Ian Fleming - Cold War Author

By Serena Price


The Cold War describes the tense relations between the United States and the United Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). It began with the end of the second world war and ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Perhaps the best known cold war author was Ian Fleming, who was most famous for his James Bond series of fiction novels.

Originally from Scotland, Fleming's family once lived in a house on the site of the American Embassy in London's Grosvenor Square. Fleming's grandfather, Robert Fleming, made a fortune as a pioneer of investment trusts. When the family moved from Dundee to London, he started his own investment bank.

Valentine Fleming, Ian's father, was killed during the First World War, where he served as one of the Queen's Own (Oxfordshire) Hussars. The man who would one day be Prime Minister of Great Britain, Winston Churchill, who was Fleming's friend and fellow officer, penned Valentine's death notice in the paper. Prior to being killed, Valentine, a Parliament member and Barrister-at-law, married Evelyn Rose. Together they had four children, all boys.

Born at 27 Green Street in Mayfair, London, on May 28, 1908, Ian Lancaster Fleming was the second of four brothers. Educated at Eton College near Windsor, Fleming pursued further education in Austria and Germany. Fleming's brother, Peter, was born in 1907. He married actress Celia Johnson, noted for her performance in the David Lean film, "Brief Encounter." His brother, Richard Fleming, was born in 1911 and died of a heart attack in 1977. Michael Fleming was born in 1913 and died at Normandy in 1940, after marrying and fathering four children.

Ian Fleming had an early career in journalism at the Reuters news agency. During this time, he was in Oxford and was fined three guineas, or GBP 3.15 for a traffic offense. . His lawyer had to explain that he was unable to appear in court because he was attending the World Economic Conference. His years at Reuters were the most thrilling period of his life.

He was so eager to work for Reuters, he volunteered to work for nothing for a month's trial. He successfully completed updating 500 obituaries, which impressed his boss tremendously. During the Reuters years, Fleming learned to write accurately and quickly. Submitting anything less than 100% accurate copy was grounds for dismissal at Reuters.

It was Fleming's experience as an assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence in the Admiralty in London what gave him the inspiration for many of the escapades of the James Bond character. The name, James Bond, comes from the author of a book on the birds of the West Indies, Fleming's "bible" for the 18 years that he spent there from 1946 to 1964.

Ian Fleming, cold war author, was best known for his series of James Bond spy novels, all of which have been made into popular films. He also wrote a children's short story, "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, " for his young son, Caspar. Fleming died in Jamaica of a heart attack on August 12, 1964, on Caspar's 12th birthday. Caspar had a troubled adolescence and took his own life in 1975.




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