Ian Fleming: 1908-1964

Ian Fleming, the creator of James Bond, was born in London on May 28, 1908. He was educated at Eton and the military college, Sandhurst. After resigning from Sandhurst, which infuriated his mother, Fleming studied languages at the universities of Munich and Geneva. He took the Foreign Service exam, but found himself at the age of twenty-three without a career. From 1929 to 1933 he worked as a journalist in Moscow, then as a banker and a stock-broker in London.

During World War II Fleming was a high ranking naval officer in the British intelligence. During a training exercise Fleming had to swim underwater and attach a mine to a tanker. This act became material for the climax of Live and Let Die, published in 1954.

In 1952 he married Anne, Lady Rothmere, in Jamaica, where most of the Bond books were written. The basic structure for most of the early Bond books is that Bond travels to some colorful place where he meets one or two beautiful women who have secrets in their past. Sometimes Bond is captured by his enemies but always he destroys the villain, saves the world, and gets the good girl.

In 1956 Fleming started selling his novels to be adapted for a comic strip.

Fleming published a successful children's book about a magical car, Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang. He wrote the book for his son, Caspar, who committed suicide at the age of 23.

In spite of warnings from doctors, Fleming did not give up his outdoor activities, and he had a heart attack on August 12, 1964.

In 1981 John Gardner started to write James Bond books and later the series was continued by Raymond Benson.