AJB Remembers Ian Fleming

A man and his cigarette
© Horste Tappe/Hulton Archive - Getty Images

To celebrate the centenary year of Ian Fleming's birth, ajb007.co.uk asked its members to contribute stories about how each of them were first introduced to the work of 007's creator.  Here is a selection of their responses...

"My first introduction to James Bond -and more particularly Ian Fleming was my Father's collection of Pan paperbacks -which I have since commandeered from him...The Pan paperback that first caught my attention was that of a copy of Moonraker and its amazing image of  James Bond holding a damsel in distress with a rocket in the background -the image grabbed me!...However it wasn't Moonraker which I read first but actually Thunderball -because the Pan paperback my Father owned was a copy that had two bullet holes in the cover -which to an eight year old boy was spellbinding...Obviously reading the back covers with the picture of Fleming holding his lit cigarette in its holder  with the whisps of smoke rising kind of added to the mystique...So for me my introduction to 007 was roughly 30 years ago!" - Scaramanga1

"Being a mere 10 years old when "From Russia with Love" was released, I had little notion of who or what 'James Bond' was. I first saw him in a set of life size cardboard cutouts in the lobby of a Sacramento, CA resturaunt. Sean Connery with a long barrelled pistol, dressed in a tuxedo was surrounded by several girls dressed in nighties and gypsy rags...After seeing the movie some months later, and being quite impressed, I saw a paperback in the neighborhood Rexall Drug Store. The red cover was very striking...I especially liked the nice photo of the Walther PPK on the book cover.

"Taking the novel home, I began reading it and found myself disturbed by "Red" Grant who actually enjoyed killing people. It really upset me that the Russians let him loose in jail cells to kill on the full moon. I shared this with my mother who confiscated the book...Mom read the book and ultimately decided I could read the whole text...I didn't understand a lot of FRWL on that first reading at ten years old, but have read it many times since - always finding something new to enjoy.

"When Ian Fleming died I was very sad. I recall looking at the back of my Goldfinger Soundtrack album just before the 'last' Bond novel, 'The Man with the Golden Gun' was published in paperback in 1965 and thinking 'James Bond is now dead.' Was I wrong or what!" - 7289

"I became a Bond fan at the age of 6 after watching FRWL with my dad on TV but only began to read the books at around age 18 when I was introduced into the Fleming realm via Raymond Benson's JB Bedside Companion.  However, if it means anything I remember first becoming conscious of Fleming from the TV plugs of the 2nd Bond film I've seen at the theater, MR; these commercials as I remember weren't presented as outlandishly as the movie itself and I recall scenes of the MR shuttle in its lauch bay and the narrator saying something like, 'from the late Ian Fleming'...it just happened to be a cool sounding and offbeat name and hearing it lent a sense of class and legitimacy to whatever concept I had of James Bond up to that point...Well, anyway, why I had a classmate named Ian began to make sense and now makes me wonder what influenced his parents to give that name?" - superado

"My first encounter with James Bond came via Nintendo's Goldeneye 64... However, I couldn't even tell you when I first learned of Bond's creator Ian Fleming, or the series of novels he wrote. Not being a fan of reading, for years I wrote them off in favor of their cinematic counterparts...It wasn't until the summer before the release of Casino Royale (2006) that I finally picked up an Ian Fleming novel. It was of course his first. I figured it would serve as a nice compliment to the upcoming film...I enjoyed the novel immensely. Since then, I have begun reading the rest of Fleming's Bond thrillers in order. I'm glad I've done so as there is a bit of continuity.  So far I've read Casino Royale, Live and Let Die, and Moonraker...

