SUBJECT: FLEMING, IAN LANCASTER
- BORN
- 1908 — Mayfair, London
- SERVICE
- Naval Intelligence Division (NID 17)
- RANK
- Commander, RNVR
- BASE OF OPS
- Goldeneye, Oracabessa, Jamaica
- CIPHER
- 17F
- HABITS
- Morland Specials. Vesper martinis. Three eggs.
/// BACKGROUND ///
Educated at Eton and Sandhurst, Fleming served as personal assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence throughout the Second World War. He planned Operation Mincemeat. He created 30AU, the elite commando unit later parodied as Q-Branch. The man invented spycraft as a job description before he ever sat down to write a novel.
/// THE FIRST DOSSIER ///
In January 1952, between cigarettes at Goldeneye, Fleming sat down at his Royal portable typewriter and began a story about a Royal Navy commander assigned to bankrupt a Soviet paymaster at the baccarat tables of a French resort.
He titled it Casino Royale. Jonathan Cape published it on 13 April 1953. The first run sold out in a month. It is the foundation of every dossier in this archive — and the reason Universal Exports exists.