"I remember an old girlfriend of Ian Fleming's saying: ‘Ian was like one of the characters in the plays of that major 19th-century Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen; that character was always waiting for something wunderbar to happen to him.’ Readers will find this remark in John Pearson's 500 page biography The Life of Ian Fleming. "I think The Bond Books function as the dream autobiography of this man," writes Pearson. There have already been several stabs at dramatising this famous writer’s life, including two television films from 1989 and 1990, the first starring Charles Dance, the second Jason Connery. But Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond, a co-production between Sky-Atlantic and BBC America, is the most opulent yet.1 Sky Atlantic is a television channel owned by British Sky Broadcasting. This channel was launched on 1 February 2011 on Sky in the United Kingdom and Ireland. It is this docudrama that I have just enjoyed involving, as it does, a look at the life of Ian Fleming from when he was in the UK's naval intelligence as a commander until his death in 1964. It gives an insight into what Fleming was really like, and how he came to write his Bond novels. I watched the two episodes in the first 10 days of November 2014.2

1. IAN FLEMING
...with most of my sex behind me now
Part 1:
"I remember an old girlfriend of Ian Fleming's saying: ‘Ian was like
one of the characters in the plays of that major 19th-century
Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen; that character was always
waiting for something wunderbar to happen to him.’ Readers will find
this remark in John Pearson's 500 page biography The Life of Ian
Fleming. "I think The Bond Books function as the dream
autobiography of this man," writes Pearson.
There have already been several stabs at dramatising this famous
writer’s life, including two television films from 1989 and 1990, the
first starring Charles Dance, the second Jason Connery. But Fleming:
The Man Who Would Be Bond, a co-production between Sky-
Atlantic and BBC America, is the most opulent yet.1 Sky Atlantic is a
television channel owned by British Sky Broadcasting. This channel
was launched on 1 February 2011 on Sky in the United Kingdom and
Ireland. It is this docudrama that I have just enjoyed involving, as it
does, a look at the life of Ian Fleming from when he was in the UK's
naval intelligence as a commander until his death in 1964. It gives an
insight into what Fleming was really like, and how he came to write
his Bond novels. I watched the two episodes in the first 10 days of
November 2014.2
Part 2:
Ian Fleming: Bondmaker was a 60 min docudrama which I watched
on its release in Australia eight years ago on 10/12/'06. I had just
completed my retirement from all FT, PT and casual employment and
was beginning to watch at least two hours of TV everyday for the first
time in my life.

2. This film is now available on the history channel in the UK. This
latest docudrama, The Man Who Would Be Bond, tells what seems
in some ways, and at least to me, like a fantasy story. It portrays the
extraordinary true life story of this creator of James Bond, one of the
great icons of 20th century culture. The film takes a bold and
innovative approach to dramatizing the story of the author’s life, by
using his own words. Shot on location in the UK and Jamaica, the
film explores the relationship between Fleming’s life and the legend
that is James Bond. Dominic Cooper starred as Fleming and he
appeared, certainly in episode #1, very strongly as a womanizer living
off of his family fortune just before World War II begins.
Part 3:
In 1964, just as I was about to begin the second year of my five years
of post-secondary education, in an honours history and philosophy
course at the university in Hamilton Ontario, the lunch-pail city so-called
due to its working-man's culture, this British author and
journalist Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, the world’s most
famous fictional spy, died of a heart attack at age 56 in Kent,
England.
I was 20 back then, and knew nothing of Ian Fleming and his James
Bond character. I was dealing with an episode of bipolar 2 disorder,
little did I know, and had just begun a part-time job in the evenings
working with the T. Eaton Co. Ltd, Canada's largest department
store retailer at the time.
Part 4:
Fleming’s series of novels about the debonair Agent 007, based in
part on their dashing author’s real-life experiences, spawned one of
the most lucrative film franchises in history. The first of the 23 films
was Dr No which was released in early October 1962, in the first 40
days of my many decades of travelling-and-pioneering in and for the

3. Canadian Baha'i community. I moved with my parents from
Burlington to Dundas in Ontario's Golden Horseshoe, and they
served on the first LSA of the Baha'is of Dundas.
By October 1962 I was fully occupied with four hours of homework
on a nightly basis dealing with 9 subjects in Ontario's demanding and
controversial grade 13, the entrance requirement for university. I
spent the previous summer, before that infamous academic year of
grade 13, working for the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company in
three different capacities: cleaner, store man and packer, and then data
processing clerk. I also worked overtime in my psycho-emotional life
keeping my libido under control, no easy task in this later adolescent
period of my life.
Part 5:
Ian Fleming: Bondmaker was a 2005 BBC TV series with the award-winning
actor Ben Daniels from Cutting It and Conspiracy. He
brought the author to life. The film also starred Emily Woof who had
been in The League of Gentleman’s Apocalypse, School for
Seduction, The Full Monty. She starred as Ian’s wife, Ann, and Pip
Torrens (The Government Inspector, The Rotters Club) were Ian’s
close friend and Jamaican neighbor, Noel Coward. After 8 years I
don't remember much about that bio-pic of this famous writer who
chronicled his adventures in 12 novels and nine short stories.
Fleming's famous alter ego represents a modern hero who is at home
in the modern world which emphasizes technological expertise over
spiritual values. Set in the context of the Cold War, of good vs. evil,
Bond nonetheless operates in the shadows, in the amoral mass of
combat between "shadowy figures." However, that realism is overlaid
with exotic locales, exotic women and the glamour of the "jet set," as
Bond proves his mastery over every situation. Bond represents the
desire for mastery in an increasingly complex world that has reduced
the human sense of size and value.

