seizure of territory. Fleming's plan was to maintain contact with Gibraltar and launch sabotage operations against the Nazis. In 1941, Ian contacted Donovan to ensure support from his American counterparts, who should not have allowed the German domination of the sea.

30 assault unit

In 1942, Fleming formed a commando unit known as No. 30 Commando or 30 Assault Unit (30AU) and consisted of intelligence specialists. The purpose of the unit was to capture enemy documents from former target headquarters near the front line. It was similar to the German group led by Otto Skorzeny; a German group performed similar tasks during the Cretan operation in May 1941. Fleming considered Skorzeny's group "one of the most outstanding innovations in German intelligence."

Fleming did not directly participate in operations with the unit, but he selected targets and directed operations from the rear. Initially, the unit included only thirty people, but subsequently the number increased fivefold. It included fighters from other commando units; they studied hand-to-hand combat, breaking into safes and opening locks at special operations control facilities. In late 1942, Captain (later Rear Admiral) Edmund Rushbrook succeeded John Godfrey as head of Naval Intelligence; Fleming lost his influence in the organization, although he retained control of the commando unit. Ian was unpopular among the members of the unit: the commandos did not like that Fleming called them his "Indians."

Before landing in Normandy in 1944, most of the unit's operations took place in the Mediterranean, although the commandos secretly participated in the unsuccessful raid on Dieppe (the unit's goal was to capture Enigma and related materials). The unit conducted several successful operations in Sicily and in Italy, thus earning the trust of naval intelligence.

In March 1944, Fleming oversaw the distribution of intelligence among the Royal Navy in preparation for Operation Overlord. Jan was removed from the unit in June 1944, although he retained some involvement in its activities. Fleming visited the unit during and after Operation Overlord, in particular during the attack on Cherbourg. There, he was concerned that the commandos were being used as an ordinary special forces, and not a reconnaissance unit. Fleming considered this use of unit forces and the capabilities of experienced operatives a waste of human resources, especially during an operation that threatened the collection of vital important information... Consequently, the management of the unit was revised. Jan also visited the unit's positions at Tambakh Castle in Germany, where the archive of the German navy has been located since 1870.

In December 1944, Fleming was sent on a reconnaissance and study tour to the Far East on behalf of the Director of Naval Intelligence. Most of the trip was devoted to studying the possibility of using the commando unit in the Pacific region.

T-force

The success of Unit No. 30 Commando led to the decision in August 1944 to create a “target force” unit that became known as the T-Force. In an official memo, kept at the National Archives in London, the unit's role is described as follows: “T-Force = Target Force [created] to protect documents, people and equipment by intelligence and combat [units] personnel following capture major cities, ports and the like in the liberated territories and territories of the enemy. "

Fleming sat on the committee that determined the objectives of the T-Force unit and recorded them in Black books intended for the employees of the unit. The unit's infantry was partially formed from the 5th Battalion of the Royal Regiment, which was part of the 2nd Army. The unit was responsible for guarding targets of interest to the British military; these targets included nuclear research laboratories, gas research centers, and individual rocket scientists. The unit achieved notable achievements during the attack on the German port city of Kiel, where the research center was located, which developed engines for the V-2, Messerschmitt Me.163 Komet and high-speed submarines. Fleming later used information about T-Force activities in writing his books, in particular the novel "Moon Rider".

In 1942, Fleming participated in the Anglo-American summit of intelligence services in Jamaica and, despite rainy weather during the summit, he decided to settle on the island after the war. Fleming's friend Ivar Bryce helped him find land in the parish of St Mary's, where a house called the Golden Eye was built in 1945. The origin of the name of the house and estate where Fleming wrote the Bond novels is debatable. Fleming himself said that the name was given simultaneously in honor of the military operation Goldeneye and Carson McCullers novel "Glare in the Golden Eye", which describes the use of British naval bases in the Caribbean by the American navy.

Fleming was awarded the Danish Medal of Freedom in 1947 for his assistance in the withdrawal of Danish officers from the occupied country to Great Britain.

Post-war years

After demobilization in May 1945, Fleming took over as foreign director at the Kemsley newspaper group, which at the time owned The Sunday Times. Jan was responsible for managing the publication's worldwide network of correspondents. A contract with the Kemsley newspaper group allowed Fleming to take three months of vacation each winter, which he spent at his home in Jamaica. Ian devoted himself entirely to newspaper work until December 1959, but continued to write articles and attended weekly editorial meetings on Tuesdays until at least 1961.

After her first husband, Anne Charteris, died during the war, she decided to marry Fleming, but Ian chose to remain a bachelor. On June 28, 1945, Anne became the wife of Esmond Harmsworth, 2nd Viscount Rosermer. However, the romance between Fleming and Anne continued; she often visited Ian in Jamaica under the pretext of visiting his friend and neighbor Noel Coward. In 1948, Anne gave birth to a stillborn daughter, Mary, by Fleming. In 1951, Esmond divorced his wife due to her relationship with Jan. On March 24 of the following year, a few months before the birth of their son Caspar, Ann and Fleming were married in Jamaica. Both Ann and Fleming had a relationship on the side during their marriage. The most famous was Ann's romance with Hugh Gaitskell, leader of the Labor Party and the British opposition; Ian had a long-term relationship with one of his Jamaican neighbors, Blanche Blackwell, who was the mother of Chris Blackwell of Island Records.

1950s

By three o'clock in the morning, the smell of tobacco smoke and sweat becomes unbearable. The players' nervous tension - a tight ball of greed, fear and concentration - reaches its limit; feelings come into their own, emotions get out of control.

The first lines of "Casino Royale"

Yang first told his friends about his plans to write a spy novel during the war. Fleming began work on his first book, Casino Royale, at the Golden Eye Mansion on February 17, 1952, drawing inspiration from his own experiences and imaginations. As Fleming later argued, he began to write a novel to distract from upcoming wedding with a pregnant Ann, and considered him "a terribly awkward opus." The manuscript was printed in London by Joan Howe, mother of travel writer Rory MacLaine and Fleming's secretary during his tenure at The Times; red-haired Joan became one of the prototypes of Miss Moneypenny, one of the characters in the Bond novels. Claire Blanchard, Fleming's ex-girlfriend, discouraged him from publishing the book or offered to print it under a pseudonym.

While the preliminary draft of the first novel was in its final stages, Ian let his friend and writer William Plomer see a copy of the draft, who noted that "there is no intrigue at all." Nonetheless, Plomer felt that the book might well be promising, and so he sent the draft manuscript to Jonathan Cape. At first there was no enthusiasm for the novel, but Jan's brother, Peter, whose books were also published in the Jonathan Cape, persuaded the publishers to print his brother's first novel. On April 13, 1953, Casino Royale was released in hardcover with a cover designed by Fleming for 10 shillings 6 pence. The book sold out very quickly and it took three more copies to meet demand.

