On This Day In History Ian Fleming, Former WWII British Naval Intelligence Officer, Journalist And Author Of The James Bond Thrillers, Died

On this date in 1964 Ian Fleming, former WWII naval intelligence officer, journalist and author of the James Bond thrillers, died. He was 56.

I became an Ian Fleming aficionado when I was a pre-teen in the early 1960s after watching the late, great Scot actor Sean Connery portray Ian Fleming’s iconic character James Bond in the first two Bond films, Dr. No and From Russia With Love.

Watching the two great cinematic thrillers led me to join a book club and receive the introductory offer of a 9-volume set of Ian Fleming’s novels, which were the first nine books in my now quite extensive library. Reading the first two Fleming novels, I was pleased to discover that the novels were darker and more complicated that the films.  

A short time later, I heard on the radio in my father's car that Ian Fleming had died.    

Years later, in the early 1980s, I was thrilled to spend a week with my wife at Fleming's villa Goldeneye in Jamaica, where he wrote all of the James Bond thrillers. 

  

As History.com notes, Ian Fleming led an interesting, if all too short, life: 

On August 12, 1964, the British author and journalist Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, the world’s most famous fictional spy, dies of a heart attack at age 56 in Kent, England. 

Fleming’s series of novels about the debonair Agent 007, based in part on their dashing author’s real-life experiences, spawned one of the most lucrative film franchises in history. Ian Lancaster Fleming was born into a well-to-do family in London on May 29, 1908. As an adult, he worked as a foreign correspondent, a stockbroker and a personal assistant to Britain’s director of naval intelligence during World War II–experiences that would all provide fodder for his Bond novels. 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

James Bond creator Ian Fleming dies - HISTORY  

You can also read my Counterterrorism magazine piece on Ian Fleming's war and two of my Crime Beat columns on Ian Fleming via the below links:

Paul Davis On Crime: My Piece On The 30 Assault Unit, The British WWII Commando Group Created By Ian Fleming, The Creator Of James Bond

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Beat Column: A Look Back At Ian Fleming's Iconic James Bond Character

Paul Davis On Crime: My Crime Beat Column: The Ian Fleming and James Bond Phenomenon

On This Day In History Ian Fleming Died: A Look Back At The Extraordinary Life Of Ian Fleming, The Author Of The James Bond Thrillers

On this date in 1964 Ian Fleming, the author of the James Bond thrillers, died.

He was 56.

As I noted in my Crime Beat column on Ian Fleming, Corinne Turner of Ian Fleming Publications stated that he led an extraordinary life.

“The Bond novels are, however, just one aspect of a fascinating life that combined the flamboyant elements of 007 with a unique creativity. Fleming was not only a novelist, but also a journalist, sportsman, naval commander, traveler, intelligence officer and bon-viveur,” Corinne Turner said.

 You can read about Ian Fleming’s extraordinary life in two of my Crime Beat columns via the links below:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2013/11/my-crime-beat-column-happy-anniversary.html

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2010/06/casino-royale-revisited-film-that.html

And you can read about Ian Fleming’s WWII experiences as a naval intelligence officer in my Counterterrorism magazine piece via the below link:  

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2011/11/look-back-at-30-assault-unit-british.html

On This Day In History Sean Connery Once Again Portrayed Ian Fleming's Iconic Character James Bond In 'Never Say Never Again'

As History.com notes, on this day in 1983 actor Sean Connery returned to the role of British secret agent James Bond.

On this day in 1983, Sean Connery stars in Never Say Never Again as the British secret service agent James Bond, a role he last played in 1971. The film’s title referenced the fact that the Scottish-born actor had previously remarked that he would never play Agent 007 again.

Connery, who was born in Edinburgh on August 25, 1930, originated the role of James Bond in 1962’s Dr. No. The character was the creation of the British author and journalist Ian Fleming (1908-1964), who published his first Bond book, Casino Royale, in 1953.

Connery went on to play the debonair 007 in From Russia With Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965) and You Only Live Twice (1967). The Australian actor George Lazenby assumed the role of Bond for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), while Connery returned for Diamonds Are Forever (1971) and Never Say Never Again (1983), a film regarded as “unofficial” because it wasn’t produced by EON Productions, the company behind all the other Bond films in the series.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/connery-plays-bond-in-never-say-never-again?cmpid=email-hist-tdih-2017-1007-10072017&om_rid=de5e4076c942a595dbda53f758321d197499484f6d117f61b6ac5c08e0d6f0aa&om_mid=250339122&kx_EmailCampaignID=14998&kx_EmailCampaignName=email-hist-tdih-2017-1007-10072017&kx_EmailRecipientID=de5e4076c942a595dbda53f758321d197499484f6d117f61b6ac5c08e0d6f0aa 

Note: Although Sean Connery is my favorite James Bond actor and one of my favorite actors, I was disappointed in Never Say Never Again. 

