Ian Fleming

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This download is the only extract the BBC has of this edition of Desert Island Discs. The presenter was Roy Plumley.

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mister Fleming, where were you born? I was born in London.

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You went to Eton. I believe your main distinction there was in athletics. Yes, it was. I'm afraid I wasn't terribly good at my body.

Ian Fleming0:16

Victor Lodorum twice and public schools hurdles.

Ian Fleming0:20

And then Sandhurst? Yes, I went to Sandhurst with the idea of going into the army.

Ian Fleming0:26

And into the Black Watch, incidentally.

Ian Fleming0:28

But um then it was decided to mechanize the army and me and a lot of my friends decided we didn't want to be what we thought then would be uh sort of uh large scale garage mechanics. So.

Ian Fleming0:40

So I had a go at the diplomatic and learnt my languages for it, and I passed in seventh.

Ian Fleming0:47

But there are only five vacancies.

Ian Fleming0:49

And um so I decided not to have another go, but to go straight in and start earning some money. So I

Ian Fleming0:55

joined Reuters, which was the nearest thing to the diplomatic in a way, because I could use my languages German and French and Russian.

Ian Fleming1:03

And I had wonderful time in Reuters, was a correspondent in Moscow and Berlin and all over the place. And of course I learnt there the sort of good straightforward or at any rate straightforward writing style that uh everybody wants to have if they're going to write books.

Presenter1:17

How long did you stay with them?

Ian Fleming1:18

I stayed on for three years.

Ian Fleming1:20

But then um

Ian Fleming1:21

I wanted to earn some more money, and Reuters weren't very keen on paying large sums in those days I no doubt they're much better now.

Ian Fleming1:30

And so I went into the city, but I didn't get on very well there because I'm not very good at making money as such.

Ian Fleming1:37

How do you mean?

Ian Fleming1:38

Well, I mean just pure making money. I must do something that entertains me. If it makes money at the same time, well, that's all the better for me.

Presenter1:44

Yes.

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Well, then the war came along, and you joined the Royal Navy, you became personal assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence. Well, this led, not surprisingly, to some rather violent

Ian Fleming1:53

Into action, I believe. Well, not so much that really. It was very interesting life. I took part in the Dieppe Raid, which is a very bloody affair.

Ian Fleming2:02

And I had some exciting adventures round the world, and altogether I had an extremely I couldn't have had a more interesting war, if one can have an interesting war.

Presenter2:12

And presumably your naval intelligence experience provided some useful source material for your later books.

Ian Fleming2:18

Yes, it it taught one what one could say in writing thrillers and what one couldn't say, and of course it taught you really how the intelligence machine does work.

Ian Fleming2:26

I can't say that, of course, I

Ian Fleming2:29

tell that exactly in my books because our fiction and the whole thing is much larger than life. But as I said, at least it tells you what mistakes not to make. And when the war ended?

Ian Fleming2:39

Then I went to the Sunday Times, to the Kemsey newspapers, and I became their foreign manager. They didn't have a foreign department in those days, and it was my job to place correspondents all round the world, and look after their welfare, and see that they uh wrote plenty of intelligent stuff.

Ian Fleming2:56

No.

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Your books

Ian Fleming2:57

Some

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You've written now what, eleven James Bond books.

Ian Fleming3:00

Well, there's actually twelve because the next one has just gone to my publishers. Yes. There's one a year. As one a year. So the first one then, what, nineteen fifty? Fifty two, written in fifty one, I suppose, yes.

Presenter3:11

Had you had this character

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growing in mind for a long time.

Ian Fleming3:15

No, I can't say I had, really. He sort of uh

Ian Fleming3:19

Developed when I was just on the edge of getting married and I was frenzied at the um

Ian Fleming3:23

uh prospect of this great step in my life after having been a bachelor for so long.

Ian Fleming3:29

And I really wanted to take my mind off the agony. And so I decided to sit down and uh write a book.

Presenter3:36

Is one based on any particular person or combination of persons?

Ian Fleming3:39

No, not really. He's a sort of mixt a fictional mixture of commandos and secret service agents that I met during the war, but of course entirely fictionalized.

Presenter3:49

Is there much of you in it?

Ian Fleming3:49

Is there much of you in it? I hope not. I mean people do connect me with James Bond simply because I happen to like scrambled eggs and short sleeved shirts and some of the things that James Bond does. But uh I certainly haven't got his guts nor his uh very lively appetites. Now the first James Bond book was an immediate success.

Ian Fleming4:09

Yes, it was. How long do these books take you to write?

Ian Fleming4:12

Six weeks to two months the actual writing, but I never correct as I go along. I try and get pace into the narrative by sitting straight down at the typewriter.

Ian Fleming4:22

But then of course I do two or three months correction afterwards and then one has to correct the proofs and so on. So it takes about

Presenter4:27

Yeah.

Ian Fleming4:28

A year altogether, let's say.

Presenter4:30

Are you a systematic worker? Can you work so many hours a day regularly?

Ian Fleming4:33

Yes, I find I have to. I I work for about three hours in the morning and one hour in the evening, and I find unless I stick to a routine

Ian Fleming4:41

If I just wait for genius to arrive from the skies, it just doesn't arrive. I I just uh get on with the work.

