Ian Fleming

British author (1908–1964)

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Lived 1908–1964, aged 56United Kingdom

United Kingdom WritersWriter / Author

Wikipedia
89 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1908–1964
Aged 56
Known for
Night Train to Munich
1940

Summary

Updated 2026-08-29

He created the world's most durable spy—a man with a number, a license to kill, and tastes expensive enough to betray the austerity Britain that spawned him. Fleming's Bond novels have sold over 100 million copies, spawned twenty-seven films, and turned a wartime intelligence officer's fantasy into the template for every thriller that followed.

Biography

About

Fleming came from merchant banking money and lost his father on the Western Front in 1917. He drifted through Eton, Sandhurst, and a few universities before landing in journalism, then spent the Second World War planning operations for Naval Intelligence—work that seeded everything he'd later write. At 44, restless or bored, he sat down in 1952 and wrote Casino Royale. It sold fast enough to require three print runs. Eleven more Bond novels and two story collections followed over the next dozen years, all centered on Commander James Bond, 007, an MI6 officer whose adventures became one of the…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Ian Fleming

Ian Fleming

said1954

He sat down next door in the seat she had left and watched the grim suburbs of Philadelphia showing their sores, like beggars, to the rich train.

— Ch. 10

Ian Fleming

said1954

He disagreed with something that ate him.

— Ch. 14

Ian Fleming

said1953

The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning.

— Opening line, Ch. 1 : The Secret Agent

Ian Fleming

said1953

Bond insisted ordering Leiter's Haig-and-Haig "on the rocks" and then he looked carefully at the barman. "A Dry Martini", he said. "One.

— Ch. 7 : Rouge et Noir

Ian Fleming

said1953

I take a ridiculous pleasure in what I eat and drink. It come partly from being a bachelor, but mostly from a habit of taking a lot of trouble over details.

— Ch. 8 : Pink Lights And Champagne

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

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