Buy or borrow this book! Support your local independent bookseller
Find it in a WorldCat library
Compare prices at major online bookstores
|
|
Ian Fleming: The Man Behind James Bond is a detailed, intimate look behind the scenes, and behind the mask of a man who lived a life of privilege and high expectations, a life in which cars went fast-and women went faster.
Fleming was the son of a stockbroker who helped raise the capital for the Atcheson, Topeka, and Santa Fe railroad. After Valentine Fleming was killed in World War I, his sons and their mother flitted through London society. Ian learned both the spoken language and body language of the high life, and these would forever color his perspective, attitude, and actions.
After brief periods as a stockbroker and reporter, Fleming was drafted into the secret service. MI5 offered him the chance to use his social graces, his intimate knowledge of liquor and women, and his fascination with cars and all things mechanical. As a spy, he made a name for himself as a man who could get things done-dangerous things. In time, he became a member of the group who created the prototype organization for the CIA. He even met with John F. Kennedy to discuss plans to embarrass Castro and generate his fall from power.
Not until after his wedding, on honeymoon in Jamaica, did Fleming begin writing fiction. In Casino Royale and 13 other books, James Bond would become a hero of the cold war, and in the movies that started with Dr. No in 1962, he would become the most successful action hero of all time.
Fleming filled his novels with telling details from his own life. The names of women and villains came from people he knew. Some of the plots came from MI5 itself. Even the gadgets had bases in reality. And in the name of BondŐs boss, Fleming paid tribute to the tempestuous relationship he had with his mother-whom he called, simply, "M." As a writer, he was able to turn fact into fantasy-and with a wry smile that told the everyone they were in on the joke.
Sadly, Fleming never saw the worldwide success of his hero. During the filming of Goldfinger, in 1964, a heart attack cut Fleming's lifelong adventure short.
Whether you're a fan of James Bond or not, Andrew Lycett's biography is highly appealing. Its twin portraits of Ian Fleming-as a gentleman and as an ambitious, hard-driving force of nature-leave you wondering which was the real man.
Ian Fleming has all the excitement of the best Bond novels-all the passion and tragedy of a great love story and, with its dropped names, all the fun of a gossip column. In other words, it gives one of Fleming's own titles a truth he never imagined: You only live twice.
Tony Buchsbaum is a freelance writer in Princeton, New Jersey.
©1996, ProMotion, inc.