The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning. Then the soul-erosion produced by high gambling – a compost of greed and fear and nervous tension – becomes unbearable and the senses awake and revolt from it. James Bond suddenly knew that he was tired. He always knew when his body or his mind had had enough and he always acted on the knowledge. This helped him to avoid staleness and the sensual bluntness that breeds mistakes.
Opening lines from Ian Fleming’s first James Bond novel,Casino Royale.1
Before the films, there were the books: eleven novels and a collection of short stories published during author Ian Fleming’s lifetime – one each year from 1953 to 1964 – then posthumous publication of a final novel in 1965 and a mop-up of three short stories collected in paperback in 1966. 2
Ian Fleming was ‘a curious and complex person … both clever and conceited’. 3 ‘Beneath the sybaritic exterior’, Ben McIntyre notes, ‘Fleming was a driven man, intensely observant, with an internal sense of romance and drama that belied his public languor and occasional cynicism’. 4
Born in 1908, Fleming came from a privileged background – he was the grandson of the founder of the merchant bank Robert Fleming& Co. His father, Valentine, was an MP from 1910 until 1917, and was killed on the Western Front. Valentine’s obituary was written by Winston Churchill. 5
Ian Fleming, the second of four sons, was educated at Eton, Sandhurst, and the universities of Munich and Geneva. His father’s will was restrictive, so unlike many of his peers, he needed to earn a living, although he was never short of money. After failing the entrance exam for the Foreign Office, he had spells at Reuters and two City banking firms. Fleming twice visited Moscow in the 1930s. While working for Britain’s Naval Intelligence Division during the Second World War, he was involved in planning OperationGoldenEye, and in the planning and oversight of two intelligence units, 30 Assault Unit and T-Force. Fleming’s wartime service and his subsequent career as a journalist provided much of the background, detail and depth of the James Bond novels.
Upon demobilisation in 1945, Fleming became the Foreign Manager forThe Sunday Times. He was a bridge-playing friend with the paper owner Lord Kemsley and his generous contract allowed him to take three months holiday every winter in Jamaica. It was here, in his houseGoldenEye, that Fleming wroteCasino Royale in January and February 1952. 6
Published in April 1953, this first novel is hard-hitting, inventive and, at times, shocking.Casino Royale contains many of the ingredients which coloured the later Bond novels and, in time, the films – a glamorous setting, a beautiful but flawed woman, a hideous villain, and much luxury, violence and sex. That famous opening scene is set in a casino: the introduction to the lead character in the first James Bond filmDr. No. is almost identical. Gambling in casinos was illegal in the UK until 1960, so from the opening moments of both the first Bond book and film we
