James Baquet

    “Bond. James Bond.” Most of us have seen the movies, but have you ever read the books?

    It may be surprising to learn that this character seen in 26 films (and portrayed by seven actors) was actually literary at his birth, in fact the creation of a man not completely unlike his fictional self.

    Ian Fleming (1908-1964) was born into wealth, and served in British Naval Intelligence during World War II, not unlike Bond. Both were commanders in the Royal Naval Reserve. Though he was born in England, Fleming’s forebears were from Scotland; Commander Bond was Scottish.

    Much like Bond’s, Fleming’s wartime service involved spying and counter-spying: outrageous plans to put corpses in German uniforms carrying “secret” (false) information; further plans to plant German-speaking Englishmen in dangerous situations; and oversight of operations in Spain code-named “GoldenEye” (later the name of Fleming’s home in Jamaica, where he wrote the James Bond novels, and subsequently the name of a Bond film not based on Fleming’s works).

    Several years after the war, Fleming finally embarked on a project he had long dreamed of: writing a spy novel. It took him about two months, and was an instant success. He meant for Bond to be dull, so he named him after an American ornithologist who specialized in birds of the Caribbean, figuring that “James Bond” to be “the dullest name I ever heard.”

    As for the character, Fleming later said that Bond “was a compound of all the secret agents and commando types I met during the war,” including Fleming’s older brother Peter, an author himself who helped Ian get his first book published.

    In the following years, Fleming spent his annual vacation in Jamaica writing more Bond stories: 12 novels, and two collections of short stories. Two of the volumes were not published until after his death.

    Known to be a heavy smoker and drinker throughout his life, Fleming died of a heart attack at 56. His character lives on, though, in films and books written by others, with over 30 post-Fleming novels and short stories to date.

    Vocabulary:

    Which word above means:

    1. bird specialist

    2. given a secret name

    3. crazy, wild

    4. ancestors, people born before you

    5. set out (to do something)

    6. after that

    7. something made up of a mixture

    8. dead bodies

    9. supervision

    10. member of the military trained for special missions