4. Part 6:
For over half a century the Bond novels have entertained millions
around the world. But no book has used the Fleming archive to
explore the three-dimensional world of this quintessential secret
agent, revealing what inspired it, and who inspired him. Complete,
authoritative and entertaining, it will take you on a journey through
myth and reality, from Moscow to Mayfair, the bedroom to the war-room,
the casino to the villain’s lair.
In 1959, the year I joined the Baha'i Faith, this creator of James Bond
was commissioned by the Sunday Times to explore fourteen of the
world’s most exotic cities. Fleming saw it all with a thriller writer’s
eye. From Hong Kong to Honolulu, New York to Naples, he left the
bright main streets for the back alleys, abandoning tourist sites in
favour of underground haunts, and mingling with celebrities,
gangsters and geishas. The result is a series of vivid snapshots of a
mysterious, vanished world.
Ian Fleming Publications Ltd owns and administers the literary
copyright in Ian Fleming’s fiction and non-fiction books. The
company’s aim is to promote and make available all of Ian Fleming’s
books worldwide. Ian Fleming Publications looks after the literary
James Bond brand, keeping it alive through the publication of new
stories based on the characters Ian created by authors such as William
Boyd, Jeffery Deaver, Sebastian Faulks, Charlie Higson and
Samantha Weinberg.
Part 7:
Working alongside Ian Fleming Publications Ltd, The Ian Fleming
Estate owns the copyright in Ian Fleming’s personal letters and other
non-Bond writing and in some journalism. It manages the use of the
Ian Fleming name and of his likeness. The Bond stories now rank
among the best-selling series of fictional books of all time, having
sold over 100 million copies worldwide. In 2008, The Times ranked
Fleming 14th on its list of "The 50 greatest British writers since
1945".

5. On 13 April 1953 Casino Royale was released in the UK in
hardcover, with a cover designed by Fleming. It was a success and
three print runs were needed to cope with the demand. My mother
joined the Baha'i Faith that year. The year 1953 was a centenary year
of celebration, a Baha'i holy year. That year was the 100th
anniversary of the first intimations of Baha'u'llah's revelation in the
infamous Siyah-Chal of Tehran. That celebratory year ran from
October 1952 to October 1953.3
Part 8:
In a 1962 interview in The New Yorker, Fleming further explained:
"When I wrote that first book in 1953, I wanted Bond to be an
extremely dull, uninteresting man to whom things happened; I wanted
him to be a blunt instrument. When I was casting around for a name
for my protagonist I thought: "by god the name James Bond is the
dullest name I've ever heard."
Fleming's mood of weariness and self-doubt began to affect his
writing by the late 1950s and early 1960s. This can be seen in his
thoughts and his writings. On 17 March 1961, four years after the
publication of his fifth nocel, From Russia With Love, and three
years after the heavy criticism of Dr. No, an important article
appeared in Life Magazine. It was important to Fleming because it
referred to From Russia, with Love as one of the US President John
F. Kennedy's ten favorite books.
Kennedy and Fleming had previously met in Washington. This
accolade and the associated publicity led to a surge in sales that made
Fleming the biggest-selling crime writer in the US. Fleming
considered From Russia, with Love to be his best novel, although he
admitted, "the great thing is that each one of the books seems to have
been a favorite with one or other section of the public and none has
yet been completely damned." Benson argues that Fleming had
become "a master storyteller" by the time he wrote Thunderball in
1961.

6. Part 9:
During his lifetime Fleming sold thirty million books; double that
number were sold in the two years following his death. In 2008 The
Times ranked Fleming fourteenth on its list of "The 50 greatest
British writers since 1945."
The 23 films from Eon Productions with the most recent, Skyfall,
released in October 2012, have grossed more than 6 billion
worldwide, and many more billion when adjusted for inflation. This
makes the Bond film franchise the second highest grossing film
series, behind Harry Potter.-Ron Price with thanks to 1Mark
Monahan, "Ian Fleming: the man who would be Bond", The
Telegraph, 11/2/'14; 2Fleming: The Man Who Would Be Bond,
a four-part mini-series which debuted in the USA on 29 January
2014, and in a two-part mini-series in Australia 2/11/'14 and 9/11/'14
at 8:30 on ABC TV, and 3 from a letter written on behalf of Shoghi
Effendi in Directives from the Guardian.
Part 10:
I've never really enjoyed films
from the James Bon franchise.
And I've never read any of his
books; I'm not a reader of this
who-dun-it genre, to say little
of fiction books across a wide
expanse of literature. But, still,
Bond and his creator Fleming
have come into my life recently
in these years of my retirement
from FT, PT & volunteer-work.
Biography has come to interest
me more & more as I have gone
into my 50s, then 60s, and now

7. 70s. Ian Fleming, a lonely man,
who seemed to like his share of
SM sex, in addition to his large
appetite for sex very generally,
is most interesting and it is, for
this reason that I have written
the above prose-poem in this
the evening of my life with just
about all my sex behind me now.
Ron Price
4/11/'14.