Ian Fleming

Ian Fleming was born in 1908 and educated at Eton. After a brief period at Sandhurst, he went abroad to further his education. In 1931, having failed to get an appointment in the Foreign Office, he joined Reuters News Agency. During the Second World War he was Personal assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence at the Admiralty, rising from the rank of Lieutenant to Commander. His wartime experiences provided him with a first-hand knowledge of secret operations. After the war he became Foreign Manager of Kemsley Newspapers and built his own house, Goldeneye, in Jamaica. There at the age of 42 he wrote Casino Royale, the first of the James Bond novels. By the time of his death in 1964, Fleming's fourteen Bond adventures had sold more than 40 million copies and the cult of James Bond was internationally established. Three more authors have written James Bond adventures since 1964, and all have been published by Hodder & Stoughton. They are: Kingsley Amis (writing as Robert Markham), John Gardner and now Raymond Benson.