Spy, womaniser, cad: the writer who created James Bond
A new biography tries to make sense of Ian Fleming
It was a chance invitation to a dinner party that changed Ian Fleming’s life and legacy. In 1960 Fleming, the author of some modest-selling books about a spy called James Bond, was on a trip to Washington, as foreign manager of the Sunday Times. The dinner was with John F. Kennedy, who had just declared himself a presidential candidate and was a James Bond superfan. As the conversation turned to the problem of Fidel Castro’s revolutionary Cuba, Kennedy asked Fleming, “What would James Bond do?” Fleming replied that Bond would make Castro look ridiculous, rather than important.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “The man with the golden pen”
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