There were some interesting and amusing moments in the film, such as when he and Kim Bassinger took a shower together aboard an American submarine after being rescued. While showering with Bassinger, Bond remarks, "It was never like this when I was in the Navy." (Both Connery and the Bond character were British Navy veterans). 

But I thought the film was mostly silly and in no way compared to Connery’s classic Bond films from the 1960s, such as Dr. No, From Russia With Love and Goldfinger.  

I liked the film's song, which was sung by Lani Hall. You can watch the video clip and listen to the song via the below link: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mwm1H0dxAKY

On This Day In History: Ian Fleming, Creator of James Bond, Died In 1964

As History.com notes, Ian Fleming, the author of the James Bond thrillers, died on this day in 1964.

You can read about Ian Fleming's life and work via the below link:

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/james-bond-creator-ian-fleming-dies

You can also read two of my Crime Beat columns on Ian Fleming via the below links:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2013/11/my-crime-beat-column-happy-anniversary.html

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2010/06/casino-royale-revisited-film-that.html

And you can read my Counterterrorism magazine piece on Ian Fleming's WWII intelligence-commando unit, his "Red Indians," the 30 Assault Unit, via the below link:

http://www.pauldavisoncrime.com/2011/11/look-back-at-30-assault-unit-british.html

And below is the Ian Fleming obituary that appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer:

This Day In History: Ian Fleming, The Creator Of James Bond, Died In 1964

Ian Fleming, the former WWII British naval intelligence officer, journalist and author of the James Bond thrillers, died on this date in 1964. He was 56.

You can read about Ian Fleming via the below link to history.com:

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/james-bond-creator-ian-fleming-dies  

A Writer In Training: Ian Fleming The Journalist

Tom Cull at ianfleming.com tours London and examines Ian Fleming's career as a journalist, before he found fame as the author of the James Bond thrillers.

On a quiet Sunday in the City of London recently, I re-traced some of Ian Fleming’s old haunts during his journalism and banking days, including what used to be the Reuters building at The Royal Exchange. It occurred to me that it was here that Ian Fleming got his first taste of writing professionally. Throughout his career, journalism formed an important part of his research and inspiration, before finally becoming a way to remain ‘part of the action’ after the war.

His well-documented 2 month break in Jamaica to write his James Bond novels was a feat of discipline and economy; writing quickly and accurately and never looking back, trusting totally in his technique. Many writers, including the prolific Raymond Chandler, found this timetable astonishing. He asked Ian in an interview in 1958 how he could write so quickly with all the other things that he did, and remarked that the fastest book he ever wrote was in 3 months. So, from where did Ian Fleming acquire this skill?

...When an intriguing assignment came up in Stalin’s Russia, to report on a court case involving British construction workers (tantamount to a show trial), Fleming was called up. His ‘smattering of Russian’ and the fact that the regular Reuters Moscow correspondent might have had his Russian sources compromised meant that this was Ian’s big break. It was also his first exposure to the dark underbelly of Soviet communism that would pique his interest in cloak and dagger matters and mark Russia out as the political bête noire for the West. His reporting again impressed his peers. He turned in articles on tight deadlines. Ian described his training at Reuters as giving him a “good, straightforward style,” and there he learned to write fast and accurately because at Reuters “if you weren’t accurate you were fired, and that was the end of that.”  

http://www.ianfleming.com/a-writer-in-training-ian-fleming-the-journalist/

Ian Fleming's Cruel Way With Women

Andrew Lycett, who wrote a biography of Ian Fleming, offers a piece in the Telegraph on the love letters written by the young Ian Fleming, who would of course go on to write the James Bond thrillers.

It’s good to be reminded that, contrary to what Philip Larkin wrote, sex didn’t begin in 1963. A cache of passionate love letters written in the mid-Thirties by a youthful Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, to an Austrian girlfriend, Edith Morpurgo, has surfaced and is being sold by a London book dealer.
 

Written partly in German, with alternating hints of tenderness, sensitivity and random cruelty, they confirm Fleming to be a full-blooded heterosexual with a penchant for sado-masochistic sex. “If I were to say 'love’,” he writes, “you would only argue, and then I would have to whip you and you would cry and I don’t want that.”

The letters, which are being sold by a London book dealer, Peter Harrington, also throw light on another interesting and hitherto unexplored dimension to Fleming’s life – his enduring links not just with the German-speaking world but with its Jewish community.
 

