Ian Fleming, in full Ian Lancaster Fleming, was a suspense-fiction novelist whose character James Bond, the stylish, high-living British secret service agent 007, who became one of the most successful and widely imitated heroes of 20th-century popular fiction. The son of a Conservative MP and the grandson of a Scottish banker, Fleming was born into a family of wealth and privilege. He was educated in England, Germany, and Switzerland, and he was a journalist in Moscow, a banker and stockbroker, a high-ranking officer in British naval intelligence during World War II, and foreign manager of the London Sunday Times before he became a full-time writer. After World War II he spent his winters in Jamaica, where he did much of his writing. In The Property of a Lady, James Bond is having a very uneventful day at the Ministry of Defense headquarters when M, his boss, calls him into his office to meet a Dr Fanshawe. M explains that Fanshawe is an expert on antique jewellery and also an advisor to H.M. Customs and the CID on this subject. Dr Fanshawe now explains that H.M. Customs recently intercepted a parcel in the registered mail which contained a piece of Fabérgé jewellery with a declared value of £100,000. A Home Office warrant was obtained and the package, addressed to Miss Maria Freudenstein, clandestinely opened… You can listen online to free English audiobook “The Property of a Lady” by Ian Fleming on our website.
