Prof. Oliver Buckton's new article on Ian Fleming in Intelligence and National Security

Congratulations to Prof. Oliver Buckton on publication of a new article on Ian Fleming, "'The Safety of the Realm’: Fact, Fiction, and Wartime Trauma in Ian Fleming’s James Bond Novels," in Intelligence and National Security.

The abstract:

The creator of James Bond, Ian Fleming, served as Assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence throughout World War II and played a leading role in many of its key operations. Yet despite Fleming’s grounding and experience in actual wartime intelligence operations and organisations, the origin of the Bond novels in real wartime intelligence has been neglected. Instead, the adventures of James Bond have more often been read as escapist fantasies concocted by Fleming for fame, profit, and imperial propaganda. This article will respond to this neglect of Fleming’s realism by tracing numerous parallels between wartime intelligence operations, agents, and institutions – such as Operation MINCEMEAT, Operation RUTHLESS, 30 Assault Unit, and Camp X – and the plots and personnel of Bond novels including Casino Royale, Live and Let Die, Moonraker, From Russia, with Love, and On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. The article will further explore how Fleming artfully evaded the constraints of Official Secrecy by disguising classified intelligence material as ‘romanticized caricatures’ in his postwar spy fiction. The profound impact of Fleming’s personal wartime trauma on the Bond novels will also be examined to ground the stories more firmly in actual wartime experience and intelligence. [ . . . ]

photo courtesy of Library of Congress; digital id: ds 00951 //hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ds.00951; Rights Advisory: No information on creator or on reproduction rights found with the image, 2005.