The plot of the novel revolved around the adventures of James Bond, an officer of the secret intelligence service known as MI-6. Bond was also known by the codename 007 and was the commander of the Royal Naval Reserve. The protagonist received his name in honor of the American ornithologist James Bond. Birdwatcher Bond was an expert on Caribbean birds and the finalist of the Bird of the West Indies ornithological guide; Fleming, himself a bird watcher, owned a copy of the guide and later wrote to James' wife: "This short, unromantic, Anglo-Saxon, manly name was what I needed, and thus the second James Bond was born." In a 1962 interview with The New Yorker, Fleming explained: “When I wrote my first novel in 1953, I wanted to make Bond a very boring, uninteresting person with whom something happened; I wanted him to be a blunt instrument ... when I was puzzled about finding a name for my protagonist, I thought 'God, [James Bond] is the most boring name I've ever heard.'

In the image of the protagonist of Fleming's works, the qualities of those people whom Ian met during his service in intelligence were embodied; the author confessed that Bond "united [in himself] all types of secret agents and commandos that I met during the war." Among those with whom Bond wrote was also Jan's brother Peter, whom Fleming admired and who participated in operations behind enemy lines in Greece and Norway during the war. Fleming imagined that outwardly Bond would look like the composer, singer and actor Hogi Carmichael; the historian Ben McIntyre suggested that the features of Fleming himself are also visible in the described Ian Bond. In the novels, Bond is described as "dark, rather bloodthirsty with good looks."

Some aspects of Bond's personality were written off by Fleming from Konrad O'Brien-ffrench, a spy whom Fleming met while skiing in Kitzbühel in the 1930s, Patrick Delzel-Job, who served with honors in No. 30 Commando during the war, and Bill "Biff" Dunderdale, head of MI6 in Paris, who wore cufflinks and suits self made and drove around Paris in a Rolls-Royce. Other likely prototypes for Bond were Sir Fitzroy MacLaine, who was behind enemy lines in the Balkans, and MI6 double agent Dusan Popov. In addition, Fleming endowed the hero with personality traits and addictions such as golf handicap, omelet addiction, gambling, and the use of a certain brand of toiletries.

After the publication of the first novel, Fleming used his annual leave in Jamaica to write another Bond story. Twelve Bond novels and two short stories were published between 1953 and 1966; the last novel and the second collection of stories were published after the death of the author. Most of the original data for the stories was taken by Fleming from own experience work in naval intelligence and from the events of the Cold War. The plot of the novel "From Russia with Love" features a cipher machine "Spectrum", with the help of which the antagonists are going to lure Bond into a trap; the cipher machine in the work is a reference to the German cipher machine called the Enigma. The spy scene on the Orient Express is a reference to the story of Eugene Karp, the US naval attaché and intelligence agent in Budapest, who used the Orient Express in February 1950 to transport documents about the American spy network in the Eastern Bloc. Soviet killers drugged the guide, killed Karp and dumped his body in a tunnel in the south of Salzburg.

Many of the names used by Fleming in the Bond stories had real bearers: Scaramanga, the main villain of The Man with the Golden Pistol, was named after Fleming's Eton classmate, with whom Ian feuded; Goldfinger from the novel of the same name was named after the British architect Erno Goldfinger, whose work disgusted Fleming; Sir Hugo Drax, the Moon Rider antagonist, was named after Fleming's acquaintance, Admiral Reginald Drax, and Drax's assistant, Krebs, was named after Hitler's last chief of staff, General Krebs; one of the homosexual villains of the novel "Diamonds Are Forever," "Boofy" Kidd, was named after one of Fleming's close friends and a relative of his wife, Arthur Gore, the Earl of Arran, who among his friends was known by the nickname Boofy.

Fleming's first nonfiction fiction, The Diamond Smugglers, was published in 1957 and is based in part on the data that Fleming collected while writing Diamonds Are Forever. Much of the material appeared in The Sunday Times and was based on Fleming's interview with John Collard, a member of the International Diamond Security Organization and former MI5 agent. The book received mixed reviews in the US and UK.

The first five Bond books - Casino Royale, Live and Let Die, Moon Rider, Diamonds Are Forever, and From Russia With Love - generally received positive reviews... This began to change in March 1958, when Bernard Bergonzi of Twentieth Century magazine considered Fleming's work to contain "a pronounced line of voyeurism and sadomasochism"; he wrote that the books showed "a complete absence of any ethical guidelines." In the article, Fleming was compared to John Bucken and Raymond Chandler; the comparison turned out to be not in favor of Jan, both from a moral point of view and according to literary criteria. A month later, Doctor No was published and Fleming received harsh criticism from a number of reviewers who, in Ben McIntyre's words, were "obsessed with Fleming." The harshest criticism came from Paul Johnson of the New Statesman, who, in a review entitled Sex, Snobbery, and Sadism, considered the novel "without a doubt the nastiest book I've read." He also noted that "by the time I was a third of the way, I had to suppress a powerful impulse to just throw [the book] away"; Bond Johnson described it as a “social phenomenon of a certain value,” which was perceived as a negative element, as the phenomenon concerned “the three main ingredients of Doctor No, all unhealthy and completely English: the sadism of a school bully, the mechanical two-dimensional sex desires of a frustrated teenager, and gross snobbery. an adult from the suburbs. " Johnson did not see anything positive in the novel - in his opinion, "Mr. Fleming has no literary skill, the structure of the book is chaotic, it consists entirely of incidents and accidents, later forgotten also in a random manner."

Andrew Lisette wrote that Fleming found himself in "personal and artistic decline" after marital problems and critical attacks on his work. Goldfinger was written before Doctor No was published; The next book after the critics' attack was the collection of short stories "For Your Eyes Only", which consisted of short stories reworked from sketches for the television series. Lisette noted that when Fleming began writing screenplays for television and short stories, “Ian’s fatigue and self-doubt began to affect his writing,” as can be seen in Bond’s thoughts.

1960s

In 1960, the Kuwait Oil Company commissioned Fleming for a book on the country and its oil industry, but the Kuwaiti government did not approve the manuscript, titled State of Excitement: Impressions of Kuwait, and the publication never saw the light of day. As Fleming said, “The oil company approved the manuscript, but out of a sense of duty handed it over to the Kuwaiti government for review. The Sheikhs expressed concern when they found unpleasant and [at the same time] uncritical comments and criticism; in particular, [they were worried about] passages related to the adventurous past of a country that now wants to be civilized and wants to forget its romantic origins. "

Jan was disappointed with the books For Your Eyes Only and Ball lightning"- the last of them was a novelization of the film script, which was co-written by Fleming. Work began in 1958 when Jan's friend Ivar Bryce introduced him to a young Irish screenwriter and director, Kevin McLory; Fleming, McLory and Ernest Cuneo began work on the script. In October, McLory brought in experienced screenwriter Jack Whittingham, and by December 1959, Fleming had received the script. Ian had some ideas for further collaboration with McLaury; in January 1960, Fleming announced his intention to submit the script to Music Corporation of America and to recommend Kevin on his behalf and on behalf of Bryce as the producer of the future film. In addition, he said that if the Music Corporation of America abandons the film because of McLory's involvement, he will either have to sell his rights to the corporation, abandoning the deal, or sue.