Ian Fleming is a great writer and his Bond thrillers are quite the page-turners.  I've enjoyed the first three, and I look forward to finishing them all.  Ian Fleming has made a reader out of me..." - Tee Hee

"I was ten years old when I watched a video of Moonraker, which instantly started a passionate interest in James Bond. It was then in my second year of high school that I laid my hands on an Ian Fleming book for the first time. It was The Man With The Golden Gun, my local library's only Fleming book...I read TMWTGG, and to be honest I was slightly dissappointed. While there were certain parts that I enjoyed, it didn't live up to my expectations which were formed by the films. However, several years later when I found a cheap copy of Dr No in a local bookshop I was ready for the literary Bond of Ian Fleming. This was the proper start of my love of the Ian Fleming books. I devoured DN, and although Ian Fleming books are hard to come by in South Africa, slowly but surely I managed to get my hands on the rest of the Fleming books and read the rest of the book in order. Although it is only three years since I read DN, it feels like I have already had a lifetime's worth of joy from the work of Mr Fleming." - Golrush007

"I was 13 years old when I first heard about James Bond and like many people in 1964,that was because of a new motion picture with the unusual name of Goldfinger.  My parents and I saw Goldfinger during its first week in release in Arlington,Virginia(where we were living at the time).Having read the feature article published in LIFE magazine-featuring a tastefully nude and entirely golden Shirley Eaton-I wasn't sure what to expect from the film...Little did I know that once the film began and after less than 10 minutes had elapsed, that this film would make me a James Bond fan for life.  Shortly thereafter,my family and I saw the rereleased From Russia With Love/Dr.No double bill.And this event only heightened my curiousity about this Ian Fleming fellow and his James Bond novels...So I started asking questions about those books...

"One of my favorite English teachers (a woman in her late 20s) described Fleming's novels as comic books for adults-but she wasn't being derisive when she said this.  Quite the contrary,by her own admission, she'd read nearly all of the Bonds then available in paperback and enjoyed them.  She said they were good stories written by a talented man--and if I liked Fleming, she said, I'd probably also like John Buchan.  Not long afterwards,I entered Ian Fleming's inimitable universe...Overall,what impresses me most about Fleming's writing is the way he can make even the most outlandish concepts and grotesque characters seem real-at least within the context of a particular story.  For example, if Fleming says Dr.No looks like a giant slug, and is also one of those rare individuals with a heart on the opposite side of his chest, I'm inclined to believe it.  If Hugo Drax is a red-bearded monster so evil that he even cheats at cards-that's just fine.  It's the conviction Fleming brings to his best work that gives his characters life.

"Of course, I learned much more about James Bond through Ian Fleming's books than I ever could have from 007's cinematic alter ego.  The Bond of the novels is a much darker character than the one we usually see on the screen.  He's not an outgoing individual, nor does he have a quip for all occasions-and he smokes like a freight train.  And he's an executioner who never takes his job lightly-the man even worries and occasionally gets scared.  Although only a few of the actors Eon have cast as James Bond really physically resemble the 007 Fleming describes (most notably in From Russia With Love and The Spy Who Loved Me), they've all done him justice through their different interpretations, despite the shifts in style and content of their movies.  In my opinion something of Ian Fleming's creation always makes it to the screen, and that, I think, is because what Fleming created is simply too fascinating-too potent to ignore." -  Willie Garvin

"I had been a Bond fan for quite some time when wondering through a store I came across a box set of all the Fleming James Bond novels.  I decided to pick it up thinking that I would probably just read Casino Royale but that it would be nice to have the whole set of books to compliment my collection of movies.  I had heard that the movies followed the novels pretty closely and assumed that would spoil the reading of the books.  Needless to say I was wrong.  After reading CR I was hooked, I decided to read all the novels in order.  I would site that purchase as a turning point in my Bond fandom.  Reading CR is what transformed me from a casual Bond fan into a Bond aficionado." - 00-Agent

"I was about 8 years old, I believe, when I accompanied my mother on a foray to a 'garage sale.' It was a Saturday, and I was desperately bored...I came upon a table with several boxes of paperback books...I picked up a paperback.  The title proclaimed:  MOONRAKER.  Above it, in even bigger letters, was the name IAN FLEMING...which rang a bell somewhere in the dark recesses of my earnest young mind.  Then, along the right side of the cover, was vertically written:  A JAMES BOND THRILLER...

"I took the book to my mom, tugged on her skirt and begged her to buy it for me.  It cost her one dime---ten cents, American---and, God bless her, she bought it for me...On the way home, I looked at the back cover, and there was Ian Fleming, aiming a revolver to the right, at someone out of the picture.  He looked pretty cool to me---anybody who writes James Bond stories has to be pretty cool---and I opened the book and smelled the pages.  It was musty newsprint---a smell that has always heralded great adventure to me; an escape from the humdrum.  I remain firmly convinced, to this day, that heaven will smell like old paperback books.  

