Fleming used much of the techniques he employed when writing the Bond stories in that he used names and situations he encountered in his own life. In 1961 Fleming had a heart attack, and while recuperating he used the bedtime stories he told his young son as the basis for the book, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was based on bedtime stories he told his son Fleming wrote of British world dominance as a symbol of normal times, and though he was aware of Britain’s decline, it was presented in his novels as a bad thing, longing for the situation to be reversed, expressed through James Bond.įleming’s book for children wasn’t published until after his death. Fleming’s resentment of the United States and most things American became increasingly evident as the series went on, reflected in Bond’s actions, thoughts, and conversations. Britain was increasingly dependent on the United States for its defense, as was most of western Europe. So was the British military, the fleet was no longer the most powerful in the world, nor the largest. No threatens the United States, a British warship and British troops are used to thwart him.įleming wrote the Bond series of books and short stories as the British Empire was in sharp decline. In three of the novels Bond is presented with a crisis which is actually an American one, and he resolves it for them, with British Intelligence saving the United States from its less competent agencies. American CIA agent Felix Leiter was presented as always following Bond’s lead, Bond’s orders, and Bond’s direction. The stress was always on the superior contribution of the British. Throughout the James Bond series, in the works written by the character’s creator, the Anglo-American alliance during the Cold War was stressed. The James Bond novels and short stories were pro-British at the expense of America Sean Connery as Bond in Diamonds are Forever.

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