Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
BIOGRAPHY<\/strong> The words \u201cBond, James Bond\u201d conjure an image, an institution, an industry unique in the annals of literature. Seven decades after Bond\u2019s birth and almost six since the death of his creator, Nicholas Shakespeare has written a new biography of Ian Fleming. While not dissecting the 007 oeuvre, Shakespeare has, in no less than 864 pages, confirmed Fleming\u2019s claim that his hero is drawn from \u201cninety per cent personal experience.\u201d<\/p>\n An exceptional novelist and a prodigious researcher, Shakespeare has drawn on two earlier, eminently readable biographies \u2013 by John Pearson in 1966 and Andrew Lycett in 1995 \u2013 and with some new material, produced a compelling narrative that justifies his rather bold subtitle The Complete Man<\/em>.<\/p>\n But like Shakespeare\u2019s seminal life of that prodigious travel writer, Bruce Chatwin, he has tackled and unravelled an extraordinarily complex subject. Born in Mayfair in 1908, Ian Lancaster Fleming was the son of privilege but the grandson of a self-made man. Robert Fleming, Ian\u2019s grandfather, a Dundee book-keeper, had virtually invented the investment fund. Ian\u2019s father, Valentine Fleming MP, was killed in France when Ian was eight and his monstrous mother, Eve, took charge. \u201cShe was Goldfinger\u2019s greed, Blofeld\u2019s snobbery, Dr. No\u2019s icy heart, Rosa Klebb\u2019s sadism …\u201d Shakespeare notes. \u201cNo one else in Ian\u2019s life embodied so much of what Ian had James Bond fight against.\u201d<\/p>\n Apart from his mother and growing up in the shadow of his heroic father, he struggled in the shade of his brilliant elder brother, Peter. Only in his 40s would Ian eclipse him. So family was a torment and a spur. It was not until WWII that he found his m\u00e9tier as personal assistant to Admiral John Godfrey, director of naval intelligence (and the inspiration for M in the Bond novels). Although soon promoted to Commander, it was thought he never saw action (\u201cin-tray, out-tray, and ashtray\u201d) and dubbed \u201cThe chocolate sailor\u201d.<\/p>\n Fleming with Sean Connery on the set of Dr No<\/i>.<\/span>Credit: <\/span>Studios.Copyright Notice – \u00a9 1962 Danjaq, LLC and United Artists Corporation.<\/cite><\/p>\n Much of Fleming\u2019s war work was top-secret, and the evidence has either been destroyed or is still classified, but Shakespeare has established that Fleming played a key role and this fed much of his fiction. Godfrey wrote after Fleming\u2019s death, \u201cthe country and the Allies owe him one of those great debts that can never be repaid\u201d. He was never short of girlfriends, but increasingly fell for Ann Charteris, an imperiously attractive aristocrat as brittle and difficult as his mother. They met in 1934, two years after she had married Lord Shane O\u2019Neill. Before the war, she began an affair with the newspaper heir Esmond Harmsworth and, by 1940, with Fleming. The three men played bridge and golf together.<\/p>\n In 1944, O\u2019Neill was killed in action in Italy. Fleming would not commit, so Ann wed Harmsworth, by then Viscount Rothermere, and a sustained career as one of London\u2019s grand post-war hostesses began. Fleming\u2019s sadomasochistic affair with Ann continued unabated. At The Sunday Times<\/em>, where he was foreign manager, they called him \u201cLady Rothermere\u2019s Fan\u201d.<\/p>\n In 1942 he had fallen for Jamaica and built a spartan house called Goldeneye. It was here, \u201con or about 17 February 1952\u201d, suggests Shakespeare, that Fleming sat down to write his first Bond. By then, Ann had divorced Rothermere and was pregnant with Fleming\u2019s son, Caspar. He needed a bestseller to support his expensive bride.<\/p>\n \u201cThe scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning\u201d was his opening line in Casino Royale<\/em>, the novel that introduced a world-weary James Bond, at the gaming tables of Royale-les-Eaux, to a weary world still emerging from rationing and the reality that Britain was no longer great. As Shakespeare notes, Fleming\u2019s Bond was so shorn of personal details, he became an aspirational Everyman. Readers saw themselves \u201cin Bond\u2019s shoes, in his car, in his bed, navigating life\u2019s challenges with the aplomb of one of the elite.\u201d<\/p>\n But today, two generations on, Bond\u2019s louche, luxe world of high living, epicurean tastes and penchant for brand names is not so exhilarating. And Fleming\u2019s portrayal of women is plainly indefensible. They are either secretaries \u2013 like Miss Moneypenny, Loelia Ponsonby and Mary Goodnight \u2013 adoringly taking dictation, hanging on the Commander\u2019s every word or \u201cthe Bond Girl\u201d, adolescent fantasy figures, like Pussy Galore, Honeychile Rider, Dominetta Vitali, Kissy Suzuki, and Solitaire.<\/p>\n Both character and creator are and were seriously flawed. Interestingly, the 41 novels, authorised in his wake by the Fleming Estate, and the phenomenal Broccoli\/Saltzman film franchise have increasingly softened the sexism, sadism and snobbery so redolent of Fleming\u2019s original canon.<\/p>\n He never enjoyed his fame. Those 70 custom-made cigarettes a day and oceans of alcohol meant that by the early \u203260s he had \u201crun out of puff and zest\u201d. He died on August 12, 1964, aged 56. A Shakespearean tragedy.<\/p>\n The Booklist is a weekly newsletter for book lovers from books editor Jason Steger.<\/i><\/b> Get it delivered every Friday<\/i><\/b>.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Ian Fleming: The Complete Man<\/strong>
Nicholas Shakespeare<\/strong>
Harvill Secker, $75<\/strong><\/p>\n
At school, Ian was twice named victor ludorum but despite Eve\u2019s connections, he left Eton and the military academy Sandhurst to avoid disgrace and failed the foreign office exam. Yet all was not lost \u2013 he could seduce in four languages.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Most Viewed in Culture<\/h2>\n
From our partners<\/h3>\n