English author. Born in London, to a Scottish father, Valentine Fleming, who was a Member of Parliament. His grandfather was the Dundee-based financier Robert Fleming (1845 - 1933). He was educated in England, at Durnford School and Eton College, before beginning a varied career in journalism, finance and then naval intelligence during the Second World War. Thereafter he returned to newspapers, but went on to write the James Bond spy novels which made him famous. He produced fourteen of these, which subsequently became enormously successful films, together with the children's novel Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1964), which also became a popular film.
He spent time on the family estate at Black Mount in Argyll & Bute. Having been a heavy smoker and drinker, he died in Canterbury (Kent) aged only 56. His brother Peter Fleming (1907-71) was appointed to preserve his literary legacy.
