Commander James Bond, CMG, RNVR is an agent of the British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) (more commonly, MI6). He was created in January 1952 by British journalist Ian Fleming while on holiday at his Jamaican estate, Goldeneye. The hero, James Bond, was named after an American ornithologist, a Caribbean bird expert and author of the definitive field guide book Birds of the West Indies. Fleming, a keen birdwatcher, had a copy of Bond's field guide at Goldeneye. Of the name, Fleming once said in a Reader's Digest interview, "I wanted the simplest, dullest, plainest-sounding name I could find, 'James Bond' was much better than something more interesting, like 'Peregrine Carruthers.' Exotic things would happen to and around him, but he would be a neutral figure—an anonymous, blunt instrument wielded by a government department."

Nevertheless, news sources speculated about real spies or other covert agents after whom James Bond might have been modeled or named. Although they are similar to Bond, Fleming confirmed none as the source figure, nor did Ian Fleming Publications nor any of Fleming's biographers, such as John Pearson or Andrew Lycett.

James Bond's parents are Andrew Bond, a Scotsman, and Monique Delacroix, from Canton de Vaud, Switzerland. Their nationalities were established in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Fleming emphasized Bond's Scottish heritage in admiration of Sean Connery's cinematic portrayal, whereas Bond's mother is named after a Swiss fiancée of Fleming's. A planned, but unwritten, novel would have portrayed Bond's mother as a Scot. Ian Fleming was a member of a prominent Scottish banking family.

In his fictional biography of secret agent 007, John Pearson gave Bond's birth date as 11 November (Armistice Day) 1920 (The beginning of the film "For Your Eyes Only" gives his wife's birthdate as 1943. This seemingly assumes Bond to be younger than Pearson claimed); however, there is no evidence of it in Fleming's novels. In the novel On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Bond's family motto is found to be "Orbis non sufficit" ("The world is not enough"). The novel also however states that the family that used this motto may not necessarily be the same family that James Bond came from.

After completing the manuscript for Casino Royale, Fleming allowed his friend, later his editor, poet William Plomer to read it. Plomer liked it and submitted it to Jonathan Cape, who did not like it as much. Cape finally published it in 1953 on the recommendation of Fleming's older brother Peter, an established travel writer.

Most researchers agree that James Bond is a romanticised version of Ian Fleming, himself a jet-setting womanizer. Both Fleming and Bond attended the same schools, preferred the same foods (scrambled eggs, coffee), maintained the same habits (drinking, smoking, wearing short-sleeve shirts), shared the same notions of the perfect woman in looks and style, and had similar naval career paths (both rising to the rank of naval Commander). They also shared similar height, hairstyle, and eye colour. Some suggest that Bond's suave and sophisticated persona is based on that of a young Hoagy Carmichael. In Casino Royale, the anti-heroine Vesper Lynd remarks, "Bond reminds me rather of Hoagy Carmichael, but there is something cold and ruthless." Likewise, in Moonraker, Special Branch Officer Gala Brand thinks that Bond is "certainly good-looking . . . Rather like Hoagy Carmichael in a way. That black hair falling down over the right eyebrow. Much the same bones. But there was something a bit cruel in the mouth, and the eyes were cold.

Fleming did admit to being partly inspired by his service in the Naval Intelligence Division of the Admiralty, most notably an incident depicted in Casino Royale, when Fleming and Naval Intelligence Director Admiral Godfrey went on a mission to Lisbon en route to the United States during World War II. At the Estoril Casino, which harboured spies of warring regimes due to Portugal's neutrality, Fleming was 'cleaned out' by a "chief German agent" in a game of Chemin de Fer. Admiral Godfrey's account differs in that Fleming played Portuguese businessmen, whom Fleming fantasized as German agents he defeated at cards. Moreover, references to "Red Indians" in Casino Royale (four times; twice in the final page) are to his own 30 Assault Unit.

FROM JAMES BOND

In January 1952, Ian Fleming began work on his first James Bond novel. At the time, Fleming was the Foreign Manager for Kemsley Newspapers, an organisation owned by the Sunday Times. Upon accepting the job, Fleming asked that he be allowed two months vacation per year. Every year thereafter until his death in 1964, Fleming would retreat for the first two months of the year to his Jamaican estate, Goldeneye, to write a James Bond novel.

1953 Casino Royale 1954 Live and Let Die 1955 Moonraker 1956 Diamonds Are Forever 1957 From Russia with Love 1958 Dr. No 1959 Goldfinger

1960 For Your Eyes Only 1961 Thunderball 1962 The Spy Who Loved Me 1963 On Her Majesty's Secret Service 1964 You Only Live Twice 1965 The Man with the Golden Gun 1966 Octopussy and The Living Daylights

Between 1953 and 1966, twelve James Bond novels and two short story collections by Fleming were published, with one novel and one short story collection issued after his death. To this day, it is still debated whether Fleming himself actually finished 1965's The Man with the Golden Gun, as he died very soon after completing the book.

