Fleming. Ian Fleming

Sketch of Bond by Ian Fleming
for the Daily Express

 Bond. James Bond. 

He is one of the most iconic characters in both cinema and English literature. But many speculate who was Bond really? Some say Ian Fleming himself. Some say Sydney Reilly, a legendary operative for SIS in the years between both World Wars. Some have even suggested Christopher Lee, Fleming's cousin and MI6 operative during World War II. The truth is he's a composite with some of Fleming's traits, including a few embarrassing warts, in the mix. As to Fleming's role in British Intelligence, many have suggested he was, in fact, Bond before he created Bond. Others have speculated Fleming actually was M and transferred his crustiness to his fictional Admiral Miles Messervy. That honor actually goes to Fleming's original boss in Naval Intelligence, Rear Admiral John Godfrey. In truth, Fleming's role was closer to that of Bill Tanner, Bond's friend and M's chief of staff, much neglected in cinema until the Judi Dench years. 

I recently finished the audio version of Ian Fleming: The Complete Man by Nicholas Shakespeare (No obvious relation.) Shakespeare traces Fleming's lineage from Robert Fleming, a poor Scotsman who traveled to London and became a railroad magnate and, at one point, the richest man in Britain. Ian's father was Val Fleming, a World War I hero who died in action. His brother was noted author Peter Fleming. And like Ian, he also worked in intelligence during the war. Ian himself was a rebellious second child and an aimless young man before he joined Reuters as a foreign correspondent, nearly snagging an interview with Stalin. 

But he also was an unrepentant womanizer. His overbearing mother banished his first love, a Swiss woman named Monique, because she wasn't the right kind of woman. He came close to marrying a fellow operative during the war only for her to be killed in the Blitz. Eventually, he married Anne Charteris, a well-known socialite who had an on-again, off-again affair with Fleming. As illicit lovers, they burned brightly, sharing...Let's call them kinks, and somehow those stayed out of the Bond novels. Probably so they wouldn't get banned. Once married, they were miserable. It was expensive being Anne Charteris-Fleming, and Fleming neither cared for her circle of friends and craved solitude. 

Fleming's "day job," so to speak, was with the Sunday Times. Not only was Fleming a newspaperman at heart, but many former intelligence operatives--like Evelyn Waugh, Roald Dahl, and Len Deighton--all found themselves tapping into their old wartime networks. 

What becomes apparent in Shakespeare's biography is that James Bond is actually an act of mourning. Fleming grieved for the loss of Britain's empire. Bond, with his ties shared with Fleming with American intelligence and knowledge of Soviet tactics and people, was a way to make the UK relevant again. While Bond himself was never an apologist for colonialism, many of Fleming's generation missed it. The feeling even turns up in a Pink Floyd song, "Waiting," from The Wall. ("Would you like to see Britannia rule again, my friend?") Of course, Waters paints it as a farce, but I have two substacks, editing work, and a day job to attend to, so I won't be breaking down Roger Waters's neuroses down here.

A friend of Fleming's told him he might consider his books thrillers, but James Bond had become one of Britain's most enduring and influential characters, along with Falstaff and Sherlock Holmes. The thought horrified Fleming. He might have gotten along with Evelyn Waugh, but he could not stand hanging out with literary types, mainly because Anne forced him to.