IAN FLEMING WHERE JAMES BOND BEGAN
EXPERT BIOS
PROFESSOR OLIVER BUCKTON
Oliver Buckton is professor of English at Florida Atlantic University and an expert in espionage literature and film, among numerous other topics. He is the author of The World is Not Enough: A Biography of Ian Fleming.
DAVID ZARITSKY
David Zaritsky is a Bond expert and super-fan, and the mastermind behind The James Bond Experience YouTube channel and website. His love of the films centres on “living like James Bond” and emulating the style featured within them.
“I’m going to write the spy story to end all spy stories”
This statement must have seemed half humorous to Robert Harling when it was said to him by a friend and fellow officer in the 30 Commando Assault Unit during World War II. Harling could hardly have known that in 1952, Ian Fleming, the man who uttered those now-immortal words, would sit down and begin writing Casino Royale. Not only would the book live up to Fleming’s promise and become a classic of its genre, but it gave birth to James Bond, the world’s most famous fictional secret agent. But what of Fleming himself? The man whose imagination took readers to exotic locales like the Alpine retreat of Piz Gloria or the island of Crab Key and invented villains such as Auric Goldfinger and Dr Julius No? Much has been made of Fleming’s womanising and appetite for fine food and drink – but just who was the man that gave birth to Bond?
Ian Lancaster Fleming was born on 28, a new biography of Ian Fleming, explains: “Ian grew up in a kind of privileged environment. He went to Durnford Preparatory School in Dorset where, although there was some bullying, he had good experiences and developed a lifelong love of nature.” However, on 20 May of 1917 an event was to occur that would have a profound effect on the young boy. On that morning, his father Valentine, who was serving as an officer in the trenches of France in WWI, was struck by a German shell and killed instantly. It seems no coincidence that years later Fleming would choose to orphan his iconic creation, both of Bond’s parents being killed in a climbing accident when he was 11.
