“When I wrote the first one in 1953, I wanted Bond to be an extremely dull, uninteresting man to whom things happened,” Fleming told The New Yorker in 1962, two years before his death.

Fleming’s own habits of drinking, smoking, gambling, and womanizing provided much of the rest. Fleming had worked as a journalist earlier in his life and s erved extensively in British intelligence during World War II, two aspects of his background that provided lots of context and material for Bond’s exploits.

It was 70 years ago last week (April 13, 1953, to be exact) that author Ian Fleming published Casino Royale, the first novel to feature his soon-to-be-iconic British secret agent, James Bond.