 Bond 's superior , M , was largely based on Godfrey , Fleming 's NID superior officer ; Godfrey was known for his bellicose and irascible temperament . One of the likely models for Le Chiffre was the influential English occultist , astrologer , mystic and ceremonial magician Aleister Crowley , on whose physical features Fleming based Le Chiffre 's . Crowley 's tastes , especially in sado @-@ masochism , were also ascribed to Le Chiffre ; as Fleming 's biographer Henry Chancellor notes , " when Le Chiffre goes to work on Bond 's testicles with a carpet @-@ beater and a carving knife , the sinister figure of Aleister Crowley is there lurking in the background . " 
