In this jovial session, English biographer and journalist Andrew Lycett described James Bond creator Ian Fleming as the "model of James Bond" himself. He explained how Fleming came from a wealthy family background and his father was killed during the First World War, a major setback in his life. He said Fleming's mother had been 'a major influence,' and that Fleming had tried his hand at various jobs before he eventually end up in naval intelligence, where he worked as an assistant to the director, an experience which also had a great influence on him. Lycett stated that Fleming later on got bored with his job and expressed a desire to write a book on spies to one of his colleagues. Fleming got ideas for his books from the people he met during the war, and his writing was also based on fantasy and family dynamics involving the role of his father. Lycett commented that Senator Kennedy put one of the Flemings Bond novels in his top ten novels of his choice. Author of bestseller Bond sequel 'Devil May Care', Sebastian Faulks was asked about how he conceived James Bond after reading various of the novels, to which he replied, that normally, "I don't write this kind of books nor read them". He said that he found the novels better than he had expected, but when asked to write a sequel, had decided to make some changes to Fleming's format, including to make the settings more exotic. Faulks said he used 75% of Fleming's style. There was discussion about Bond girls, and Faulks said he had created a modern Bond girl who was 'better than Bond' at times.—Jaipur Literature Festival Official Synopsis
