Few writers have created one, let alone two cinematic legends but the feat was achieved by Ian Fleming who died on 12 August, 1964, aged 56.

Ian Fleming is famous to millions as the creator of the world’s most famous spy, James Bond. But fewer are aware that Mr Fleming also wrote the children’s story Chitty Chitty Bang Bang which was subsequently made into a timeless film.

He wrote 12 Bond novels all of which were made into hugely successful films and even today the super-spy remains a billion pound franchise.

A former public schoolboy, he played an important role as a Naval Intelligence Officer during the Second World War and his experiences were a source of many of the Bond plotlines.

Ian Lancaster Fleming was born in Mayfair, London, on May 28, 1908, the second of four boys. His father, Valentine Fleming, was a Member of Parliament and a major in the Oxfordshire Yeomanry. He was killed in action during the First World War.

Mr Fleming was educated at Durnford School in Dorset and Eton College. He did not excel academically but was a talented athlete. During his schooldays, he also developed a passion for the adventure novels of John Buchan and Sax Rohmer.

After an unhappy spell at the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst, Mr Fleming spent a period studying languages in Austria, Germany and Switzerland . When he failed to get into the Foreign Office he joined Reuters news service as a journalist.

On the eve of the Second World War he was recruited as personal assistant to Rear Admiral John Godfrey, Director of Naval Intelligence. On commission he took the rank of Lieutenant and became the right-hand man to one of Britain’s top spymasters.

Within the walls of the famous “Room 39” in the Admiralty building, he finally found his niche. He used his boundless imagination to draw up countless plots to confuse and enrage the Germans. By the end of the war he had reached the rank of Commander.

During the latter part of the war Mr Fleming travelled to Jamaica for a naval conference and immediately fell in love with the island. When hostilities drew to a close he lost no time in purchasing a piece of land and building a house which he named “Goldeneye.”

For the next few years, he spent the British winter in Jamaica living the life of a playboy. When his married girlfriend, Lady Ann Rothermere, became pregnant, Mr Fleming saw the need to create extra income and began writing. The first draft of Casino Royale was produced in 1952.

The novel was a success and Mr Fleming spent the next 12 years transporting his own wit, charm and panache into some of the finest thrillers ever written. Almost without trying, the self-confessed playboy had created his own literary empire.

Mr Fleming sold the film rights to the Bond series in 1961 and the first novel to be filmed was Dr No in 1962 starring Sean Connery. The film was a sensation and was quickly followed by From Russia with Love in 1963.

Always a heavy drinker and smoker, Mr Fleming’s lifestyle eventually caught up with him and he began to suffer from heart problems in his fifties. This did not prevent him from penning the children’s classic Chitty Chitty Bang Bang before his death.

He married Ann in Jamaica in 1952 and together they had one child, Casper , who died of a drug overdose in 1975. Ann died in 1981 and all three are buried together in the churchyard in Sevenhampton, near Swindon.