The secret service file on Ian Fleming is classified, if one exists. James Bond had joined the Secret Intelligence Service in 1938, but any account of Fleming’s entry has to rely on uncorroborated sources like the journalist Sefton Delmer, who told Fleming’s first authorised biographer, John Pearson: “Balls. Of course, Ian had been doing work before.”
Each day at 6.30am, Fleming entered the smoke-grimed Admiralty building from a door at the start of the Mall, stepping into a small Georgian hallway with a statue of Nelson in a niche and a one-armed doorman in a frock coat who inspected his pass. A long white corridor and a stone floor of coloured mosaic led to the lobby outside Fleming’s office on the ground floor. Opposite, the
