James Bond just needed a father figure – and found it in M
LONG before he worked for the secret services, James Bond lost his parents in a climbing accident in the French Alps, orphaning him at the age of 11.
Now it seems Ian Fleming’s fictional recruitment method was used by MI5. A new book reveals how the real-life M specialised in hiring agents who had lost a parent at a young age, as he believed it bred loyalty and meant they viewed their spymaster as a “father figure”.
Maxwell Knight, a highly skilled spymaster who was known to his colleagues as M, is thought to have provided the inspiration for Ian Flemming’s character.
He rose to prominence in the 1930s, and is credited with bringing down the British fascists and providing intelligence on the Communists that changed the nature of the Cold War. In a new book, titled Maxwell Knight: MI5’S greatest spymaster, the historian Henry Hemming examines the traits that M looked for in his agents, which he argues had a lasting effect on the recruitment methods used by the secret service, even after he retired from the service.
“M was looking for watchers: people who pick up unusual details that other people might not. And in his experience, usually these are people who have been held back in some way in childhood,” said Hemming, speaking at the Chalke Valley History Festival, Wiltshire.
“Somebody who has lost a parent at an early age, or had some physical handicap meaning they hadn’t been able to join in with games when they were growing up, so they were literally on the sidelines.”