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Published Apr 2024
864 pages
Genre: Biography/Memoir
Publication Information
A fresh portrait of the man behind James Bond, and his enduring impact, by an award-winning biographer with unprecedented access to the Fleming family papers.
Ian Fleming's greatest creation, James Bond, has had an enormous and ongoing impact on our culture. What Bond represents about ideas of masculinity, the British national psyche and global politics has shifted over time, as has the interpretation of the life of his author. But Fleming himself was more mysterious and subtle than anything he wrote.
Ian's childhood with his gifted brother Peter and his extraordinary mother set the pattern for his ambition to be "the complete man," and he would strive for the means to achieve this "completeness'"all his life. Only a thriller writer for his last twelve years, his dramatic personal life and impressive career in Naval Intelligence put him at the heart of critical moments in world history, while also providing rich inspiration for his fiction. Exceptionally well connected, and widely travelled, from the United States and Soviet Russia to his beloved Jamaica, Ian had access to the most powerful political figures at a time of profound change.
Nicholas Shakespeare is one of the most gifted biographers working today. His talent for uncovering material that casts new light on his subjects is fully evident in this masterful, definitive biography. His unprecedented access to the Fleming archive and his nose for a story make this a fresh and eye-opening picture of the man and his famous creation.
"A fresh appraisal of the creator of James Bond...Shakespeare leaves no stone unturned in this exhaustive, highly readable biography." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"[E]xemplary...This will stand as the definitive biography of the popular author." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A monumental record of Fleming's life. The completeness of the book is beyond doubt. Shakespeare leaves no future biographer much to discover. Fleming's place in history is assured." —Sunday Times (UK)
"A definitive biography that deepens and reshapes previous versions of Fleming's life...light-footed and swift-moving despite its copious research...Shakespeare's Fleming rises from these richly textured pages as a more substantial and sympathetic figure than the preening snob of myth." —Financial Times (UK)
"This is a marvellous book about Ian Fleming, but it's also one of the most engaging portraits of a particular period of British history that I have read in a long time." —Antonia Fraser
This information about Ian Fleming was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Nicholas Shakespeare's books have been translated into twenty languages. They include The Vision of Elena Silves, winner of the Somerset Maugham Award, and The Dancer Upstairs, which was made into a film of the same name by John Malkovich. His nonfiction includes the critically acclaimed authorized biography of Bruce Chatwin. Shakespeare is married with two sons and lives in Oxford.
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