What follows is a timeline of the novels and films that made up what is loosely defined as The Classic Bond Era, 1953 to 1971.

Included are Fleming's often forgotten volumes "Thrilling Cities", "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang", "The Diamond Smugglers" and Kingsley Amis' "Colonel Sun". These too are important parts of any correct recollection of the influence Fleming had in ushering us from the War Years to the Jet Age.

(All "books" originally published by Jonathan Cape in London. All films EON Productions, except Casino Royale, Columbia Pictures.)

		Fleming arrives in Jamaica on a Naval Intelligence assignment. Tells friend Ivar Bryce "When we have won this blasted war, I am going to live in Jamaica. Just live in Jamaica and lap it up, and swim in the sea and write books."
		Fleming's first novel, "Casino Royale", is published April 13, 1953. It was written, however, over a year earlier. Fleming is said to have typed the first page of "Casino Royale" on the morning of January 15, 1952 at Goldeneye. At the time Fleming was contemplating his marriage to Ann Charteris, which took place down the road in Port Maria on March 24, 1952.
		"Live and Let Die", which Fleming originally titled "The Undertaker's Wind" in manuscript form. Fleming's detailed passages set in Harlem and St. Petersburg, Florida were praised by Raymond Chandler for their pungent accuracy.
		"Moonraker"is Fleming's ode to English ways and the only 007 novel set entirely in Britain. This is the novel that finally fleshes out the personal life and habits of agent 007. The book's early central action around a tense bridge reads quite dated today, but Fleming is otherwise lyrical about his land.
		"Diamonds are Forever" is dedicated "To j.f.c.b. and e.l.c. and to the memory of w.w., jr. at Saratoga, 1954 and 1955.""j.f.c.b" refers to Fleming's life long friend Ivar Bryce. "e.l.c." is Ernest Cuneo, a war-time Fleming associate and life long friend. "w.w., jr." refers to Billy Woodward, scion of Hanover Bank who Fleming met in horse racing circles in Saratoga, New York. It was Woodward's Studillac that inspired Ian to have Felix Leiter drive one in "Diamonds are Forever". Woodward was shot to death by his wife in 1955.
		"From Russia with Love" was the first 007 novel with cover art by Richard Chopping. Fleming himself commissioned Chopping to do the cover at a cost of 50 guineas. Fleming wanted a .25 Beretta featured on the cover, but could not obtain one for the artist. He instead offered Chopping a Smith & Wesson .38 from the collection of chemical salesman and 007 fan Geoffrey Boothroyd, who became Fleming's the namesake for the Armourer of MI6. "The Diamond Smugglers" was the only Fleming work that Eunice Kennedy Shriver had not read by 1960. Fleming heard of her devotion to his books and sent her an autographed copy of this non-fiction account of the challenges faced by deBeers and the Diamond Corporation.
		"Dr No" was written by Ian at a time when he had run dry of 007 nuances and plots. So he reached back in his experience to a travel piece written for the Sunday Times about Inagua Island in the Bahamas. Fleming and Ivar Bryce had gone there on an expedition to count rare flamingos for the Audubon Society. The island was almost entirely stinking mangrove swamps and they rode about in a large-wheeled swamp buggy while counting guanay cormorants -- all details that made their exaggerated way into "Dr. No".
		"Goldfinger" "To my gentle reader, William Plomer." Plomer and Fleming date their friendship back to 1929 when they met at a literary party in Cheyne Walk. Plomer was later Fleming's reader at Jonathan Cape. Ann Fleming noted that Plomer was one of the very few people Ian could relax around.
		"For Your Eyes Only" would turn out to be Fleming's first of two sets of 007 novellas, followed after his death by the Octopussy omnibus. But at Cape and in the literary community, it was becoming clear that Fleming was losing some momentum.
		"Thunderball", "To Ernest Cuneo, Muse."The book that killed Fleming. His health and frame of mind deteriorated vastly in the 3 years that Ian was in court battling Kevin McClory and Jack Whittingham over the novel they alleged was lifted from a screenplay they had helped develop on with Fleming. Ian's first heart attack came a few days after McClory first tried to block release of "Thunderball" in 1961 on these grounds.
		"The Spy Who Loved Me" An odd member of the Fleming bookshelf, written in the point of view of a woman "not unskilled in the arts of love." It is characterised by the most graphic sex of all the Bond novels. Interestingly, Ian said it had been the easiest one to write. Dr. No President Kennedy demanded a private White House screening of Dr. No as soon as the film was released. He read part of a Bond novel the night before he was assassinated. Lee Harvey Oswald also read Fleming that night.
		"On Her Majesty's Secret Service" "To Sable Basilisk Pursuivant and Hilary Bray, who came to the aid of the party." "Thrilling Cities" is Fleming's travelogue of 13 cities commissioned by the Sunday Times in 1959 and 1960. Today serves as a fine guide to travel with a hint of intrigue, though many of the specific locations have vanished. From Russia With Love turned out to be the breakthrough film of the 007 series. Producer Cubby Broccoli frequently recalled how this was the film that convinced him the Bond series would be around for a very long time.
		"You Only Live Twice" "To Richard Hughes and Torao Saito, but for whom etc. . . ." Heavy with scenery, this book was derived from two remarkable weeks in country with Sunday Times correspondent Richard Hughes and his friend, Japanese journalist Torao Saito. "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" While recovering from his first heart attack in 1961, Fleming put to paper the bedtime story he had told his son Caspar many times. Goldfinger is the film most cited as the zenith of Bond in the cinema. The formula was set, Sean Connery was synonymous with James Bond and four years of global "Bondmania" began with this film.
		"The Man with the Golden Gun" (posthumous) Unfinished on Fleming's death, the manuscript was given to Kingsley Amis for assessment. He reported that Fleming must have wanted Scaramanga to have a homosexual attraction to 007. Jonathan Cape dismissed the idea, but Amis would return in 3 years as Fleming's first literary heir. Thunderball was the most commercially successful of the classic 007 films and at the same time the beginning formulaic filmmaking. This film cemented the public perception that Bond in the cinema must be a huge spectacle.
		"Octopussy" (posthumous) The title story was begun in 1962, named for a boat Blanche Blackwell had given Fleming. Another of the stories, "The Property of a Lady", was commissioned by Sotheby's for their 1962-63 yearbook. Fleming thought the finished story was so boring he declined payment for the job.
		You Only Live Twice marks the stage at which Sean Connery's revolt against the character was very much out in public. The Japanese press mobbed him at every step of location work and he ill concealed his disgust with the character. Casino Royale remains the king of Bond knock-offs, with several James Bonds, several directors, several writers and multiples of just about every other element. With the passage of the years, it deserves a kinder assessment than originally accorded this snapshot of reflected Bondmania.
		"Colonel Sun" (Kingsley Amis) Glidrose felt compelled to commission new Bond novels to combat plagiarism of the character. Ann Fleming was outraged at the idea and the choice of Amis. The Sunday Telegraph invited her to write a review of "Colonel Sun, but it was not printed for fear of libel.
		On Her Majesty's Secret Service would have likely gone down as the second greatest Bond film after Goldfinger, had it not been crippled by the absence of Sean Connery who finally made good on his threat to "escape" the series. Making the waste of this film even more bitter is that Connery would return for the next Bond film - one episode too late for what could have become the masterpiece of the series.
		Diamonds Are Forever saw the return of Connery under terms he could not pass up. As far as the film goes, it is generally regarded as the weakest of the "classic" Bond episodes. The story line is disjointed and it is the first claustrophobic Bond film. It makes an ample argument for drawing the line at 1971 when determining the end of the Classic Bond era.

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