Thrilling Cities - Softcover

Fleming, Ian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0451026942 ISBN 13: 9780451026941

Publisher: Berkley, 1995

Synopsis

Book by Fleming, Ian

About this title

About the Author

Ian Fleming was born in London on May 28, 1908. He was educated at Eton College and later spent a formative period studying languages in Europe. His first job was with Reuters News Agency where a Moscow posting gave him firsthand experience with what would become his literary bête noire—the Soviet Union. During World War II he served as Assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence and played a key role in Allied espionage operations.

After the war, he worked as foreign manager of the Sunday Times, a job that allowed him to spend two months each year in Jamaica. Here, in 1952, at his home “Goldeneye,” he wrote a book called Casino Royale—and James Bond was born. The first print run sold out within a month. For the next twelve years Fleming produced a novel a year featuring Special Agent 007, the most famous spy of the century. The Bond novels have sold more than one hundred million copies worldwide, boosted by the hugely suc­cessful film franchise that began in 1962 with the release of Dr. No.

His travels, interests, and wartime experience lent authority to everything he wrote. Based on those experiences, he wrote two pieces of nonfiction—Thrilling Cities and The Diamond Smugglers.He married Anne Rothermere in 1952. His story about a magical car, written in 1961 for their only son, Caspar, went on to become the well-loved novel and film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Fleming died of heart failure on August 12, 1964, at the age of fifty-six.

www.ianfleming.com

Review

"An accomplished travel writer" Scotsman "He gathered material for his novels like a voracious travelling magpie: the people and places Fleming experienced on his Thrilling Cities tour in 1959 would [furnish] much of the backdrop and research for the five Bond novels and seven short stories that would follow" The Times "Fleming was a fine travel writer, too (check out Thrilling Cities), and we quickly come to know and appreciate the locales in the book as we do the characters" Daily Telegraph "Fleming describes food precisely and enticingly" Independent "[Fleming's] penchant for fast cars, stylish hotels, expensive alcohol and bizarre encounters brings a whiff of excitement to the narrative, which is vivid, shocking and exuberant by turns" Good Book Guide

About this edition

• Publisher: Berkley
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0451026942
• ISBN 13: 9780451026941
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English