The name Ian Fleming is synonymous with British espionage, both with his work as a naval intelligence officer in the Second World War as well as with his creation of the most famous fictional spy in literary history: James Bond.

The Ian Fleming Miscellany centres on his contradictions and his public and private personality. It examines the person behind the myth and how he managed (unsuccessfully at first) to create a film franchise that has lasted over fifty years. It considers Fleming’s reputation as a writer, the ‘formula method’ he perfected and the formula’s reliance on the recycling of real individuals and events, as well as the occasional use of plagiarism. It accesses a number of recently opened government files that shed light on previously unknown wartime operations, such as the Air Ministry’s top secret ‘Operation Grand Slam’, which was used in Goldfinger.