The Beginning of James Bond

This week marks the 70th anniversary of the beginning of an incredible literary career that spawned more than just great books.

For years, Ian Fleming dreamed of writing a spy novel. He was in the midst of a writing and editing career that had given him a measure of success, and he had extensive experience in British Naval Intelligence, so he thought he had what it took to write an espionage thriller.

He began writing his novel at his Jamaican estate called Goldeneye in early 1952. At one point he claimed he was writing to keep his mind off his upcoming wedding to the pregnant socialite Ann Charteris. Charteris thought that he started writing because he was bored while she spent several hours a day painting on the beach.

What would become Casino Royale took shape in just seven weeks, with Fleming writing just three hours a day.

“He made no outline of a plot or cast of characters (he took his hero’s name from the author of a book his eye fell on, A Field Guide to Birds of the West Indies) but typed on like a man under orders to create,” explains John Walsh at Spectator World. “At noon, he’d sunbathe, eat lunch, sleep, and, at 5 p.m., read what he’d written before placing it in a blue folder. At 6:30, it would be time for cocktails.”

Fleming had his secretary Joan Howe — the inspiration for Miss Moneypenny — shape up his typewritten manuscript, and he gave a copy to a novelist friend to read. He told the friend that “so far as I can see the element of suspense is completely absent,” but the friend saw promise and forwarded the manuscript to a publisher.

Related: Young Actors Lack ‘Mental Capacity’ to Play James Bond Says Bond Casting Director

I recently began listening to the audiobooks of Fleming’s James Bond novels, and what struck me the most is how well-written they are. Even though the plots are markedly different from the movies, with some bearing no resemblance to their film adaptations at all, many of the elements filmgoers would expect from 007 are there, especially action and sex appeal.

Readers will find the things that the movies missed to be rich and rewarding. James Bond often waxes philosophical — you’d never imagine Sean Connery, Daniel Craig, or any of the other actors saying some of the things Bond says in the books. The characterizations are deeper as well, but Fleming’s descriptions are the most masterful element of the novels.

Check out the first two sentences of Casino Royale to see how evocative Fleming’s writing could be: “The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning. Then the soul erosion produced by high gambling — a compost of greed and fear and nervous tension — becomes unbearable and the senses awake and revolt from it.”

Casino Royale hit the shelves in the UK on April 13, 1953, and the book became a runaway hit, although when it debuted in the U.S. the following year, sales weren’t as impressive. But the book’s success created a demand for more. Fleming would go on to write 11 more novels and two short story collections featuring his signature spy before his death in 1964.

And of course, Fleming’s novels would inspire the legendary film series. Producers have adapted Casino Royale three times. In 1954, the anthology television series Climax! adapted the novel into an episode featuring 007 as an American spy named “Jimmy” Bond (can you imagine?), while a 1967 film adaptation starred David Niven in a jokey, parodic take on the life of a spy. But the Casino Royale most people remember is the 2006 film that marked Daniel Craig’s debut as Bond.

It’s been a long road from the first publication of Casino Royale to the astonishing industry that James Bond has spawned, but plenty of us 007 fans are grateful that Ian Fleming paved the way for it all.