Talk:Ian Fleming

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Contents

[edit] Signature Line copied from Van Wyck Mason?

The author Van Wyck Mason (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F._Van_Wyck_Mason) used the "Bond, James Bond" line in an earlier work "The Hong Kong Airbase Murders" in which the protagonist (Hugh North) introduces himself as "North, Hugh North". Any connection? The Mason books (1940 - 1949) were popular prior to the Bond Books (1953+), which would coincide to when Ian Fleming was growing up... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:F._Van_Wyck_Mason

[edit] Anti-Smoking bias

Would a registered user please either provide a source for the statement that Ian Flemming's heart attack was brought on by smoking and drinking habits, or edit it out of the article. The fact is that as it stands this second bio on wikipedia to try and link a famous person's death to smoking, without any proof or evidence. The other was Audrey Hepburn, the author of that article at one point attempted to state that Audrey Hepburn's cancer was a result of life long smoking, a fact that was not substantiated at all.

Despite the fact that many of these statements are read as "may have contibuted" this is still opinion and un-verified. Heart attacks, and cancer, do have other causes than smoking and alcohal consumption, and as there is no source backing up that they were possibly a leading factor in the these people's medical conditions or death, this constitutes a non-neutral anti-smoking bias in these articles. One that is not only mis-leading, but should the person in question have died from entirely un-related medical reasons, down right dishonest.


[edit] Rudolf Hess

See Talk:Rudolf_Hess; There's no other source for the claims about Rudolf Hess than The Man Who Was M: The Life of Charles Henry Maxwell Knight by Anthony Masters, ISBN 0-631-13392-5

[edit] The typewriter

"On May 5, 1995, Pierce Brosnan, the fifth official James Bond actor, bought the gold-plated typewriter on which Ian Fleming wrote some of his James Bond novels in Jamaica for a reported £52,800."

As I know, Pierce Brosnan has denied this. Should this be deleted?

If there's a reputable media source that can be cited for the report, it should be included, though Brosnan's denial certainly needs to be mentioned, too (again, preferably with a source). 23skidoo 23:28, 31 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] "legendary British actor"

"He is not to be confused with the legendary British actor of the same name."

Who he?

I suggest deleting the sentence until somebody writes an article about the actor, and preferably one that separates fact from mere legend. -- Hoary 04:26, 25 November 2005 (UTC)

Agreed. I've heard of an actor named Ian Fleming but I'd hardly consider him to be "legendary". Feel free to cut the sentence. 23skidoo 05:41, 25 November 2005 (UTC)
Done. Incidentally, while Beowulf, Paul Bunyan, Valhalla etc. may indeed be "legendary", this use of the word for minor or even major figures and products in pop culture seems like journalistic gush at its worst, and is certainly unencyclopedic. -- Hoary 07:04, 25 November 2005 (UTC)


[edit] Education

Was his prep school Sunningdale? Neither Pearson nor the potted bio on the Ian Fleming site mention refering only to defunct Durnford Preparatory School for Boys in Dorset. Albatross2147 11:39, 7 January 2006 (UTC)

I've never heard of it. I don't recall Benson's biography or Chancellor (the most recent) mentioning the school. I've removed it. K1Bond007 19:31, 7 January 2006 (UTC)
I am an ex-student at sunningdale and i can confirm that he did indeed attend there not durnford. interestingly at the same time as he was there there were boys named bond, bloufeld (who only had one eye and wore a patch) and a couple of others whose names appeared in bond books all in his year group. this fact is not mentioned in the article but as i cant find the evidence for this online i wont put that in the article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.243.253.112 (talk) 12:33, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Writing Career

