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Possible Bond model Patrick Dalzel -Job, a member of
Fleming’s wartime commando unit, with his wife BjørgM for mummy?
Bond author Ian
Fleming with his
mother, Evelyn
St Croix Fleming,
in 1957IWM A-029402/GETTY IMAGES
M
Authentic spymaster
or family matriarch?At first, the inspiration for M – the spy chief and Bond’s
boss – appears to be straightforward. During the war,
Fleming served as an aide to the director of Naval
Intelligence, Admiral John Godfrey. His role involved
coming up with bold deception plans, and this was the
first job at which Fleming excelled, partly because he
was able to put his imagination to good use, but also
because he developed a good relationship with his
curmudgeonly superior.
In demeanour, Godfrey was identical to M. Even the
door to Godfrey’s house matches Fleming’s description
of M’s door with its brass bell from a ship instead of a
doorbell. The relationship between Bond and his boss is
also similar to how Godfrey and Fleming collaborated.
Why did Fleming call this character M? Naturally, he
wanted Bond’s boss to sound like an authentic spymas-
ter. The head of the agency for which Bond nominally
worked, the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) – popularly
known as MI6 – was called ‘C’. But as MI6 still did not
officially exist, giving him this name might have result-
ed in a stern message from the Treasury solicitor.
Instead, Fleming went for another letter of the
alphabet. He was possibly inspired by Major-General
Sir Colin Gubbins, a leading figure in the Special
Operations Executive, who signed his letters ‘M’. But
more likely this was a nod to the best-known M in the
secret service at that time: the MI5 spymaster Maxwell
Knight. Since 1931, Knight had called himself ‘M’ while
running his own ‘M Section’ and giving his agents
codenames starting with the prefix ‘M’.
Yet there may have been another explana-
tion. In 1917, when Fleming was still a child,
his much-loved father was killed on the
western front. Valentine Fleming had always
been known to his children as ‘Mokie’, and
some have suggested that M may be a
veiled reference to him.
But could M have referred to
someone else in the family? Ian’s
mother, Evelyn Fleming – a strong
presence in his life – was often
known to her children as ‘M’. As he
struggled to find a school or job
that suited him, she was the one
who moved him from one institution or
office to another. During the 1920s and
1930s, Evelyn arranged a string of new
placements and jobs for her beloved
second son, many involving overseas
travel, and it is easy to imagine each
one resembling a fresh mission in
the future author’s eyes.of station in Paris during the early part of
the war, have also been put forward as
possible real-life Bonds. Fleming later
described Sir William Stephenson, MI6
head of station in New York, as not so much
a direct model for Bond, who was “a highly
romanticised version of the true spy”, but
“the real thing”.
Most revealing here, perhaps, is the
sheer number of people thought to have
inspired the character of James Bond.
Fleming made a point in his books of
revealing as little as possible about the
personality and background of his protago-
nist. The great spy writer John le Carré
described Bond as “the ultimate prostitute”,
in the sense that his appeal was rooted in
readers never knowing too much about
him, and instead being able to project their
own fantasies and desires onto him, until
they feel as if on one level they are him.
This might explain why there is always such
heated debate about which actor should
next play Bond. We need it to be someone
in whom we can see a part of ourselves- which is testament, ultimately, to
Fleming’s achievement as a writer.
→
Possible ondmode atrc z - , mm
Fleming’s wartime commando unit, with his wife BjørgM for mummy?
Bond author Ian
Fleming with his
mother, Evelyn
St CroixFleming,
in 1957IWM A-029402/GETTY IMAGES
M
Authentic spymaster
or family matriarch?At first, the inspiration for M – the spy chief and Bond’s
boss – appears to be straightforward. During the war,
Fleming served as an aide to the director of Naval
Intelligence, Admiral John Godfrey. His role involved
coming up with bold deception plans, and this was the
first job at which Fleming excelled, partly because he
was able to put his imagination to good use, but also
because he developed a good relationship with his
curmudgeonly superior.
In demeanour, Godfrey was identical to M. Even the
door to Godfrey’s house matches Fleming’s description
of M’s door with its brass bell from a ship instead of a
doorbell. The relationship between Bond and his boss is
also similar to how Godfrey and Fleming collaborated.
Why did Fleming call this character M? Naturally, he
wanted Bond’s boss to sound like an authentic spymas-
ter. The head of the agency for which Bond nominally
worked, the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) – popularly
known as MI6 – was called ‘C’. But as MI6 still did not
officially exist, giving him this name might have result-
ed in a stern message from the Treasury solicitor.
Instead, Fleming went for another letter of the
alphabet. He was possibly inspired by Major-General
Sir Colin Gubbins, a leading figure in the Special
Operations Executive, who signed his letters ‘M’. But
more likely this was a nod to the best-known M in the
secret service at that time: the MI5 spymaster Maxwell
Knight. Since 1931, Knight had called himself ‘M’ while
running his own ‘M Section’ and giving his agents
codenames starting with the prefix ‘M’.
Yet there may have been another explana-
tion. In 1917, when Fleming was still a child,
his much-loved father was killed on the
westernfront. Valentine Fleming had always
been known to his children as ‘Mokie’, and
some have suggested that M may be a
veiled reference to him.
But could M have referred to
someone else in the family? Ian’s
mother, Evelyn Fleming – a strong
presence in his life – was often
known to her children as ‘M’. As he
struggled to find a school or job
that suited him, she was the one
who moved him from one institution or
office to another. During the 1920s and
1930s, Evelyn arranged a string of new
placements and jobs for her beloved
second son, many involving overseas
travel, and it is easy to imagine each
one resembling a fresh mission in
the future author’s eyes.of station in Paris during the early part of
the war, have also been put forward as
possible real-life Bonds. Fleming later
described Sir William Stephenson, MI6
head of station in New York, as not so much
a direct model for Bond, who was “a highly
romanticised version of the true spy”, but
“the real thing”.
Most revealing here, perhaps, is the
sheer number of people thought to have
inspired the character of James Bond.
Fleming made a point in his books of
revealing as little as possible about the
personality and background of his protago-
nist. The great spy writer John le Carré
described Bond as “the ultimate prostitute”,
in the sense that his appeal was rooted in
readers never knowing too much about
him, and instead being able to project their
own fantasies and desires onto him, until
they feel as if on one level they are him.
This might explain why there is always such
heated debate about which actor should
next play Bond. We need it to be someone
in whom we can see a part of ourselves- which is testament, ultimately, to
Fleming’s achievement as a writer.