"I opened the book to Chapter One, and read the first line of the book:  'The two thirty-eights roared simultaneously.'  And, almost 40 years later, here I am." - Loeffelholz

"I was probably about 18 yrs old and already a long time Bond fan when I decided I really needed to read the Fleming novels...I was going to London to watch Eric Clapton at the Royal Albert Hall and decided I needed something to read on the coach journey down. I stopped off at my local WH Smith's and bought both Casino Royale and Live And Let Die - if I was going to do this then I was going to do it right and read them in order...I was hooked!" - Sir Miles

"Being Loeffelholz's kid brother, as one can imagine, I don't remember a time of my life when I had no knowledge of James Bond...Some of my fondest childhood memories are of Loeffelholz and I sitting in our living room in the 70's and watching the network television broadcasts of the Bond films. This was before the VCR, so the Bond Movie On TV was a HUGE event in our lives...

"And then much later, some time around my 7th or 8th grade of school, Loeffelholz, who at that time must of been quite tired of explaining to me the differences between cinematic and literary Bond, loaned me his old paperback copy of Casino Royale and told me to 'Start Here.' I did indeed. And never looked back. Over the years, I have read and love them all. I cannot tell you how Mr. Fleming and his Character have enriched my life. Endless entertainment. Endless.

"Recently Loeffelholz gave me that same dogeared copy of Casino Royale that he had loaned me in the early 80's. As he said...the book itself still smells like adventure. This time he gave it to me to keep...here's to 100 years Ian Fleming..." -  Another Loeffelholz

"My grandfather died when I was 8 years old, in 1966, and I inherited his books- Agatha Christie, Alistair MacLean and Ian Fleming. I read them all avidly and no surprises who was my favourite...At eight I didn't understand everything in the books, though with re-reading (many times) as I grew older all became apparent. The only one he didn't have was Octopussy which I picked up later...I began to buy a lot of books about Bond rather than Bond books- The James Bond Dossier, The Bond Affair, etc... riting this has reminded me that it's been a couple of years since I last read any Fleming- time to correct that, I think..." - Barbel

"I couldn't give an age specifically (somewhere between 9 and 14, I suspect) when I first read Fleming. As a boy I knew Fleming as the writer of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and was also aware that he was the creator of James Bond - the movies of which thrilled me and my brothers...One day my mother was cleaning out a cabinet that was stuffed with various books that she was going to get rid of, and my mom said "Here are some Ian Fleming books." That got my attention! I piped up and said "I'll take those!" There were four hardcover books which had my aunt's name written in the covers (I don't know why we had them - I suppose I should ask her but I'm afraid she'll want them back! :p ). The books were Casino Royale, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, and Octopussy...

"One summer night I was looking for a book to read and I chose Thunderball. I ended up staying up the whole night until I finished it. After that, I devoured Octopussy and The Living Daylights. It wasn't until high school, however, and that I had a job that put money in my pocket, that I made it a quest to complete my collection of Bond novels and read them through. They were hard to come by (the eighties were dominated by John Gardner's novels) and I often had to wait weeks for my order to arrive at the bookstore. I remember being so amazed by Fleming's writing that two close friends began to read them to find out what I was so enthralled by...To this day, those original hardcover books (that my aunt doesn't know that I have) rest upon my shelf." - darenhat  

"I honestly can't recall when I first heard Ian Fleming's name.  From the time I was a child I used to see advertisements for James Bond movies and such, and of course they always read, 'James Bond in Ian Fleming's _____' (around the time of The Spy Who Loved Me, it became 'Ian Fleming's James Bond 007'), so I suppose that as long as I knew of Bond I knew of Fleming...Though I'm fuzzy on when I first learned of the author, I remember clearly when I first started reading his novels.  It was the early 1980s: I was in high school, and License Renewed had just been published.  To tie in with this, Berkeley publishing brought out new paperback editions of Fleming's Bond novels, and I toyed with the idea of reading the books.  I had recently seen Dr. No on TV and I loved it; not knowing the order of the novels, I picked up Dr. No and resolved to read them all in the order the films came out.  And in that way a Fleming reader was born." - Hardyboy