  • Christine Granville : Is there a source for this statement ? Surely it's unlikely that Fleming would have met her ? Fleming was in DNI and Granville in SOE -- completely different organisations. Given the secrecy and "compartmentalisation" of intelligence units they would have known nothing of each other's agents. Plus Granville spent large parts of the war in Poland and France.
  • in charge of defense of Gibraltar during WW2 -- again is there a source ? Surely Fleming was too junior a rank -- Gibraltar waould have an Admiral in charge ? Also Fleming spent part / most / all (?) WW2 in UK, so could only be in Gib for a specified period of time. cephas Cefas 09:04, 29 April 2006 (UTC)
It's true. I've seen a couple sources on this including Henry Chancellor's latest James Bond The Man and His World. According to him they knew each other, even intimately by some accounts. Fleming was actually given a lot of powers by Admiral Godfrey, not just to be his political assistant. Fleming actually liaised with the SIS, SOE and a number of other agencies/departments on Godfrey's behalf. This lasted until about 1942/1943 when Godfrey was "removed" (never said why) and was replaced by Admiral Rushbrooke who scaled back Fleming's powers.
The notion that Vesper Lynd is named after Granville, however, is probably not entirely true. By some other accounts, she was named after a cocktail (possibly homemade) that was served to Fleming and his friend Ivar Bryce while on a plantation in Jamaica. I think it had iced rum, fruit, and something else. It was announced to him as a 'Vesper'. This kind of ties in with the novel where inevitably Bond names a martini cocktail after the character, the 'Vesper'. K1Bond007 16:53, 29 April 2006 (UTC)
Many thanks for this information and I now accept the entries. Cefas 19:48, 4 May 2006 (UTC)
  • Connection between "The Spy Who Loved Me" and "Adaptation" : it's interesting to note that Ian Fleming used a literary device in one of his novels. is it necessary to say that a hollywood movie used that same 'innovation' 40 years later? that tells me something about the hollywood movie, but not anything meaningful about Ian Fleming. a side question is whether you can call something an innovation when someone else has done it first. to me this factoid is extraneous to the article about Fleming and it seems out of place. -jpx
ok, i'm making this edit.209.82.111.194 15:33, 14 June 2006 (UTC)jpx

[edit] Goldeneye

Golden head in Spanish is cabeza de oro or cabeza dorada. This - http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/pages/history/story0048.htm suggests a different derivation - "* Oracabessa, St. Mary: comes from the Spanish for 'aura' meaning 'air or breeze' and 'cabeza' meaning head, resulting in a phrase that could be read as 'fanciful'." -- Beardo 06:29, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Later Life

Being a 'visitor' from the german Wikipedia, I just stumbled across the following sentence: 'Particularly, he collected books relating to science and technology, such as On the Origin of Species, including milestones such as Mein Kampf and Scouting for Boys.'

Now, although I wouldn't dream of comparing Scouting for Boys to Mein Kampf, still, I believe the two have something in common: First, neither of them has anything to do with science and technology. Second, I wouldn't go as far as calling them milestones, especially not Mein Kampf. I was just wondering, whether this was, at least partly some kind of vandalism that had gone unnoticed. Not too firm in the field (of Flemings biography) I didn't want to get involved myself and just wanted to draw your attention to it. --194.94.40.241 15:32, 13 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Sentence dropped after vandalism - why?

I just wonder, if the following sentence was dropped by accident, since some idiot replaced it by this line:

"In 1940 between 1941 and 1946.Ian was the greatest guy ever!!!!!!!!! he made james bond.[1]"

Later the vandalism was taken away, but the original line wasn't restored. Shouldn't this happen?

original line: "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.[1]"

Please someone have a look, who's got the knowledge on the subject to decide this!

Greetings, Joe.

82.83.70.43 02:28, 14 January 2007 (UTC)

I've restored the section: I think their removal must have been an accident. Jasper33 15:32, 27 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] First sentence?

It makes absolutely no sense... he was born to his mother and his wife? Strange...--Pww214 01:29, 21 March 2007 (UTC)

Valentine is a man's name, Valentine Fleming was his father. Ian's mother was indeed his father's wife. —Elipongo (Talk|contribs) 01:29, 10 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Affairs?

The Live and Let Die novel page says that Flemming had multiple extra-marital affairs. If this is true, shouldn't it be mentioned somewhere in this article? Emperor001 18:34, 13 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Dates?

Am I reading this wrong? It looks like Flemming died in August 1964, yet his Playboy interview was in December 1964, and two books were published after his death. A bit of irony that they were written after "you Only Live Twice." Just curious about that.

[edit] The Man Who Was M? Ha

Fleming, as the DNI's "personal assistant" may be learned a great deal about the spy game that way (just as Eisenhower learned generalship/logistics by being MacArthur's personal assistant). But Fleming wasn't really a spy or (despite lots of imaginative plans, some of which were adopted), a formal spy director. If you're looking for Fleming in the Bond novels, he's not M, or Bond. Fleming is Moneypenny! But I can't put that in the article, because I'm afraid nobody has dared suggest it in print, so I can't reference it. Personal secretaries (Ponsonby, Goodnight) are always given their due in Bond novels, however. In Goldfinger, Bond even acts as personal secretary for Goldfinger--something that *certainly* never made it to the screen. SBHarris 05:29, 10 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Centenary 100th

I think there should be a section about the centenary events planned like the Imperial War Mueseum in London, The Royal Mail posts, The radio broadcasts, Devil May Care ect and also about the Goldeneye Resort where he wrote the novels. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bondaholic007 (talk • contribs) 17:34, 12 June 2008 (UTC)