In January-March 1960, Fleming, while working at his villa in Jamaica, wrote Fireball based on a script he had written a year earlier. In March of the following year, MacLory read the preliminary draft and, together with Whittingham, immediately appealed to the High Court of London to stop the publication. After two litigation(the second took place in November 1961) Fleming proposed to McLory to resolve the issue out of court. McLory retained the literary and script rights to the film, while Fleming retained the rights to the novel, provided the book provided information that it was "based on a revised script by Kevin McLaury, Jack Whittingham and the author."

Fleming's books have always sold well, but demand skyrocketed in 1961. On March 17, 1961, four years after publication and three years after the sharp criticism of Doctor No, Life magazine named the novel From Russia with Love as one of President Kennedy's ten favorite books. Fleming and Kennedy previously met in Washington. The fact that the president liked the book, and the way news of it spread across the country, boosted circulation, making Fleming the top-selling crime novelist in the United States. Fleming himself considered the novel "From Russia with Love" to be his best creation, although he noted: "It is remarkable that each book found its own audience and was not completely condemned."

In April 1961, Fleming suffered a heart attack at a weekly meeting at The Sunday Times. While Ian was recovering, one of his friends, Duff Dunbar, presented him with a copy of Beatrice Potter's The Tale of Natkin the Squirrel and invited Fleming to write down the tale he tells his son Caspar every night before bed. Fleming happily got down to business and jokingly wrote to his publisher Michael Howard of the Jonathan Cape: “There is no such thing, even on the brink of the grave, that I am not your slave”; Fleming's work resulted in his only children's book, Bang-Bang-oh-oh-oh, published in October 1964, two months after the author's death.

In June 1961, Ian sold a six-month option to film adaptation of published and future James Bond novels and stories to Harry Saltzman. Salzman agreed with Albert Broccoli to co-film the Bond stories, for which the EON Productions film company was created; After a lengthy search for the lead role in five films, starting with Doctor No (1962), Sean Connery was confirmed. The image of Bond presented by Connery in the films also influenced Literary Bond: in the novel You Only Live Twice, the first written after the film adaptation of Doctor No, Fleming endowed Bond with a sense of humor that was absent in previous books.

The second nonfiction book, Exciting Cities, was a reworking of a series of articles by The Sunday Times, based on impressions of several cities around the world that Ian visited between 1959 and 1960. In 1964, at the request of producer Norman Felton, who was planning to direct a series about spies, Fleming proposed several ideas, among which were the names of the main characters for the series "Agents of ANCL." - Napoleon Solo and April Denser. Fleming's participation in the Felton project was opposed by the board of EON Productions, who wished to avoid any legal problems if any of the content of the project coincided with the content of the Bond films.

In January 1964, Ian traveled to Jamaica, where he spent his last vacation and wrote the original version of The Man with the Golden Gun. Jan was dissatisfied with the manuscript; he sent a copy to William Plomer. Fleming increasingly disliked the novel and planned to rewrite it, but Plomer dissuaded Ian, finding the novel acceptable for publication.

Death

All my adult life Fleming, a heavy smoker and alcohol drinker, suffered from cardiovascular disease. In 1961, at the age of 53, he suffered a heart attack and recovered with difficulty. On August 11, 1964, staying at the Canterbury Hotel, Fleming went to lunch at the golf club and later dined at the hotel with friends. The day was tiresome for the writer; Fleming suffered another heart attack shortly after eating. He died early the next morning at the age of 56; on that day, Fleming's son Caspar turned twelve years old. With the last words Fleming apologized to the ambulance staff for burdening the medics: “I'm sorry to bother you guys. I don’t know how you manage to move so fast on the roads these days. ” Ian Fleming was buried in the churchyard in the village of Sevenhampton near Swindon.

Fleming's last two books, The Man with the Golden Pistol and Octopus and Sparks from Eyes, were published posthumously. The Man with the Golden Pistol was published eight months after Fleming's death and did not go through final authoring. As a result, Jonathan Cape considered the novel weak and handed the manuscript to Kingsley Amis, although it never took advantage of his suggestions. Fleming's biographer Henry Chandler notes that the novel "received polite and rather sad reviews, noting that the book was obviously unfinished and not the pinnacle of Fleming's work." The last Bond book, Octopus and the Sparks from the Eyes, in two stories, was published in Britain on June 23, 1966.

In October 1975, Fleming's 23-year-old son, Caspar, committed suicide with an overdose of drugs; Jan's widow, Ann, died in 1981. Both Fleming's son and widow were buried next to Ian in Sevenhampton.

Literary works

The writer Raymond Benson, who later wrote the Bond series, noted that Fleming's books could be divided according to stylistic features for two periods. The first includes works written between 1953 and 1960 that tended to focus on "mood, character, and plot advancement"; books published between 1961 and 1966 turned out to be more detailed and imaginative. Benson claimed that Fleming had become a "master storyteller" by the time of writing Fireball in 1961.

Historian Jeremy Blake divides the series according to Fleming's villains; this distribution is also supported by Christoph Linder. Thus, the first eight books (from "Casino Royale" to "For Your Eyes Only") are classified as "stories of the Cold War", where the antagonist was Smersh, after the warming of relations between East and West, replaced in three books ("Fireball", "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" and "You Only Live Twice") by Blofeld and SPECTR. Blake and Linder classify the remaining books - The Man with the Golden Gun, Octopus and Sparks from His Eyes, and The Spy Who Loved Me - as later stories Fleming ".

Stylistics of works

Fleming said of his work: "Although a thriller cannot be called literature with a capital letter, you can write what I describe as' a thriller meant to be read as literature." Among those who influenced him, Ian named Raymond Chandler, Dashil Hammett, Eric Ambler and Graham Greene. William Cook of the New Statesman magazine considered Bond “the culmination of an important and notorious tradition in English literature. As a child, Fleming gulped tales of the Bulldog Drummond Sapper and the stories of John Buchan by Richard Hannay. His genius repackaged these grandfather's adventures to match post-war Britain ... In Bond, he created the Drummond of the jet era. " According to Umberto Eco, Jan's work was also influenced by Mickey Spillane.

