Ian Fleming and James Bond
Distinguishing Fact from Fiction
Date and time: Tuesday 12 April, 5.30pm-7pm
Venue: 50 George Square Lecture Theatre
Is there any truth to James Bond? Why has this jet-setting, martini-drinking, serial womanizer proved to be so enduringly popular? Moreover, what do real intelligence agencies think about Britain’s best-loved spy? This talk focuses on the interplay between the Bond phenomenon and the real world of intelligence. Ian Fleming’s work for British intelligence in Moscow before 1939 will be addressed, plus his time as personal assistant to Director of Naval Intelligence, Admiral Sir John Godfrey, in World War II. After 1945, it will be shown that Bond developed close links with US spies and the CIA, especially America’s premier intelligence chief Allen Dulles. Amazingly, Dulles was fascinated by Fleming and Bond, and even tasked his engineers at Langley to copy 007’s gadgets.
Dr Christopher Moran is an Associate Professor in the University of Warwick’s Politics & International Studies Department. He has written widely on intelligence and national security issues, including his books Classified: Secrecy and the State in Modern Britain andCompany Confessions: Secrets, Memoirs, and the CIA.