Ian Fleming : The Intimate Story of the Man Who Created James Bond

More than a quarter century after the death of Ian Fleming, Andrew Lycett has produced his definitive biography. Through hundreds of interviews and direct access to Fleming's papers, as well as those of family and friends (which contain much previously unpublished and highly controversial material), Lycett has been able to reveal, for the first time, the truth behind the complicated facade of an enigmatic and remarkable man. With an extraordinary cast of characters, this is biography at its best - part history, part gossip, and part informed reassessment.
Sportsman, womanizer, naval commander, world-traveler, spy, this suave Old Etonian creator of the Cold War's archetypal secret agent was infinitely more complicated and interesting than his major fictional character, Agent 007. Fleming's wide-ranging and exciting life inevitably provided the plausible backdrop for the Bond novels, and while his temperamental, sometimes violent nature got him into difficulties as a young man, the second World War was the making of him. Highly regarded in British naval intelligence for his international contacts, he master-minded numerous top secret operations, including "Golden Eye," which is uncovered here for the first time. His role in shaping the prototype CIA is also fully detailed.

Fleming was not James Bond, but even before his death in 1964 the character Fleming created had taken on a life of his own in books, films, and myth. Well educated, from a wealthy, upper-crust family, Fleming was a desk-bound naval intelligence officer, mediocre stock broker, and newspaper correspondent before writing Casino Royale at age 44, the same year he married and fathered a son. Thirteen more Bond books followed, two posthumously, and the 17th Bond film came out in 1995. Lycett, a British foreign correspondent for various newspapers, had access to more papers and people than did John Pearson in his Life of Ian Fleming (1966). He has produced a thoroughly researched, definitive portrayal of a complex man who was rarely at peace with himself, a man who had a worldwide network of friends and acquaintances but died at age 56 in self-imposed loneliness. Lycett has also succeeded in separating the author from the phenomenon while putting both in the context of their times. Recommended for biography, literature, and cultural history collections.?Roland Person, Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale
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