In May 1963, Fleming wrote an article for Books and Bookmen in which he described his approach to Bond storytelling as follows: three o'clock in the morning ... and I work for another hour or two between six and seven in the evening. I never fix anything or go back to see what I wrote ... following my formula of writing 2000 words a day. " Raymond Benson calls Fleming's style the "Fleming Sweep", which is the "hook" thrown by the author at the end of a chapter to drag the reader into a new one. These hooks go well with what Anthony Burgess called "enhanced journalistic style" - it's about "storytelling speed that fools the reader with ridicule of an already past danger."

Umberto Eco analyzed Fleming's writings from a structural point of view and identified a number of plot line oppositions that provide structure for the narrative:

• Bond - M
• Bond - Villain
• Villain - Woman
• Woman - Bond
• Free world - Soviet Union
• United Kingdom - Non-Anglo-Saxon countries
• Debt - Sacrifice
• Greed - Ideals
• Love is Death
• Case - Plan
• Luxury - Deprivation
• Excess - Moderation
• Perversion - Innocence
• Loyalty - dishonor

Eco also noted that the villains in the Bond books tended to come from Central Europe, Slavic countries, or the Mediterranean; they had a complex legacy and a "tangled dark past." Eco also noted that villains were invariably asexual or homosexual, resourceful, shrewd, and wealthy. Jeremy Blake shares Eco's point of view and notes that “Fleming did not use class enemies as villains, instead he turned to physical deformities or ethnicity ... In addition, in Britain, villains use foreign servants and henchmen ... This racism is reflected not only in the pronounced theme of interwar adventure, as it was in the novels about Buchan, but also in a wide literary culture ". Writer Louise Welch says Live and Let Die is "paranoid that some sections of white society feel [themselves]" the way the civil rights movement felt, challenging prejudice and inequality.

Fleming used famous brands and household details to create the reality of what is happening in the novels. Kingsley Amis called this the "Fleming Effect," which he described as "the creative use of information that pervades the fantasy of the Bond world ... [that] is tied to, or at least balanced with, some reality."

Subject of work

UK position in the world

The Bond books were written in post-war Britain, when the country was still in the imperial phase. As the number of books increased, the empire faded; journalist William Cook notes that “Bond indulged Britain’s bloat and more insecure self-esteem, flattering [showing] us the fantasy that Britain still has the same weight.” The fall of British power is shown in several novels: in From Russia with Love, this is reflected in Bond's conversations with Darko Kerim, when Bond confesses that in England “we no longer show teeth, only gums”. This same theme is especially strong in one of the subsequent books, the 1964 novel You Only Live Twice, in conversations between Bond and the head of Japanese intelligence, Tiger Tanaka. Fleming is acutely aware of the country's loss of prestige in the 1950s and early 1960s, especially during the Indonesian-Malaysian confrontation.

Jeremy Blake believed that the escape of four MI6 members to the Soviet Union had a significant impact on the perception of Britain in US intelligence circles. The last MI6 member to cross to the USSR was Kim Philby, who fled in January 1963 while Fleming was still working on You Only Live Twice. The briefing between Bond and M takes place for the first time in twelve books; here Fleming acknowledges the flight of the agents. Blake claims that the conversation between Bond and M allows Fleming to contemplate the fall of the British Empire along with a minor flight of agents and Profumo's connection in 1963. Two escapes took place prior to Fleming's Casino Royale, and the work can be seen as "[Fleming's] attempt to reflect concerns about the moral ambiguity of the post-war world that has spawned traitors like Burgess and MacLane."

Towards the end of the series, in The Man with the Golden Pistol, as noted by Blake, independent investigation is conducted in Jamaica, while the CIA and MI6 are only performing duties "for the communications and direction of the Jamaican Criminal Investigation Department"; this new world of non-colonial, independent Jamaica once again highlighted the fall of the empire. The country's decline was reflected in Bond's ties to American equipment and people in several novels. The shift in the geopolitical situation forced Fleming to change the Soviet organization Smersh to the international terrorist group SPECTR in the "Fireball". According to Blake, SPECTRUM provided some kind of continuity in relation to other novels.

The aftermath of the war

Throughout the Bond book series, the influence of World War II is felt. Journalist Ben McIntyre believes that Bond was "the perfect antidote to post-war asceticism, rationing and the looming foreboding of losing power in Britain" at a time when coal and food were distributed through coupons. Fleming often used war as a signal to create good or bad characters: in For Your Eyes Only, the villain is a former Gestapo officer Hammerstein, while the sympathetic character Colonel Jones, an officer of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, served under the command of British Montgomery in the 8th Army. Likewise, in Moon Rider, Drax (Count Hugo von Drache) is "a megalomaniac German Nazi disguised as an English gentleman" and his assistant Krebs bears the same name as Hitler's last chief of staff. In this way, Fleming “exploits another British cultural antipathy of the 1950s. The Germans after World War II became another simple and obvious target of the bad press. " As the number of Bond books increased, the theme of the secondary threat from Germany was gradually replaced by the theme of the Cold War.

Companionship

In the novels, the theme of camaraderie and friendship between Bond and people with whom he had to work during missions periodically emerged. Raymond Benson believed that Bond's relationship with his allies "added another dimension to Bond's character and, ultimately, to the thematic continuity of the novels." In Live and Let Die, Agents Quarrell and Leiter appear to the reader as important friends and allies of Bond, most notably in Bond's reaction to the shark attack on Leiter; Benson notes that "Bond's commitment to friends is as strong as his commitment to work." In Doctor No, Quarrel appears as Bond's “irreplaceable ally”. Benson sees no evidence of discrimination in their relationship and notes Bond's genuine regret and sadness over Quarrell's death.

"Traitor within"

From the first novel in the series, the theme of betrayal has been strong. Bond's goal at Casino Royale, Le Chiffre, who was the chief treasurer of the French communist trade union, and the implications of the fifth column, hit the UK audiences in particular; communist influence in trade association raised questions in the press and parliament, especially after the escape of Burgess and McLain in 1951. The theme of the inner traitor continues in the novels Live and Let Die and The Moon Rider.

Good versus evil

Raymond Benson considers the fight between good and evil as the most obvious theme of the books. In Goldfinger, this becomes clearer than ever; here the motive of George the Victorious is directly indicated: “Bond crossed himself. This time it was the fight between Saint George and the dragon. And Saint George had to move and come up with something until the dragon laid the egg, which he now bears so carefully. " Blake notes that the image of George the Victorious is more English than the general British personification.

