Ian Fleming

Ian Fleming was born Ian Lancaster Fleming on 28 May 1908 in London, England, into a wealthy family with ties to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co. His father, a Member of Parliament, was killed on the Western Front in 1917. Fleming was educated at Eton, Sandhurst, and briefly at universities in Munich and Geneva before drifting through several jobs. During World War II, he served in Britain's Naval Intelligence Division, where he helped plan operations and oversee intelligence units—experiences that would later inform his fiction.

Fleming is best known for creating the suave British secret agent James Bond, code number 007. He wrote his first Bond novel, *Casino Royale*, in 1952 at age 44, and its success spurred eleven more novels and two short-story collections over the next decade. The series has sold over 100 million copies worldwide. He also wrote the children's classic *Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang* and two non-fiction works. In 2008, *The Times* ranked him 14th among the 50 greatest British writers since 1945.

A heavy smoker and drinker, Fleming died of heart disease on 12 August 1964, at age 56. Two Bond novels appeared posthumously, and other writers have continued the series. His creation has been portrayed by six actors in twenty-seven official films.