Back for another round…

1. I was born in 1908 in London
2. My father was a member of Parliament who was killed in WWI. Churchill wrote his obituary.
3. After a negotiated exit from Eton, I finished my education in Austria and Switzerland.

Kim Philby.

Not Kim Philby.

In the 1930’s I worked as a journalist for Reuters for 2 years before the family pressured me into going into banking. It was not for me, and I was a failure as a stockbroker.

In 1939 I started at Britain’s Naval Intelligence Service.

Alan Turing.

Alfred Sheinwold

Not Al nor Al,

though I did write a memo outlining a plan to fake a Luftwaffe crash into the English Channel and attack the rescuers in order to capture an Enigma machine. Alan Turing was annoyed it was never carried out.

My service in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve ended in 1952. Also in that year, I published my first novel.

Ian Fleming

BINGO! Ian Fleming it is.

Fleming’s first novel in 1952 was Casino Royale which was a success going through three printings.

He continued to work full time for the Kemsley newspaper group until 1959.

Eleven more Bond books were to come and the children’s book Chitty Chitty Bang Bang which was inspired by the bedtime story he often told his son .

All the Bond novels were written at Goldeneye, the name of Fleming’s home in Jamaica where he lived for three months out of the year.

His books sold well, but sales went meteoric when a 1961 Life magazine article listed From Russia with Love as one of JFK’s 10 favorite books.

Among those that influenced his writing, Fleming cited Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Eric Ambler and Graham Greene.

It was a toss-up between Fleming and David John Moore Cornwell (John le Carré).

Some of the plots he devised as an intelligence officer during World War Two are legendary!

And it’s worth noting that these experiences gave him plenty of background to use as the basis for his Bond novels.

Also noteworthy, Fleming was quite the ladies man. The Bond charm was apparently not the figment of some middle aged man’s wishful imagination.

Here we go:

1. I was born in London.

2. My parents were never married, and separated when I was quite young, so my aunt and uncle adopted me (unofficially) and reared me.

3. At 14 I dropped out of school and began to work at an advertising agency in Fleet Street.

Bernie Taupin.

I hope it’s Bernie. That’s quite a guess.

Not Bernie.

4. I read an advert in The Daily Telegraph looking for young actors. I applied to the advertisers, the Italia Conti Stage School, only to find that I couldn't afford the fees.

Peter O'Toole.

Not Peter.

5. After a brief audition, I was offered a job as an office boy on a salary of 30 shillings a week, plus tuition at the school.

David Niven.

Lawrence Olivier?