Anglo-American relations

The novels often raise the theme of Anglo-American relations, reflecting the leading role of the United States in protecting the West. In the post-war period, tensions arose between the countries due to Britain's attempts to maintain the imperial system and America's aspirations for a new capitalist world order; Fleming did not focus on this explicitly, but instead created "an impression of the normalcy of British imperial rule and action." Writer and journalist Christopher Hitchens noted that “the main paradox classic stories about Bond is that although they are outwardly dedicated to the Anglo-American struggle against communism, they are full of contempt for America and Americans. " Although Fleming was aware of the tensions between the two countries, he did not pay much attention to them. Kingsley Amis, in his work The James Bond Dossier, points out that "Leighton is such a nonentity ... he is an American, accepts orders from British Bond and Bond does everything better than him."

In three novels (Goldfinger, Live and Let Die, and Doctor No), it is Bond, the British agent, who must deal with what the American problem is. Blake believes that although this American property is threatened in Doctor No, a British agent and a British warship with British troops on board is sent to the island at the end of the novel to solve the problem. Fleming is becoming increasingly biased about America, and his comments in the penultimate novel reflect this; Bond's responses to Tanaka's comments about the dwindling interaction between the two countries stand in stark contrast to the warm relationship between Bond and Leiter in previous books.

Heritage

In the late 1950s, writer Jeffrey Jenkins suggested that Fleming write a Bond novel set in South Africa and sent him his own thoughts on a storyline that Jenkins said Fleming saw great potential. After Fleming's death, Jenkins wrote Per Fine Ounce for Glidrose Publications, which, however, was never published.

The first attempt to write about James Bond after the death of Ian Fleming was made by the Bulgarian writer Andrei Gulyashki. In the fall of 1965, reports began to appear in the press that Gulashki was going to use the image of Bond in his next novel about Avvakum Zakhov. However, when the novel was completed, Ian Fleming's legal representatives banned the publication of the novel using the James Bond character. Then Gulashki removed one zero from the character, and as a result, in 1966, the novel "Avvakum Zakhov against 07" was published, and the image of Bond was not used.

Beginning with Colonel Sun by Kingsley Amis, numerous authors wrote Bond books under the pseudonym Robert Markham; Continuing the Fleming cause was Sebastian Faulkes, who authored The Devil Doesn't Like to Wait, published under the Ian Fleming allonym for his 100th birthday.

During Fleming's lifetime, 30 million copies of his books were sold; twice as many were realized in the two years after Ian's death. In 2008, The Times ranked Fleming at number fourteen on its list of Fifty Greatest British Writers Since 1945. In 2002, Ian Fleming Publications announced the creation of the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, awarded by the Crime Writers' Association for Best Thriller, Adventure or Spy Novel, originally published in the UK.

EON Productions, which made Bond films, continued to film adaptations after Ian's death. Along with two films from other film companies, twenty-four film adaptations were filmed, the last of which - "007: Specter" - was created in 2015. EON Productions grossed over $ 6.2 billion worldwide, making the Bond film series one of the highest grossing.

The influence of on-screen and book Bond is evident in various books, films and characters such as Austin Powers, Carry On Spying and Jason Bourne. In 2011, Fleming became the first English-language writer to have an international airport named after: Ian Fleming International Airport near Oracabessa, Jamaica, was officially opened on January 12, 2011 by Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding and Fleming's niece Lucy.

Work

James Bond Books

• Casino Royale (1953)
• Live and let die (1954)
• Moon racer (1955)
• From Russia with love (1957)
• Diamonds are forever (1957)
• Dr. No (1958)
• Goldfinger (1959)
• For your eyes only(collection of stories; 1960)
• Ball lightning (1961)
• The spy who loved me (1962)
• On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1963)
• You only live twice (1964)
• The man with the golden pistol (1965)
• Octopus and sparks from the eyes(collection of stories; 1966)

Children's stories

• Chitty chitty bang bang (1964)

Documentary prose

• Diamond smugglers (1957)
• Exciting cities (1963)

Biographical films

Ian Fleming is a character in several films and television series:

• Golden Eye: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming(TV movie, 1989; in the role of Fleming - Charles Dance). The film tells about his life during the war, his personal life and the writing of Bond novels.
• Spymaker: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming(biographical television movie, 1990; in the role of Fleming - Jason Connery). The film follows Fleming's adventures during the war.
• Ian Fleming is the father of agent 007(TV documentary film by Elena Tikhonova, the first film about Fleming from Lev Nikolaev's series "Geniuses and Villains", Russia, 2004; when making the film, archival footage was used).
• Ian Fleming: Bond Creator(docudrama, 2005; as Fleming - Ben Daniels)
• Ian Fleming: Where Bond Started(TV documentary, 2008; archival footage was used to create the film)
• Ian Fleming. Father of the nation's hero(TV documentary by Maria Nikolaeva and Oleg Barayev, the second film about Fleming from Lev Nikolaev's series "Geniuses and Villains", Russia, 2011; archival footage was used to create the film)
• Age of Heroes(action-packed thriller, 2011; in the role of Fleming - James D'Arcy). The film tells about the commando unit created by the Fleming during the war.
• Fleming: The Man Who Wanted To Become Bond(mini-series 2014; as Fleming - Dominic Cooper)

Overture

Ian (Jan) Lancaster Fleming was born in 1908 to Valentine Fleming, the son of a wealthy Scottish banker. For the boy, the impossible existed in choosing a career, and it’s not only about his grandfather’s money - in England money alone doesn’t mean that all doors will be open for you. More importantly, Valentine Fleming, MP and Oxford landowner, was an outstanding politician... He died as a hero at the front of the First World War, and his obituary in The Times was written by Winston Churchill himself. Ian was then only nine years old.

Ian's mother, Evelyne Saint-Croix Rose, was assigned a very high allowance by will - with the condition, however, that she would never marry again. In other words, he will forever remain the widow of Valentine Fleming. The ghost of his father accompanied the boy constantly, hovering over his head, forcing him to straighten his back and constantly look around - "Am I doing the right thing?" At the insistence of his mother, both Ian and his older brother Peter asked in the evening prayer that the Lord would allow them to be like their father.

For Ian, the bar was raised too high, but Peter withstood the test with honor, becoming the head of the family, a creature of his father and - a curse for his younger brother. Peter was one of the best students at Eton and later at Oxford. Ian studied at Eton for two years, and then flew out in disgrace without receiving a degree (this was due to an incident involving a girl). He himself did not regret it, since every dog ​​at Eton saw in him only the youngest child of the brilliant Fleming family.

Ian Fleming continued his education at Sandhurst, a military academy, but did not receive an officer's rank either. Subsequently, he complained that he was turned away from a military career by the tendency that manifested itself in those years to turn the army into a mechanism, heartlessness, depersonalization. There was no place for heroes in the army of the twentieth century. The thirst for independence pushed him to new activities, where he could truly prove himself, find his individuality ... However, according to the official version, Fleming was kicked out of the academy, convicted of being AWOL.

