BLOOD BOND

Of the many unlikely stories surrounding Peter Fleming, the least credible is that he is now most famous for inspiring his brother Ian. It seems certain that this adventurer, spy and bestselling author, a man with the mind of a scholar, the charm of an international playboy and the looks (and wife) of a matinee idol, was one of the chief models for Ian Fleming’s James Bond. But that, for all the glory it brings, is very far from the epitaph he deserves.

The first of those unlikely stories, and the one that kickstarted his wildly eccentric career, came in April 1932, when, as a 25-year-old journalist, he saw an advertisement in . “Exploring and sporting expedition,” it read, “under experienced