Ian Fleming: The Complete Man

OVERVIEW

Winner of the Crime Writers Association Gold Dagger for non-fiction and The Times, Financial Times, Economist, Spectator, Daily Express and BBC History Magazine Book of the Year.

A fresh portrait of the man behind James Bond and his enduring impact, written by award-winning biographer Nicolas Shakespeare. Crafted with unprecedented access to the Fleming family papers, the author uncovers new material that casts fresh light on his subject, resulting in a masterful, definitive biography.

Ian Fleming’s greatest creation, James Bond, has had an enormous and ongoing impact on our culture, but Fleming’s life was more mysterious than anything he wrote.

Ian’s childhood with his gifted brother and extraordinary mother established his ambition to be ‘the complete man’. Only a writer for his last twelve years, his dramatic personal experiences and career in Naval Intelligence put him at the heart of critical moments in world history, while also providing rich inspiration for his fiction.

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REVIEWS

‘A book so buoyant and delicious that you feel it will be a friend for life’

The Daily Telegraph

‘An elegant and painstakingly researched biography of the 007 author attempts to strip away the novels to reveal the intriguing figure beneath’

The Guardian

‘This excellent biography is as worldly and clever as one could wish’

The Spectator

‘Magisterial. Shakespeare knows Fleming’s world intimately and the intricate portrait of this complex individual is unsurpassable’

The Daily Express

‘Marvellous… one of the most engaging portraits of a particular period of British history that I have read in a long time’

Antonia Fraser

‘This highly accomplished and readable biography will please many readers’

The New Statesman