FROM JAMES BOND (NOVELS)

In the late 1950s, EON Productions guaranteed the film adaptation rights for every 007 novel except for Casino Royale (those rights were recovered in 1999). In 1962, the first adaptation was made with Dr. No, which starred Sean Connery as 007. Connery starred in 6 more films after his initial portrayal (including 1983s Never Say Never Again, which was not part of the EON series). George Lazenby replaced Connery for 1 film before the latter's last EON film, after which the part was played by Roger Moore (for 7 films), Timothy Dalton (2 films), Pierce Brosnan (4 films) and Daniel Craig. As of 2007, there have been 21 films. The twenty-first film, Casino Royale, with Daniel Craig as James Bond, premiered on 14 November 2006, with the film going on general release in Asia and the Middle East the following day. Notably, it is the first Bond film to be released in China.

The James Bond films have grossed over $4 billion (nearly $11 billion when adjusted for inflation) worldwide, making it the second highest grossing film series ever after Harry Potter.

In 1967, Casino Royale was made as a Bond film starring David Niven as Sir James Bond 007 and Ursula Andress as Vesper Lynd. David Niven, had, in fact, been Ian Fleming's preference for the part of James Bond. EON Productions, however, chose Sean Connery. But in 1967, he starred with Deborah Kerr and Barbara Bouchet in the James Bond satire, Casino Royale. David Niven is the only James Bond actor who is mentioned by name in the text of two of Fleming's James Bond novels. In On Her Majesty's Secret Service, Bond visits an exclusive ski resort and is told that David Niven is a frequent visitor and in You Only Live Twice Kissy Suzuki mentions him as the only man who had been kind to her in her brief foray to Hollywood. Ursula Andress is also mentioned in the text of On Her Majesty's Secret Service as being present at the ski resort.

A legal loophole allowed Kevin McClory to release a remake of Thunderball titled Never Say Never Again in 1983. The film, featuring Sean Connery as Bond, is not considered an "official" James Bond film because it is not part of the Bond film franchise from EON Productions and United Artists, although it is currently owned by United Artists parent MGM. Its original theatrical release in October 1983 actually created a situation in which two Bond movies were playing in theaters at the same time, as the "official" EON Bond film, Octopussy was still in playing theaters. Since then, MGM has bought the name "James Bond", preventing a repeat of this episode.

FROM JAMES BOND

In the 1980s, the series was finally revived with new novels by John Gardner; between 1981 and 1996, he wrote fourteen James Bond novels and two screenplay novelisations, surpassing Fleming's original output. The biggest change in Gardner's series was updating 007's world to the 1980s; however, it would keep the characters the same age as they were in Fleming's novels. Generally Gardner's series is considered a success although their canonical status is disputed.

In 1996, Gardner retired from writing James Bond books due to ill health, and American Raymond Benson quickly replaced him. As a James Bond novelist, Benson was initially controversial for being American, and for ignoring much of the continuity established by Gardner. Benson had previously written The James Bond Bedside Companion, a book dedicated to Ian Fleming, the official novels, and the films. The book was initially released in 1984 and later updated in 1988. Benson also contributed to the creation of several modules in the popular James Bond 007 role-playing game in the 1980s. Benson wrote six James Bond novels, three novelisations, and three short stories.

Benson's three short stories remain uncollected, unlike previous short stories from Ian Fleming, although it was announced in early 2008 that "Blast From the Past", augmented by material edited out before its initial publication, would be included as a bonus feature in an upcoming omnibus collection of several of Benson's Bond novels. Benson also wrote a fourth short story entitled "The Heart of Erzulie" that was rejected for publication.

Benson abruptly resigned as Bond novelist at the end of 2002 to write original, non-Bond works of his own. At the same time, Ian Fleming Publications planned to focus on reissuing Fleming's original novels for the 50th anniversary of the character and re-examine its publishing strategy. The year 2003 marked the first year since 1985 that a new James Bond novel had not been published.

FROM JAMES BOND NOVELS

Ian Fleming was born in Mayfair, London, to Valentine Fleming, a Member of Parliament, and his wife Evelyn Ste Croix Fleming (née Rose). Ian was the younger brother of travel writer Peter Fleming and the older brother of Michael and Richard Fleming (1910–77). He also had an illegitimate half-sister, the cellist Amaryllis Fleming. He was the grandson of Scottish financier Robert Fleming, who founded the Scottish American Investment Trust and merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co. (since 2000 part of JP Morgan Chase). He was cousin to actor Christopher Lee and actress Dame Celia Johnson was his sister-in-law (wife of his brother Peter).

