For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming + James Bond, Macintyre - B-

        "It is the character of Bond - established in the first novel and hardly altered thereafter - that explains the enduring appeal of the world Fleming forged: tough, resourceful, quintessentially British." He wrote 14 books in adozen years, and sold 40 million copies during his life. 

         Ian was the second of four sons born in 1902 to a wealthy Edwardian family, whose patriarch died in the trenches in 1917. He was not much of a student, loved sports and the ladies, was an excellent skier and spoke German fluently. He landed a position with Reuters and learned to write, but didn't stick with it. His most notable activity before the outbreak of WWII was the pursuit of women. "From 1939 on, he was a man with a mission: specifically, naval intelligence and espionage." He went to work for the Director of Naval Intelligence. He traveled the world and was involved in every action of espionage and counter-espionage undertaken by the Royal Navy. 

        After the war, he went to work for the Sunday Times. He wrote his first Bond book in 1952. There are theories about the derivation of the name James Bond, but no conclusive answer. The same is true of who the spy was modeled on.  M, on the other hand, was likely based on Fleming's boss during the war, Admiral John Godfrery.  The plots were driven by the war and the Cold War, as Fleming constantly has Bond looking back to WWII experiences as he battles the Soviet's SMERSH. Bond's luxurious lifestyle appealed to a nation that was, until the mid-fifties, rationing food and beginning to dismantle its empire.

      Fleming had never had robust health and never took care of himself. He had high blood pressure and suffered a heart attack in 1961. The following year, the film 'Dr. No' changed everything as "the first installment of what would become the most valuable cinematic franchise in history." His deal with Broccoli and Saltzman paid him $100,000 per movie and 5% of the producer's profit. The films propelled book sales, and in the last full year of his life, 1963, Fleming's income increased tenfold. He died in 1964 at the age of 56 of a massive heart attack. 

     Interestingly, a Wall Street Journal article last week discussed the standoff between Cubby Broccoli's daughter and Amazon, the  studio holding rights to the franchise. Amazon cannot produce without a script and a star from Barbara Broccoli, and she and the algorithm driven studio cannot find common ground. I believe we all should root for Cubby's daughter so that we can relish Bond, James Bond.