Presenter4:48

You'll write these books always at your vacation home in Jamaica. Yes. Oops. Do you look forward to writing a new one every year?

Ian Fleming4:55

Well, I don't really, unless I've got it firmly fixed in my mind, and of course, uh, this is a very bad period for me this time of the year, because I'm trying to

Ian Fleming5:04

Work out the next adventure of James Bond, which has got to be written in January and February.

Ian Fleming5:09

And I'm always rather in despair thinking I'm not gonna have enough book to write.

Presenter5:14

There's been a a cumulative rise in sales and success since the first book.

Ian Fleming5:18

I think there has, with the exception of the last one, which was um well, let's say last year's one, which was The Spy Who Loved Me.

Ian Fleming5:25

Well I try to break away from my normal formula.

Ian Fleming5:29

But the readers were so furious that James Bond didn't appear until about three quarters of the way through, and that it was written ostensibly by a girl in the first person that I must confess that it wasn't a success, and it took a quite a beating from the critics.

Ian Fleming5:45

And

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But now the books are being made into film.

Ian Fleming5:47

Yes, they've uh made Doctor Know already, and it's been a tremendous success in England, and even more of a success, I think, in in America, where it's opened uh several weeks ago, where it's breaking records. They're now doing From Russia with Love, and I went out to see them in Istanbul, see the unit at work.

Ian Fleming6:07

And I was tremendously impressed with the casting and uh the way this script had been written and I think it's going to be an equal success.

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Yeah.

Ian Fleming6:15

They've got an option on doing all the books, yes, one after

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Tanala.

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Eleven birth sellers in eleven years, and very profitable film sales. Now on the face of it that looks like unmixed success, but some of the press notices haven't been all that glowing.

Ian Fleming6:29

Blowing.

Presenter6:30

Um they've accused you of being sadistic and

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Too much sex.

Presenter6:36

Taking the charge of of sadism first, your your torture scenes are pretty beastly in some of the books.

Ian Fleming6:41

Well, I don't know how many of you have read, but um of course they're nothing to w what they really are in real life, and I think the old days of the hero getting a crack over the head with a cricket stump have rather gone out. I mean we all have become considerably wiser since the last war.

Ian Fleming6:58

And I've tried to bring very similitude into these books and um

Ian Fleming7:02

It's certainly true that that um the critics have occasionally found them uh

Ian Fleming7:08

Pretty much.

Ian Fleming7:09

Strong meat.

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What effect do you think these themes have on the average reader? Are they going to give him.

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Unhealthy ideas or is this

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Vicarious violence, a harmless way of supplementing aggressive tendencies.

Ian Fleming7:21

Well, I think that's a way of putting it. Uh but I was brought up on what we used to call fourpenny horrors, and um I can't remember that any of the excitements ever did me any harm.

Ian Fleming7:33

Um all history is sex and violence, and I think it's ridiculous to go on writing thrillers in the old Bulldog Drummond John Buchan.

Presenter7:37

Now

Ian Fleming7:44

uh way when life has uh come out so fast

Ian Fleming7:49

Passes.

Presenter7:49

Yes, well sex Bond takes his sex where he finds it almost as casual as he takes a drink.

Ian Fleming7:54

Well, he has one girl per book approximately and and that's one a year. I think that's uh he's a bachelor.

Ian Fleming8:02

and he moves round the world pretty rapidly and um I don't see any great harm in that myself.

Presenter8:07

He's unusually fortunate in meeting these lovely and cooperative girls. Yes, I envy him.

Ian Fleming8:11

Yes, I envy him.

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All your books, mister Fleming, show tremendous attention to detail. You've obviously done a great deal of background research.

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Have you ever slipped up at all in any of the James Bond?

Ian Fleming8:21

Yes, I'm afraid I do from time to time. I take a lot of trouble not to, but inevitably things slip past me and past my publishers.

Ian Fleming8:30

And uh for instance in the last book

Ian Fleming8:33

The girl goes into the bar in the casino and orders half a bottle of Pol Roger champagne.

Ian Fleming8:39

Well, it turns out that the Poroger is the one champagne firm that doesn't turn out half bottles.

Ian Fleming8:45

And uh again some kind friend uh commented on the fact that um when Bond drives up to his headquarters in Regents Park

Ian Fleming8:53

and smells the smell of burning leaves and realizes summer has come to an end,

Ian Fleming8:58

I was making a mistake because uh the Regent's Park is now as smokeless as his own. Well, that is very helpful. But I find that the other people make mistakes. Shakespeare, for instance, had uh clocks chiming in ancient Rome.

Ian Fleming9:10

And uh, yes, it's it's very helpful of them and I try and correct them in the later editions.

Presenter9:11

Some people

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Yes.

Ian Fleming9:17

How much longer do you think you can keep on going? Is he a job for life?

Ian Fleming9:20

Well, I don't know. It just depends on how much I can how much more I can go on following his adventures. You don't feel that he's keeping you from more serious writing? No, I'm not in the Shakespeare stakes. I've got no ambitions.