Fleming was educated at Sunningdale School in Berkshire, Eton College, and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He was Victor Ludorum at Eton two years running, something that had been achieved only once before him. He found Sandhurst to be uncongenial, and after an early departure from there, his mother sent him to study languages on the continent. He first went to a small private establishment in Kitzbühel, Austria, run by the Adlerian disciples Ernan Forbes Dennis and his American wife, the novelist Phyllis Bottome, to improve his German and prepare him for the Foreign Office exams, then to Munich University, and, finally, to the University of Geneva to improve his French. He was unsuccessful in his application to join the Foreign Office, and subsequently worked as a sub-editor and journalist for the Reuters news service, including time in 1933 in Moscow, and then as a stockbroker with Rowe and Pitman, in Bishopsgate. He was a member of Boodle's, the gentleman's club in St. James's Street, from 1944 until his death in 1964. His marriage in Jamaica in 1952 to Anne Charteris, daughter of Lord Wemyss and former wife of Viscount Rothermere, was witnessed by his friend, playwright Noel Coward.

In 1939, on the eve of World War II, Rear Admiral John Godfrey, Director of Naval Intelligence of the Royal Navy, recruited Fleming (then a reserve subaltern in the Black Watch) as his personal assistant. He was commissioned first as a Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve lieutenant, and subsequently promoted to Lieutenant Commander, then Commander. His known codename was 17F.

In 1940 Fleming and Godfrey contacted Kenneth Mason, Professor of Geography at Oxford University, about preparing reports devoted to the geography of countries engaged in military operations. These reports were the precursors of the Naval Intelligence Division Geographical Handbook Series produced between 1941 and 1946.

He also conceived of a plan to use British occultist Aleister Crowley to trick Rudolf Hess into attempting to contact a fake cell of anti-Churchill Englishmen in Britain, but this plan was not used because Rudolf Hess had flown to Scotland in an attempt to broker peace behind Hitler's back. Anthony Masters's book The Man Who Was M: The Life of Charles Henry Maxwell Knight asserts Fleming conceived the plan that lured Hess into flying to Scotland, in May 1941, to negotiate Anglo–German peace with Churchill, and resulted in Hess's capture: this claim has no other source.

Fleming also formulated Operation Goldeneye, a plan to maintain communication with Gibraltar as well as a plan of defence in the unlikely event that Spain joined the Axis Powers and, together with Germany, invaded the Mediterranean colony.

In 1942, Fleming formed an Auxiliary Unit known as 30AU or 30 Assault Unit that he nicknamed his own "Red Indians"; it was specifically trained in lock-picking, safe-cracking, forms of unarmed combat, and other techniques and skills for collecting intelligence. He meticulously planned all their raids, alongside Patrick Dalzel-Job (one of the Inspirations for James Bond), going so far as to memorize aerial photographs so that their missions could be planned in detail; because of their successes in Sicily and Italy, 30AU was greatly enlarged and Fleming's direct control was increased before D-Day.

Fleming even visited 30AU in the field during and after Operation Overlord, especially after the Cherbourg attack, in which he felt that the unit had been incorrectly used as a frontline force rather than as an intelligence gathering unit, and from then on tactics were revised.

As the DNI's personal assistant, Fleming's intelligence work provided the background for his spy novels. In 1953, he published his first novel, Casino Royale. In it he introduced secret agent James Bond, also famously known by his code number, 007. Legend has it that Camp X included Fleming, though there is evidence against this claim. The character of James Bond was supposedly based on Camp X's Sir William Stephenson and what Fleming learned from him.

Casino Royale: Bond appears with the beautiful heroine Vesper Lynd, who was modelled on SOE agent Krystyna Skarbek Ideas for his characters and settings for Bond came from his time at Boodle's. Blade's, M's club (at which Bond is an occasional guest), is partially modelled on Boodle's and the name of Bond's arch enemy, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, was based on a fellow member's name. Bond's name came from famed ornithologist James Bond, the son of the Bond family who allowed Fleming the use of their estate in Jamaica to write. The Bonds were wealthy manufacturers whose estate outside of Philadelphia, Pa. eventually became the grounds of Gwynedd Mercy College. Fleming used the name after seeing Bond's Birds of the West Indies (1936).

