Letters written by James Bond creator Ian Fleming, to be sold at auction next month, reveal a close relationship with the author's typist, Jean Frampton.

Ian Fleming, creator of the James Bond series, frequently called on typist Jean Frampton for pointers on plot and style.
(Associated Press)

"You can look on Frampton as Ian Fleming's Miss Moneypenny because he really did seem to rely on her," said Amy Brenan of Duke's auctioneers in Dorset, which is offering the letters for sale.

In the Bond novels, the Moneypenny character was the secretary of M, Bond's boss and the head of the British Secret Service.

Fleming probably never met Frampton, who lived in the Dorset town of Christchurch, but their correspondence reveals a close relationship that extended to Bond novels such as You Only Live Twice and The Man with the Golden Gun. He frequently called on her for pointers on plot and style.

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In one letter, written from Fleming's Fleet Street address and dated March 31, 1960, he asks Frampton to use her "keen mind" to help get his novel Thunderball into shape.

"Anything your quick eye falls upon … would be endlessly welcome," he said. "Your occasional comments on the work you have done for me have been so helpful."

Brenan said the collection is interesting because "it shows how the James Bond books were put together in the early 1960s."

Frampton clearly enjoyed being asked for advice.

In one letter she wrote: "I still regret the end of Thunderball, as my naive and literal mind would like to know what exactly happened to the [yacht] Disco and the rest of her crew and the bombs, how Domino escaped, and, of course, what about Blofeld (or does he live to fight another day?)"

The auction will take place April 10 to mark the centenary year of Fleming's birth. The collection includes four signed letters by Fleming, letters written by Frampton and Fleming's secretaries, Una Trueblood and Beryl Griffie-Williams.

It is expected to fetch between £2,000 and £3,000.