Le Chiffre

• With these opening words, Ian Fleming (1908-64) introduced us to the gritty, glamorous world of James Bond.
• Fleming’s first novel, Casino Royale, was published 70 years ago on April 13 1953.
• British readers, still living with rationing and shortages after the war, eagerly devoured the first James Bond story.
• It had expensive liquor and cars, exotic destinations, and high-stakes gambling – luxurious things beyond the reach of most people.

Ian Fleming, Agent 17F

• He only lasted a year at military college (where he contracted gonorrhoea), then missed out on a job with the Foreign Office.
• The director of British Naval Intelligence, Admiral John Henry Godfrey, recruited Fleming as his assistant.
• Fleming excelled, under the codename 17F.
• They would obtain a German bomber, dress British men in German uniforms, and deliberately crash the plane into the channel.
• Fleming claimed he played against a German agent at the tables, an experience that supposedly inspired Bond’s gambling battles with Le Chiffre in Casino Royale.
• Fleming also pointed to Sidney Reilly, a Russian-born British agent during the First World War.

The changing world of Bond

• Bond novels still sold well, especially after John F. Kennedy listed one among his top ten books.
• From Casino Royale to For Your Eyes Only (1960), Bond battled SMERSH, a real Soviet counter-espionage organisation.
• The early Bond novels were Cold War stories.
• In the novels, Bond drove Bentleys – the Aston Martin was introduced in the 1964 film Goldfinger.
• Their female characters do more than just spend a night with Bond before their untimely deaths.
• But the revised Bond novels will include a disclaimer noting the removals.

Spies After Bond

• Le Carré introduced his readers to a more mundane, morally grey world of espionage.
• He thought Bond was a gangster rather than a spy.
• There’s a little more Bond in Mathews’ books than in those of le Carré or Rimington.
• The more tedious and banal aspects of spycraft – brush passes, broken transmitters, and dead drops – accompany the glamour and romance.

The wilderness of mirrors

• The real world of espionage is so secret that most of us only ever encounter it on pages or screens.
• We don’t usually look to Bond films for accurate representations of espionage.
• But the influence of Fleming’s spy and the general aura of secrecy surrounding intelligence work lend some glamour and excitement to the work of real spies.
• This is why the CIA invests time and money into fictionalisations dealing with its work.