Initially Fleming's Bond novels were not bestsellers in America, but when President John F. Kennedy included From Russia With Love on a list of his favourite books, sales quickly jumped. Fleming wrote 14 Bond books in all: Casino Royale (1953), Live and Let Die (1954), Moonraker (1955), Diamonds Are Forever (1956), From Russia with Love (1957), Dr. No (1958), Goldfinger (1959), For Your Eyes Only (1960), Thunderball (1961), The Spy Who Loved Me (1962), On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1963), You Only Live Twice (1964), The Man with the Golden Gun (1965), and Octopussy and The Living Daylights (1966).

In the late 1950s, the financial success of Fleming's James Bond series allowed him to retire to Goldeneye, his estate in Saint Mary Parish, Jamaica. The name of the house and estate where he wrote his novels has many sources. Notably, Ian Fleming himself cited Operation Goldeneye, a plan to bedevil the Nazis should the Germans enter Spain during World War II. He also cited the 1941 novel, Reflections in a Golden Eye by Carson McCullers. The location of the property may also have been a factor — Oracabessa, or "Golden head". There is also a Spanish tomb on the property with a bit of carving that looks like an eye on one side. It is likely that most or all of these factors played a part in Fleming's naming his Jamaican home. In Ian Fleming's interview published in Playboy in December 1964, he states, "I had happened to be reading Reflections in a Golden Eye by Carson McCullers, and I'd been involved in an operation called Goldeneye during the war: the defense of Gibraltar, supposing that the Spaniards had decided to attack it; and I was deeply involved in the planning of countermeasures which would have been taken in that event. Anyway, I called my place Goldeneye." The estate, next door to that of Fleming's friend and rival Noel Coward, is now the centerpiece of an exclusive resort by the same name. He was a interesting man.

The Spy Who Loved Me (1962) stylistically departs from other books in the Bond series as it is written in the first person perspective of the (fictional) protagonist, Vivienne Michel, whom Fleming credits as co-author. It is the story of her life, up until when James Bond serendipitously rescues her from the wrong circumstance at the wrong place and time.

Besides writing twelve novels and nine short stories featuring James Bond, Fleming also wrote the children's novel Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. He also wrote a guide to some of the world's most famous cities in Thrilling Cities and a study of The Diamond Smugglers.

In 1961, he sold the film rights to his already published as well as future James Bond novels and short stories to Harry Saltzman, who, with Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli, co-produced the film version of Dr. No (1962). For the cast, Fleming suggested friend and neighbour Noël Coward as the villain Dr. Julius No, and David Niven or, later, Roger Moore as James Bond. Both were rejected in favour of Sean Connery, who was both Broccoli and Saltzman's choice. Fleming also suggested his cousin, Christopher Lee, either as Dr. No or even as James Bond. Although Lee was selected for neither role, in 1974 he portrayed assassin Francisco Scaramanga, the eponymous villain of The Man with the Golden Gun.

Neither Saltzman nor Broccoli expected Dr. No to be much of a success, but it was an instant sensation and sparked a spy craze through the rest of the 1960s.

The successful Dr. No was followed by From Russia with Love (1963), the second and last James Bond movie Ian Fleming saw.

During the Istanbul Pogroms, which many Greek and some Turkish scholars attributed to secret orchestrations by Britain, Fleming wrote an account of the events, "The Great Riot of Istanbul", which was published in the The Sunday Times on 11 September 1955.

Fleming was a bibliophile who collected a library of books that had, in his opinion, "started something", and therefore were significant in the history of western civilization. He concentrated on science and technology, e.g. On the Origin of Species, but also included other significant works ranging from Mein Kampf to Scouting for Boys. He was a major lender to the 1963 exhibition Printing and the Mind of Man. Some six hundred books from Fleming's collection are held in the Lilly Library at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, U.S.A.

In March 1960, Fleming met John F. Kennedy through Marion Oates Leiter who was a mutual friend and invited to dinner. Leiter had introduced Kennedy to Fleming's books during his recovery from an operation in 1955. After dinner Fleming related his ideas on discrediting Fidel Castro; these were reported to Central Intelligence Agency chief Allen Welsh Dulles, who gave the ideas serious consideration.

Fifty-six-year-old Ian Fleming died of a heart attack on the morning of August 12, 1964, in Canterbury, Kent, England, and was later buried in the churchyard of Sevenhampton village, near Swindon. Upon their own deaths, Fleming's widow, Ann Geraldine Mary Fleming (1913–1981), and son Caspar Robert Fleming (1952–1975), were buried next to him. Caspar committed suicide with a drug overdose.

In observance of what would have been Fleming's 100th birthday in 2008, Ian Fleming Publications commissioned Sebastian Faulks to write a new Bond novel entitled Devil May Care. The book, scheduled for release in May 2008, is credited to "Sebastian Faulks, writing as Ian Fleming".