The young man went to Europe to complete his education. In Kitzbugel, a small Austrian town, he finally found himself. Here they had no idea of ​​either the warrior hero Valentine or the academic star Peter. Here they knew only Ian himself, a handsome, witty Eton with fine manners, charmingly shy in female society.

First action. Before the war.

The training is over. It was time to start a career. Fleming dreamed of working at the Foreign Office, but failed the entrance test and, ironically, went in the footsteps of his older brother, into journalism. The pinnacle of his career at Reuters was reporting on a spy trip across Russia. However, he continued to be the "second" Fleming, as Peter was much more popular.

It seems that it was then that he realized on his own skin that journalism cannot be earned much. His own financial position was highly vulnerable. When the banker grandfather died, he left nothing to his grandchildren. Thus, financial well-being became very relative - it lasted only as long as Evelyn did not re-marry or die. Fleming gritted his teeth and switched to boring banking, not forgetting, however, previous acquaintances. There is every reason to assert that, in fact, he did not stop intelligence activities in favor of the Foreign Ministry.

It is known that in May 1939 Fleming began working openly in naval intelligence. Soon he received the rank of lieutenant, then commander. Per a short time he became the right-hand man of one of the leaders of British intelligence - Admiral John Godfrey.

This was the second finding of oneself, this time - in the profession.

Second action. War.

The outbreak of hostilities was for Fleming in some way a gift of fate. He loved everything from developing disinformation campaigns to operational work. Fleming did vigorous activity on the territory of France (including after the occupation), led the operation to rescue the Albanian king Zog. His talents were highly regarded in Naval Intelligence. Fleming wrote preparatory materials for "Wild Bill" Donovan about the organization of the OSS, the predecessor of the CIA (for which he was awarded a personal weapon). He was also John Godfrey's permanent representative to meetings with Edgar Hoover and William Stephensen in the United States. Fleming later became the head of 30 AU, a group of specially trained warriors who hunted - and quite successfully - the German archives.

V Last year War Fleming made a business trip to Jamaica. A wonderful island, where exotic fruits ripen right under the window and the wind carries a heady aroma ... It was paradise, and Fleming decided that he did not mind living in paradise. And he always tried to fulfill his decisions.

Third action. In a kingdom of your own.

Absolutely nothing is known about Fleming's post-war professional activities. Perhaps he simply retired. I bought myself a piece of land on the west coast of Jamaica, built a house, called it "Goldeneye". For six years, he spent every winter in this house, spinning novels and enjoying nature - until he got involved in another story. He was informed that he would soon become a father. One subtlety: the expectant mother was already married.

The woman's name was Ann Rothermer. She demanded a divorce from her husband and married 44-year-old Fleming. It is difficult to say what was going on in the head of the former intelligence officer, but it was at this time that he sketched the novel "Casino Royale" - about the invincible super agent James Bond.

It is unlikely that he perceived this as a third finding of himself. Very unlikely. He had a great sense of humor. Most likely, he was just having fun. And it’s not his fault that many fans took Bond too seriously.

The fact remains that James Bond fans outnumbered even Sherlock Holmes fans for some time. It's hard to say how things are now. Personally, I bet on Baker Street. But James Bond - thanks in large part to the great Sean Connery - did more than just become an idol for thousands of people. In fact, Fleming created his own fictional British Empire - and the surrounding territories - a raison d'être, which was only for James Bond to have a place to play roulette, drive around in an Aston Martin, drink Dom Perignon, seduce women and turn his puzzling and completely implausible operations.

The last action. The home stretch.

Fleming was not very happily married. In addition, by the end of the 50s, his health sharply deteriorated (to which he did not give a damn about his whole life and, having become ill, did not change his relationship). And in 64, his mother died. The doctors had warned that he would not take the trip to England, but Fleming wanted to attend the funeral by all means. Unfortunately, the doctors were right. On August 11th my heart gave in, it began internal bleeding, and at 1 am on August 12, 1964, the writer was gone. He was 56 years old.

He was buried in Sevenhampton, near the Welsh border. Anne Fleming passed away in 1981, surviving Kasper, their only child with Ian, who died in 1975 from a drug overdose. The entire family was reunited in Sevenhampton Cemetery, under a simple stone obelisk. Interesting, but in different sources I found four different dates of his death - it seems that Ian Fleming liked to fool people after his death. His house in Jamaica still exists, and there is a photograph of the writer on the table.

According to some opinions, only one work of Ian Fleming belongs to the fantastic genre - the novel "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" (1964). But on the other hand, the magazine "World of Fiction" called the series of James Bond novels - the main work of "spy fiction" (spy-fi)!

The novel is set in a town called Royal-les-Eau.
A number of investments turn out to be unsuccessful and the Soviet spy Le Chiffre loses part of his capital. In order to earn money again, he decides to open a baccarat tournament in the city casino. British intelligence wants to take advantage of this moment to expose and bankrupt the Soviet spy. For these purposes, she sends agent James Bond there ... But it turns out to be not so easy to beat Le Chiffre ...

Live and Let Die (1954)

The FBI, CIA and MI6 believe that a black gangster nicknamed Big is secretly collaborating with Soviet intelligence. BIG was formerly an American counterintelligence agent in France, and now leads mafia clan and maintains control, through black workers, of the entire transportation system of the United States. The treasures of the famous pirate Henry Morgan allow him to finance his activities. However, it is thanks to them that the FBI, Felix Leitor and the notorious James Bond are on the trail of BIG.

Moon Rider (1955)

Hugo Drax is one of the richest people in England. He is highly respected in society for the fact that he allocates huge funds to create ballistic missile"Moonraker" for the country's defense forces. But most find him extremely ugly, ill-mannered and eccentric, but tolerate it, attributing to strange habits rich people. James Bond gets an assignment from M to teach Drax a lesson in card game... But at the same time it is important not to attract attention to yourself and not to provoke a scandal ...

Diamonds Are Forever (1956)

British authorities open an investigation large thefts diamonds from mines that are located in the British colonies. The smuggling chain starts in Sierra Leone, then the diamonds go to London. And subsequently they go overseas to America. Run it all american gangsters... MI6 is joining the investigation due to the work outside the UK. Taking into account the complexity of the task, M bets on 007. James Bond must pretend to be a courier and go to the end of the jewelry smuggling chain ...

From Russia with love (1957)

New foreign policy doctrine changes strategy Soviet Union... He becomes less aggressive and more inclined to open dialogue. However, this is only an illusion. The head of SMERSH, General Rough-cutters, orders his best employees, Kronstein and Rosa Klebb, to carry out an intimidation operation, according to which the famous British agent James Bond should be discredited and then killed. KGB sergeant Tatiana Romanova is chosen as bait ...

