Tommy Collison

Ian Fleming is probably the most famous detective writer of the 20th century. Certainly, he created the most iconic movie character ever to appear in cinemas worldwide: James Bond.

He lived just like his character too – he enjoyed living in exotic locations (he wrote his books in a home in Jamaica), was a heavy smoker and drinker (also a throwback to 007, although these would be toned down in the films).

Fleming served in the British Navy in World War II (which Bond did too).

He instigated a plan named Operation Ruthless to obtain a German Naval Enigma documentation by crashing a captured German aeroplane into the English Channel, where the British crew, dressed in Luftwaffe uniforms, could be rescued by a German patrol boat. The “survivors” would then kill the German crew, and hijack the ship thus obtaining the Enigma secrets. Much to the annoyance of Alan Turing and Peter Twinn at Bletchley Park, it never actually happened. His niece Lucy Fleming in “The Bond Correspondence” on BBC Radio Four on 24 May 2008, stated that the reason given was that an official at the Royal Air Force pointed out that if they were to drop a downed Heinkel bomber in the English Channel, it would sink rather than float.

He also conceived of a plan to use British occultist Aleister Crowley to trick Rudolf Hess into attempting to contact a fake cell of anti-Churchill Englishmen in Britain, but this plan was not used because Rudolf Hess had flown to Scotland in an attempt to broker peace behind Hitler’s back. Anthony Masters’ book The Man Who Was M: The Life of Charles Henry Maxwell Knight asserts Fleming conceived the plan that lured Hess into flying to Scotland, in May 1941, to negotiate Anglo–German peace with Churchill, and resulted in Hess’s capture: this claim has no other source.

Fleming also formulated Operation Goldeneye, a plan to maintain communication with Gibraltar as well as a plan of defence in the unlikely event that Spain joined the Axis Powers and, together with Germany, invaded the Mediterranean colony.

Having said all that, Fleming wrote an endearing children’s novel, the name of which still conjures images of happy nostalgia among many children and adults alike. Published in 1964, it was adapted into a film in ’68. Being able to watch it through (without hiding behind the couch when the Childcatcher) came on became something of a ‘right of passage’ for many children. I recently read some of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and I was blown away by the simplicity of the opening, while being absolutely wonderfully witty at the same time.

Most motor cars are conglomerations (this is a long word for ‘bundles’) of steel and wire and rubber and plastic and electricity and oil and petrol and water and the toffee papers you pushed down the crack in the back seats last Sunday. Smoke comes out of the back of them and horns squawk out of the front and they have white lights like big eyes in front and red lights behind, and that’s about that! Just motor cars. Tin boxes on wheels for running about in. But some motorcars – mine for instance and perhaps yours are different! If you like them and understand them, if you’re kind to them and don’t scratch their paint or slam their doors. If you fill them up and top them up and pump them up when they need it; if you keep them clean and polished and out of the rain and snow as much as possible you will find – you might find that they become almost like persons. More than just ordinary persons – MAGICAL persons. You don’t believe me? Alright then, you just read about this car I’m going to tell you about, I believe you can guess its name already? Sorry, her name, I should say, and then see if you don’t agree with me, that all motor cars aren’t just conglomerations of machinery and fuel….

Best. Book. Opening. Ever.