James Bond and Ian Fleming - The Men and the Myth - The Secret History of 007

 James Bond and Ian Fleming - The Men and the Myth - The Secret History of 007

In honor of the 70th anniversary of the publication of Ian Fleming's first spy thriller Casino Royale in 1953, Ian Fleming's estate is reissuing and re-editing a complete collection of Fleming's 007 novels, without some of his blunt, now politically incorrect descriptions. 

I too would like to recognize the significance of Casino Royale by explaining its true purpose - to promote and support the totally beleaguered and embarrassed British Secret Intelligence Service by the exposure of Kim Philby and Cambridge spy ring, and protect the remaining assets, one of whom was the real James Bond, the American ornithologist. 

There are a number of men who could be considered serious candidates for providing the fictionalized character that Fleming developed as 007, including his adventurous older brother Peter, Dustin Popov, and other self-styled spies. 

There is however, only one real James Bond, the author of the book Birds of the West Indies, that Fleming said he kept on his Jamaican breakfast table, and the name Fleming thought appropriately dull and unassuming enough for his secret agent hero. 

It wouldn't be too far fetched to say that most if not all of Fleming's main characters were based on real people he knew or knew of, as I have unmasked and exposed a number of them - beginning with Bond himself, there is musicologist Henry Pleasants whose background mirrors that of 007's CIA sidekick Felix Leiter, and Mrs. Oatsie Leiter, who introduced Fleming to JFK providing the name, along with CIA asset, the philanthropic millionaire Cummins Catherwood, portrayed as a villain in one of 007 seafaring adventures. 

James Bond may be the world's most famous spy, but most people know him from the movies, fewer have read the books, and very few know of the existence of the real Bond and only serious birdwatchers have bothered to read his book, Birds of the West Indies. 

In his book "The Great Game - The Myths and Reality of Espionage," Frederick P. Hitz points out that the bizarre fantasies portrayed in the 007 movies are sometimes actually overshadowed by real, though still secret events. And the life of the real Bond is sometimes more outrageous and fascinating than his fictional 007 counterpart. 

In his book, "Agent M – The Lives and Spies of MI5’s Maxwell Knight" (2017 5 Pioneer Blvd, Westampton, NJ 08060  p. 82 ) Henry Hemming writes: 

"Le Carre’s erstwhile spymaster was always on the lookout for the best watcher in the unit….Either way, M was good at spotting a watcher – the diffident outsider who had never really excelled at games and who was used to sitting it out on the sidelines, waiting and watching, because this is what ESPIONAGE boils down to: patient observation. The word itself comes from the French expionner, meaning to watch or observe, and before that specere, to look out for."

Then he points out that, "Ian Fleming, the author of the James Bond books, James Schlesinger, at one time the head of the Central Intelligence Agency, and Andrew Parker, who became MI5 director general in 2013, all described themselves as keen bird-watchers."

On the way to liberate the Faulkland Islands from the invading Argentines, British commandos were briefed on the weather and terrain from someone who had recently been there - a birdwatcher, and the real James Bond himself was at the Baya de Conchos - the Bay of Pigs, shortly before the CIA invaded. 

A nice "bird" is also British slang for a good looking women, a "bird of a shot" branded the first one under par to coin the term "birdie" in golf, and Kim Philby, when asked by the KGB to describe his former CIA associate James Jesus Angleton called him "an odd bird." 

Hemmings continues, "Indeed, Fleming named his most famous literary creation after a little-known American ornithologist named James Bond. The real Bond, the circumspect birder, was undoubtedly closer to M’s ideal of an agent than his fictional namesake. Strip away the mythology, the tradecraft, the gadgets, and the romance, and spying is watching….."

(Note: this reference to the real James Bond is omitted from the index to this book)

Circumspect birder indeed. But not a birdwatcher, as Bond was a dedicated ornithologist who studied the origin and distribution, and collected specimens that are preserved at the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences, where he was the principle ornithologist for many years. 

James Bond once gave an address to the prestigious, academic Philadelphia Philosophical Society, presenting his theory that the birds of the Caribbean and West Indies were of North American origin, rather than from South America, as generally assumed, and his theory was to be proven correct. 

I too would like to make a presentation to the Philadelphia Philosophical Society, making the case that Ian Fleming did not begin the 007 novels "to take his mind off his impending marriage," as his official biographers claim, but to promote the sagging moral of the British Secret Intelligence Service, and salvage what he could of the remaining assets not betrayed by the treason of Kim Philby and the Cambridge spies. 

The officially promoted reason may be true to a point, Fleming - the life long bachelor did get married, but the true and meaningful motive for writing the 007 novels is more significant, and to some, is a secret that should remain a secret, as the subjects are still very sensitive in some quarters. 

It wasn't until thirty years after the end of World War II that the British decided to relent and allow the publication of two of the war's most important secrets - the Double-X - XX identification and turning of Nazi agents in the UK, feeding them false information, and the Ultra Secret - the decoding of the German military Enigma machine, both of which led to the Allies victory and shortened the war considerably. 

I remember my father, a WWII veteran, in the summer of 1975, sitting on the porch, discussing those book and saying how they would have to re-write the history of World War II. 

My theory, even if eventually generally recognized, will not change our perception of history, its not in that category, but the fact that they are still trying to keep Fleming's true mission and motives secret means that it is still important to some, who would prefer it stay secret. 

William E. Kelly, Jr. 

Billkelly3@gmail.com 

April 20, 2023 

Note: I am just beginning to re-write and edit what I have been researching and writing since 1976, when I first stumbled on the real James Bond in the newspaper archives of the former Philadelphia Bulletin archives. I have previously posted about this at: 

      Jamesbondauthenticus: James Bond and Ian Fleming - The Men and the Myth   / Blogger: Posts

I will be continuously editing, re-writing and adding new material to this story here.