Doctor No (1958)

In Jamaica, MI6 resident Major Strangeways and his assistant were killed. However, the murder is done in such a way that everyone believes that the couple decided to disappear together. To investigate this seemingly insignificant case, M intends to send James Bond, a miracle survivor after the collision with SMERSH. It is presented as if 007 is going almost to a resort. In addition, the case that the Jamaican residency has been dealing with recently seems almost absurd for intelligence - the decline of the colony pink flamingos on the island of Crab Key. But it is this trail that will direct Bond to the next threat to British (and world) security.

Goldfinger (1959)

After completing his assignment in Mexico, James Bond travels to Britain via Miami and New York. At the Miami airport, he suddenly bumps into a longtime acquaintance - Julius Dupont. He asks Bond for help - to expose one rich man, Aurik Goldfinger, in a card game. After thinking, Bond decides to get down to business, especially since his flight is greatly delayed. The agent manages to withdraw to clean water Goldfinger and he goes to England. But what was his surprise when from M he received an assignment to investigate the smuggling of gold, where the main suspect is Goldfinger ...

For Your Eyes Only (1960)

James Bond is the best MI6 agent. An attractive and brilliantly educated handsome man, but at the same time cruel and deadly. His main job is to save the world from all kinds of threats that can arise anywhere. And he always successfully performs his operations.
Fleming's For Your Eyes Only is a collection of five stories:
- Kill View
- For your eyes only
- Quantum of Solace
- Risk
- Haldebrand's Unique

Ball Lightning (1961)

James Bond succumbs to M's persistent persuasion to go to the Lesnoy sanatorium to restore health and rest. Here he meets a strange type - Count Lippe, who notices a tattoo of the Chinese gang "Red Lightning" on his arm. As a result, a scuffle occurs between them, because of which Lippe is taken to the hospital. Bond does not yet know that this insignificant episode will lead to the disruption of the plans of the secret criminal group SPECTR, which were collected through blackmail. " western world democracy "to achieve a huge amount of money ...

The Spy Who Loved Me (1962)

The Spy Who Loved Me novel will allow readers to learn a lot about James Bond and look at him with different eyes. Namely through the eyes of a person in love - a girl from Canada Vivien Michelle. By virtue of fatal confluence circumstances, she becomes a participant in a cruel and merciless gangster scam, from which it is almost impossible to get out alive. But, as always, James Bond comes to the rescue ...

On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1963)

Blofeld's search does not lead to any results. James Bond unsuccessfully tries to convince M that he needs a new business and a new task. 007 is seriously considering leaving the agents. But everything changes literally in one moment - he meets Teresa di Vicenzo, who is miraculously saved from suicide. Her influential father offers help to Bond in finding Blofeld, but in return he asks an agent so that he can return his daughter's love of life. Bond decides to take this chance and solve two problems at once - to find Blofeld and to improve his personal life, entering into a relationship with attractive Tracy ...

You Only Live Twice (1964)

James Bond is struggling to cope with his depression. And this seriously affects his work - he failed all the last assignments. M is furious and is about to dismiss him, but changes his mind at the last moment. They decide to give Bond a "non-core" task - to establish partnerships with Japanese intelligence, which successfully learned how to decrypt secret Soviet data. However, this is much more difficult than it seems, because Japan is traditionally a US sphere of influence, and the Japanese themselves are in no hurry to enter into contacts with the British.

The Man with the Golden Gun (1965)

The events of the novel "The Man with the Golden Pistol" take place a year after James Bond managed to catch Blofeld. Everyone thinks that Bond died in the Far East, but suddenly he appears in London and asks for an urgent meeting with M to explain the situation. The Secret Service does not immediately agree to this, but in the end Bond arrives at a meeting with M, where he tries to kill him ... Fortunately, everyone survives, but Bond is sent for treatment so that he can recover from the brainwashing by the Soviet authorities. But he needs to rehabilitate himself before M, and therefore he is given an assignment - to find and destroy the assassin Francisco Scaramanga ...

Octopus and Sparks from the Eyes (1966)

"Octopus and Sparks from the Eyes" is the last book of the famous author. It was published after the death of the writer, and is a collection of four stories previously published in various magazines.
Octopus - tells the story of the life of a lonely retired major Dexter Smythe. He calmly lives out his years and already practically does not remember anything from what happened to him during his service in the Special Operations Bureau. But he will have to remember it, not without the help of agent 007 ...

Everything I write about had precedents in real life.

People identify me with James Bond because I also love scrambled eggs, short sleeved shirts and many other things that Bond loves. But I have neither his courage nor his dubious appetites.

When I was writing my first novel about Bond, I wanted him to look unbearable boring person with which incredibly interesting things happen. One of the Bibles of my childhood was the book "Birds of the West Indies" by the famous bird watcher James Bond. I sat down to invent a name for my hero, and suddenly it dawned on me: "God, James Bond is the same boring name I've ever heard." So the most boring name on earth became the most exciting.

I don't like four letter words. I don't like it when they come across on the page.

Beating off on a typewriter for two thousand words for three hours every morning, I created Casino Royale (the first Bond book, written in 1953 - Esquire) in record time. But until I finished the book, I did not rule anything in it and did not rewrite anything. If I had looked back and looked at what I had done the day before, I would definitely have fallen into despair.

I am not of the Shakespearean deck of writers. I have no ambition.

Unfortunately, most of the ways to make money big money is too time-consuming. By the time you manage to make as much as you wanted, you will almost certainly be too old to spend.

I have no intention of wasting my allotted life trying to make it longer.

I hope they write on my grave:"Here lies a man who died from living too much."

The moment you start to die when you are born. So take a simpler approach to death.

Surround yourself with good people. Fighting for them is better than fighting for principles.

People are islands. They don't even touch. No matter how close they seem, they are always separated from one another. Even if you have been married for fifty years.

A woman should always remain an illusion.

This is usually the case: first tenderness, then a touch of a hand, then a kiss, then a passionate kiss, then a touch of bodies, then a climax in the form of a bed, then more bed, then less bed, then boredom, then tears, then bitterness.

Loneliness easily becomes a lover.

Most marriages are not two people. Rather, by subtracting one from the other.

A woman is able to put up almost anything - just not with indifference.

The result of fifty years of emancipation it became that the feminine qualities in women began to die, passing to men. Today, there are an abundance of effeminate men around, who, however, are not homosexual at all. They just don't know what their gender was once. The result is an abundance of inconsistencies: women want to dominate, and men want to be cared for.

A man needs a woman which can be turned on and off - like a light in a room.

Women in a car cannot drive in silence and when women talk, it is important for them to look each other in the eyes. A simple exchange of words is not enough for them: it is important for them to see the expression on the face of the interlocutor - perhaps in order to understand what is hidden behind the spoken words, or in order to analyze the reaction to what was said. The two women in front are constantly distracting each other from the road, and the four women in the car are a real danger, because those in the front not only want to see and hear each other, but they also want to see and hear those who are sitting. behind.

