Casino Royale spy Vesper Lynd was based a Second World War spy

Krystyna Skarbek - a Polish undercover agent who operated under the alias of Christine Granville before her death in 1952 aged 44 - was the real-life basis for the character Vesper Lynd in the 1953 novel after Ian Fleming, according to the journalist Donald McCormick in his book ‘The Life of Ian Fleming.

According to his biography, Ian met the Special Operations Executive agent when they were working together during Word War II.

Ursula Andress brought her to life in the 1967 Bond parody, which starred Peter Sellers as 007, and then Eva Green played Vesper in the 2006 debut of Daniel Craig in 'Casino Royale'.