His lover, Edith, was born in Salzburg in November 1912, the daughter of a Salzburg businessman. After the Anschluss, the German invasion and annexation of Austria in March 1938, she and most of her immediate family fled to Amsterdam, where she married and had two children. However, following the German invasion of Holland, she was deported to Auschwitz, where she was murdered in August 1942.

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:
 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/jamesbond/10727332/Ian-Flemings-cruel-way-with-women.html

Bond's Books: Andrew Lycett's TLS Review Of Ian Fleming: The Bibliography

 

Andrew Lycett, the author of the outstanding Ian Fleming biography, Ian Fleming: The Man Behind James Bond, reviewed Jon Gilbert's Ian Fleming: The Bibliography for the Times Literary Supplement.

 

James Bond never reads much more than Scarne on Cards and the occasional thriller. However, his creator, Ian Fleming, was a serious bibliophile, who in a little known parallel existence founded the leading trade magazine The Book Collector, ran the upmarket Queen Anne Press, which published his friends Evelyn Waugh and Patrick Leigh Fermor, and put together an extraordinary collection of books which “made things happen”. He provided the largest number of privately owned books to the prestigious Printing and the Mind of Man exhibition mounted at the British Museum and Earls Court in 1963, the year before his premature death.

 

It is fitting that his own literary output should now be commemorated in a lavish bibliography. Raise the martini glass to a meticulous compiler, Jon Gilbert, who works for Adrian Harrington in London, and to the publisher, the self-same Queen Anne Press, recently resurrected by his family.

Diehard enthusiasts will be disappointed to find no definitive information on The Black Daffodil, the book of poems Fleming wrote as a young man, but subsequently disowned (he had all copies burnt). However, most readers will relish Gilbert’s documentation of Fleming’s written output from his schoolboy scribblings in the Wyvern (the “ephemeral” he produced at Eton) to pieces for the Sunday Times and 007 spin-offs for high-paying American magazines such as Playboy and Holiday. Along the way there were fourteen books featuring Bond; Chitty Chitty Bang Bang for children; and non-fiction works such as Thrilling Cities.

You can read the rest of the review via the below link:

http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/public/article1212275.ece

You can also read about the book at ILAB.org via the below link:

http://www.ilab.org/eng/documentation/864-ian_fleming_the_bibliography_-_late_october_launch_announced_by_adrian_harrington_ltd__and_queen_anne_press.html

"Ian Fleming is best known as the creator of James Bond, an icon of 20th century popular culture”, says author Jon Gilbert, “but he was also a journalist, publisher, travel writer, motor enthusiast, card player, accomplished golfer and noted bibliophile. Much has been written about Fleming and his legendary creation, but until now there has been no serious bibliographical account of his published work.”

Seven Intense, Unfilmed Action Scenes From Ian Fleming's James Bond Novels

 

I've noted here before that in my view the best James Bond films were the ones that were the most faithful to Ian Fleming's novels. 

Brian Clare at twitchfilm.com offers his view that the films have erred in not filming seven action scenes from Fleming's thrillers.

It's tough to watch many of the James Bond movies after reading the novels. Rather than simply a suave killing machine, Ian Fleming's Bond was a more troubled, complex character, capable of genuine fear, stubborn determination and surprising humor, and who often felt regret and exhaustion in response to his violent lifestyle.

The Daniel Craig incarnation of the series seems to be striving to get back to this hard-edged Bond, and Skyfall director Sam Mendes has even spoken at length about the inspiration he took from Fleming's novels. I've already addressed some of my favorite surprising Bond characterizations from the books, but, with all of this talk about getting back to the source material, now is the perfect time to explore some of the more elegant, intense and occasionally insane action set pieces in Fleming's novels, which never made it into the films. 

You can read the rest of the piece via the below link:

http://twitchfilm.com/2012/10/twitch-in-bondage-7-intense-unfilmed-action-scenes-from-ian-flemings-007-books.html

Amazon Publishing Has Aquired Ten-Year License For North American Rights To Ian Fleming's James Bond Thrillers

You can read a report on the deal made between Amazon Publishing and the estate of the late, great thriller writer Ian Fleming (seen in the above photo at his Jamaican villa Goldeneye) at the web site thebookseller.com.

Amazon Publishing has bought a 10-year license for North American rights to the entire series of Ian Fleming's James Bond books in both print and e-book form. The deal was done with Fleming's family company Ian Fleming Publications Ltd via Jonny Geller, managing director at Curtis Brown.

All the Bond titles will be reissued by Amazon Publishing's Thomas & Mercer imprint from the summer.

You can read the rest of the story via the below link:

http://www.thebookseller.com/news/amazon-acquires-us-rights-flemings-bond-books.html