One of the joys of researching SOE is the number of surnames that crop up in Ian Fleming's novels. having discovered a Miss Moneypenny (secretary) and now James Bond (Night Watchman) (Though another Bond was an operational agent) I thought of Bond the watchman catching Flemming and Moneypenny in the office after hours. Fleming - "I'm a Commander in the Navy" Bond - "I'm still reporting you and by the way the names Bond - James Bond"
Fleming often used the names of real people for his characters. Blofeld was a member of his club, and the father of Henry, the cricket commentator. Goldfinger was named after the architect; Fleming disliked his buildings. In these cases, he changed the first names, but James Bond was a leading ornithologist whose books Fleming, a keen birdwatcher, liked.
I have almost finished reading "Ultra Goes to War" and Flemming is mentiond several times. He must have obtained lots of ideas from real life for his books. Regards Tom
His title for the book 'the world is not enough' is largely attributed to the King of Spain, however, his best friend from Wellington also had this inscribed above the door to his family house as it was also their motto.
Was this the real 007? "A granddad was found to be a real-life spy called James Bond who served under author Ian Fleming during the war, his family has discovered. Mr Bond's "on her Majesty's secret service" past was uncovered through World War Two papers. It showed that Pontypridd-born former metal worker Mr Bond worked on missions under Fleming, before he was an author."