I don't like horses. They are dangerous on both sides and extremely uncomfortable in the middle.

Once is an accident. Twice is a coincidence. Three times - these are enemy intrigues.

Exists Good book, about good and how to be virtuous, but there is no Bad Book about evil and how to be cruel. The devil did not have prophets who would convey his ten commandments, just as there were no evangelists who would write down his biography. It is covered with a veil of obscurity: we do not know anything about it, except for the tales told by our parents and teachers. The devil does not have a book that makes it possible to study the nature of evil in all its manifestations and which tells legends about people with evil hearts. All we have are living examples of not the most good people as well as our own ideas about evil.

The whole history of mankind - it is love and violence.

The politicians still haven't figured out that the atomic age gave birth to the most dangerous saboteur in the history of the planet - little man with a heavy suitcase.

Someone who deserves to die usually dies the death he deserves.

History rushes forward too fast today so heroes and villains are increasingly changing places.

Prohibitions - this is the root cause of all crime.

You're definitely about to wake up if in a dream you dream that you are asleep.

Hope is like breakfast. We must not forget about it and you need to eat a lot of it.

Many people nowadays want to believe in superheroes and the supernatural. This brings variety to their lives, completely different emotions and impressions. Many people know the inimitable history and series of James Bond films. This is a character taken from the novel Popular Name his is Ian Fleming. It was on the basis of his stories that the best films were shot, the main character of which was the legendary agent 007.

Childhood information of the author

Ian Fleming, whose biography was of little interest before the advent of the James Bond novels, was born on May 28, 1908 in London. The family in which the boy appeared was very rich and famous in the area. It was quite natural that the parents who worked in the parliament provided their child with the best and most promising life, for which they worked for a long time. They tried very hard to arrange Jan in the best college, the completion of which promised him a high position, and to provide his son with everything he needed.

The famous Ian Fleming graduated from Eaton College, and after unsuccessful attempts to get a job, he entered the Reuters agency, where he was engaged in journalism. This happened thanks to the connections of the mother of the future writer, who helped her son in every possible way. He quit his career very soon and, unfortunately, lost his father. Valentine Fleming died during the First World War, he was called a hero and was often used as an example for Jan.

Growing up

Ian Fleming was a very capable youth. He studied quickly, played sports diligently and paid attention to languages. The young man dreamed of becoming a diplomat. Unfortunately, this remained in Jan's dreams, since he failed the main exam - English.

While working for Reuters, Ian often felt dissatisfaction, mainly in material terms: paid little, and the guy wanted to live better. A few years after Fleming gave up journalism, he decided to return to this occupation again, because it was it that inspired him and allowed him to develop his talent.

A significant stage in the life of the young man was entering the naval intelligence. The commander and other employees were simply delighted with Fleming's reports and reports, because they were always easy to read and were interesting, engaging, like real detectives. Ian Fleming became famous for his unusual fantasy, literary skill, he simply had no equal. In addition, he was excellent at dealing with special operations, which were carried out using unique approaches, and with the development of strategies.

Ian Fleming's life was full of secrets and incredible events. The young man spent the entire Second World War in the secret service of Her Majesty. He evacuated the king of Albania, established contacts with allies in the United States, sought out secret laboratories and led the most complex operations... After the fighting ended, Fleming decided to retire and do things that were to his liking.

In the last year of the war, Ian came to Jamaica and realized that the world exists without bombing, shootings and deaths. There he saw great amount affordable fruits, a sea of ​​rum and fine weather - a real paradise for the serving person. Jan decided to stay on the island and enjoy the enchanting atmosphere for as long as possible. It is to the sound of the sea and surrounded sunny weather, peace and happiness, Fleming built a bungalow in which he wrote the first lines of his famous novel.

Becoming a writer

The bungalow in which the writer lived was called "Golden Eye". It was in this unusual place that Ian Fleming's secret life ended and a completely different time began. This period became a turning point for the man, in his romantic home appeared about the agent 007. In addition, one of the novels had the same name as Fleming's tiny house. Since then, secrets and adventures have remained in the past, being reflected only in the pages of novels about the elusive James Bond.

Fleming's family life

Fans of the writer are very interested in learning about his personal life. Last but not least, they are interested in the question of whether Ian Fleming was married. The family of the famous writer was formed in an unusual way. In his youth, the man was a womanizer and a lot of people. He never had a permanent woman. When Ian began dating a married beauty, this was not surprising. But the moment came when Fleming decided to settle down. His beloved Anna announced that she was expecting a child and was ready to divorce for the sake of their family happiness. Famous writer at the age of forty-three, he found out that he would soon become a father, and completely changed his views on future life. He patiently waited for his chosen one in Jamaica, while he wrote the novel "Casino Royale".

Ian Fleming, whose wife settled in a bungalow with him and agreed to spend the rest of her life there, inspired her lover in every possible way, so the writer often mentioned that she was his muse.

Moment of glory

For some, after forty years of age, life loses its brilliance, adventurism and colors. But not for Ian Fleming. When he was forty-five, the whole world saw the James Bond book for the first time. In just twelve months, the novel sold seven thousand copies. A little later, the Americans became interested in the book, who eventually bought the rights to it. It was at this moment that Ian Fleming, whose biography changed dramatically, became famous. His novel has been published in thousands, millions of copies. It was read by almost everyone and everywhere. Critics did not like the story of 007, they could not come to terms with the existence of a superhero, but they had no choice but to look with envy at the huge sales of the novel.

Romance as part of culture

After a while, many people could no longer imagine themselves without stories about the life of the great James Bond. The novel became part of American culture, and current president The USA admitted that in his free time he enjoys reading books with the main character, agent 007. Some believe that such a stunning success came to Ian Fleming thanks to the cynicism with which he wrote his books. He openly argued that novels and other literature are written for three things: money, fame, or pleasure. In some cases, for everything together. The writer himself was glad to engage in this type of activity, but did not hide the fact that the income from books made him even happier. Since Ian Fleming became popular, he has consistently released his new romance that everyone was looking forward to.

Real glory

One way or another, Fleming became truly famous thanks to the adaptation of most of the novels he wrote. Even after the death of the writer, films continued to be filmed and presented to the public. In total, eighteen tapes were released, the main character of which was, of course, James Bond. The last was the film "Tomorrow Never Dies", filmed in 1997.

Ian Fleming died of a heart attack. It is also worth noting that he was very fond of smoking and simply adored gin. After the death of the writer, for another 33 years, films based on his novels continued to appear on the big screens and delight the public, especially fans of agent 007. And today the cinema is not going to stop: films about a British secret agent performed by various actors are hitting box office records.