"Like Sir Miles and Superado, I already was a lifelong Bond fan - of the movies that is. Well, that all changed after I watched The Living Daylights with new guy Timothy Dalton. You could say he was the person most responsible for inspiring me to seek out the novels. After moving from Germany to Florida in the summer of '88 I read my first Ian Fleming, Octopussy/The Living Daylights/Property Of A Lady. (Coronet paperback with an introduction by Anthony Burgess)...To this day these rather neglected entries in the Fleming pantheon remain sentimental favorites. (neglected by the mainstream not by us fanatics) Short stories had always been favorite past times with me and while I symphatized with Dexter Smythe, who as a Fleming villain is unique since he wasn't an "ugly foreigner", my admiration for the literary and original James Bond character leaped forward giant notches; due to his noble gesture of leaving the Major to devise his own way out rather then endure a shameful end." - Alex

"I am guessing I was about 13 0r 14 years old when I read my first Fleming novels.  My parents subscribed to Life magazine so I had seen all the stories during the "Bond Mania" period in the 60's.  I picked up my first novel which was Casino Royale (still my favorite) and fell in love with Fleming.  Read all of the books the library had and purchased the paperbacks of the others.  As I have mentioned before I believe it is the pacing of his books which I enjoyed most, they just seemed to always be moving forward.  I have never read a better fiction author.  About 10 years ago I reread all the novels in order and enjoyed them just as much...I have to thank my parents who let a young teenage boy read books that had scantily clad women on the cover." - Barry Nelson

"Can't remember the specific moment, but I do remember going to the coast on vacation trips with my family, and begging to stop at this little bookstore that always had tons of used paperback and hardback Flemings.  Seems I could never find what I wanted in town, always had to go to the coast for my Bond fix.

"I do remember DN making quite an impression with Dr. No's obstacle course, and of course Grant in FRWL was terrifying.  As was Blofeld walking around in Japanese armor in YOLT, tossing people to his piranhas!  And the interrogation chamber...I think more than the character of Bond, I really appreciated Fleming's amazing imagination, and the way he could blend borderline fantasy elements with plain old real life." - blueman

"For many years I had been a casual Bond Fan, knowing only of the movies I would see them in the cinema or rent them from the video library, being quite young at the time I didn't know tha novels exsisted and was more enthralled by the action in the movies...I knew of the novels and of Ian Fleming but had never read any of them. during this speculation process and the casting of Daniel Craig I kept hearing the phrase "Fleming's James Bond" and, wanting to know really what people meant by "Fleming's James Bond" I decided when I was in Borders one day to by the Penguin Classics paperback copy of Casino Royale, Live & Let Die and Moonraker...having suppassed the books aimed at teenagers by my 9th Birthday I didn't find Fleming's prose a challenge to read. because of that I devoured the content of the novels, creating my own image of James Bond in my head.

"I went straight to my local library and placed an order for the rest of Fleming's Bond novels. they could only get some of them so I then went back to Boarders and bought the ones I couldn't get hold of. my copies of CR,LALD,MR and Goldfinger are now so damaged the paperback back covers on them have fallen off...Because of reading Fleming's novels I then became a true Bond fan, purchasing the DVD box set of movies and joining places like here so I could be part of the Bond conciousness.

"...So thank you Ian Fleming, Thank you for creating something that has taken over my life." - solaris

Ian Lancaster Fleming, 1908 - 1964
© Marvin Koner/Corbis

"One can only be grateful for the talent that came out of the air, and to one's capacity for hard, concentrated effort.  I am perhaps the smallest and most profitable one-man factory in the world.

"If I chose to leave England and live somewhere else like Switzerland I could be a millionaire.

"I don't want yachts, racehorses or a Rolls-Royce.  I want my family and my friends and good health and to have a small treadmill with a temperature of 80° in the shade and the sea to come to every year for two months.

"And to be able to work there and look at the flowers and birds and fish, and somehow to give pleasure to people in the millions.  Well, you can't ask for more."¹ - Ian Fleming, 1908 - 1964

Special thanks to all AJB members who contributed to the "Ian Fleming Memories" thread.

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