SUPER ALPINE
Sean Connery as James Bond on the Furka Pass in the film Goldfinger
Credit: 1964 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. And Danjaq, LLC.

Bond in the Alps

In these articles we take a look at the how the Alps came to define the James Bond character, what impact they had on Ian Fleming and the locations used in the book and film series.

Introduction

James Bond was created in 1952 by the author Ian Fleming for the novel Casino Royale. Fleming was born in 1908 and was educated at Eton and Sandhurst in the UK before going to Austria to attend the Tennerhof School in Kitzbühel, Munich University in Germany and the University of Geneva in Switzerland. This time spent in the Alps gave him a love for the mountains and made him an accomplished skier.

Fleming joined the Royal Navy shortly before the Second World War and worked for the Naval Intelligence Division (NID) where he had oversight of two intelligence units - 30 Assault Unit and T-Force. Fleming's time in NID was the inspiration for ten James Bond novels and a series of short stories. Two of his novels were made into films before Fleming died, aged 56.

Books

Ian Fleming wrote 13 novels and 9 short stories about James Bond

Films

To date there have been 25 James Bond films produced by EON films. Two other non EON films about Bond have also been made.