The man behind James Bond

He shamed Eton and Sandhurst, failed as a banker and botched up his job as a stockbroker. But working as a naval intelligence officer during WW2, the man lived a life which later provided the template for the most successful fictional spy of all times whom we today know as James Bond, agent 007. And today's related topics are: the making of a spy with ingredients shaken other than stirred erupting from the confines of a black tuxedo are strictly 'For your eyes only'.
May 28 was the 106th birth anniversary of Ian Lancaster Fleming, the man who gave the genre of spy-thriller a new dimension by introducing an agent, now turned into a cult plus a money-churning film franchise. But true to the aphorism, life is stranger than fiction, Fleming's own life was no less thrilling than his creation. Only last year declassified documents of  MI6 revealed that a French double agent during the war was abducted and then terminated at the order of no other than Ian Fleming. However, the inside story: Ian Fleming, then a naval intelligence officer, issued an official report stating the officer was 'missing believed drowned'. But, in reality, the 'complete double-crosser' was killed as Secret Service operatives scrambled to smuggle him out of Spain.
This and many other so far protected details compelled this writer to look into Fleming's career. Without much surprise, it's his war time naval career that brought the best out of him – before he came to be known for creating the cult-code “007.” It was in May 1939, barely three months prior to the beginning of World War II, when Ian Fleming joined the Royal Navy as personal assistant to the director of naval intelligence, Rear Admiral John Godfrey.
With the codename “17F”, he functioned out of Room 39 at The Admiralty. Though commissioned into the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in July, through two quick promotions, he was raised to the rank of commander by 1940. Fleming soon became instrumental for all crucial naval strategies, earning the honour of 'invaluable for the admiralty” tag,
On behalf of the department, he maintained a fruitful liaison with the Secret Intelligence Service, the Political Warfare Executive, the Special Operations Executive (SOE), and the Joint Intelligence Committee and even with the Prime Minister's staff. In 1940, Fleming and Godfrey, along with Kenneth Mason, a geography professor at Oxford University, prepared a series of reports on the geography of countries involved in military operations during the war. These reports became the precursors of the Naval Intelligence Division's Geographical Handbook Series, produced between 1941 and 1946.
Fleming acted as a strategist in 'Operation Ruthless', a plan aimed at obtaining details of the Enigma codes used by the German Navy. The idea was to “obtain” a German bomber, man it with a German-speaking crew dressed in Luftwaffe uniforms and crash it into the English Channel. The crew would then attack their German rescuers and bring their boat and Enigma machine back to England. Much to the annoyance of Alan Turing and Peter Twinn at Bletchley Park, the mission was never carried out. However, a turning point of the war came when Britain captured a German Enigma machine and deciphered its codes.
Fascinatingly, it was this Enigma machine that turned into the Lektor cryptographic device of the Soviets in Fleming's novel 'From Russia with Love' (no wonder it was one of the ten favourite novels of President John F. Kennedy).
Fleming also worked with Colonel “Wild Bill” Donovan, President Franklin D. Roosevelt's special representative on intelligence co-operation between London and Washington. In May 1941, Fleming accompanied Godfrey to the United States, where he assisted in writing a blueprint for the Office of the Coordinator of Information, the department which turned into the Office of Strategic Services that today we know as the CIA.
Between 1941 and 1942 Fleming took charge of 'Operation Golden Eye', a plan to maintain an intelligence framework in Spain in the event of a German takeover of the territory. 'Golden Eye' also involved maintainng communication networks with Gibraltar together with launching sabotage operations against the Germans. As a negotiator, Fleming in 1941 liaised with Donovan over American involvement in a measure intended to ensure that the Germans did not dominate the waterways.
A book usually reflects the thoughts of a writer, but through the awe-inspiring Bond novels we come to learn of a man who literally lived the life he wrote about. Literati across the globe have not considered Bond novels to be serious literature but the truth is the fictitious spy James Bond created a readership for a spy thriller genre that had  never existed before. Through the movies the spy's popularity reached the peaks.

 Shahriar Feroze is Current Affairs Analyst, The Daily Star. Email:shahriarferoze@gmail.com