M runs the British Secret Service in Ian Fleming’s James Bond books. He is gruff and fair, and he keeps his distance from the agents he sends into danger. Bond respects him more than anyone else in his working life. Fleming built the character mostly on Rear Admiral John Godfrey, his own wartime chief. M’s full name, Admiral Sir Miles Messervy, does not appear until The Man with the Golden Gun (1965), twelve years after his first appearance.