Ian Fleming (edit name/settings)

Fleming based his ideas of James Bond (007) on Sir Fitzroy MacLean of Strachur, who lived just over the estuary from me in Argyll. As a young man MacLean parachuted into Yugoslavia to support the Partisans and he recognised that Tito held the Balkans together in an awkward balance. When Tito died we all witnessed the aftermath. However, Sir Fitzroy was a Bond-figure to Fleming for his daring deeds during the last War. I knew him as a quiet and retired man who, with his well-known wife, Lady MacLean, ran the Creggans Inn near to the Big House. You could always watch a Shinty match in the grounds on a Saturday afternoon, below the Argyll hills or have a quiet chat with Sir Fitzroy. He was a charming and astute man.