Shaken, not stirred--cultural critics look at the many faces of 007 and his creator.

****Updated and expanded including many illustrations by George Almond. Plus clearer translations of foreign terms. Ian Fleming's James Bond: Annotations and Chronologies for Ian Fleming's Bond Stories officially approved by Ian Fleming Publications Ltd (formerly Glidrose), with a Preface by Andrew Lycett and Forewords by Zoë Watkins, Publishing Manager, Ian Fleming Publications Ltd.; Raymond Benson, author of The James Bond Bedside Companion, six original 007 novels, and numerous non-Bond novels. This book is the result of analysis of each of Fleming's James Bond novels. Within are glossaries of applicable terminology and references with detailed chronologies of events including annotations. Detailed chronologies of events are represented at a day-of-week, month, day, year, and time-of-day level. Glossaries contain translations of foreign terms, annotations, and other information of interest such as detailed information on the origin of Saramanga's name (The Man with the Golden Gun). Maps have been created for many of the novels along with in-depth information concerning specific topics such as, the Moonraker bridge game and the Goldfinger golf game. In many instances, monetary amounts have been converted to their 2001 purchasing power equivalent. Differences found between published versions and the original Fleming manuscripts archived at Indiana University's Lilly Library have been noted.

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. *WINNER OF THE CWA GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION* 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. Nicholas Shakespeare is one of the most gifted biographers working today. His talent for uncovering new material that casts fresh light on his subjects is fully evident in this masterful, definitive biography. ‘Elegant and painstakingly researched’ Observer ‘Marvellous...one of the most engaging portraits of a particular period of British history that I have read in a long time’ Antonia Fraser ‘A book so buoyant and delicious that you feel it will be a friend for life' Telegraph *LONGLISTED FOR THE SALTIRE SOCIETY LITERARY AWARD*

James Bond is possibly the most well known fictional character in history. What most people don’t know is that almost all of the characters, plots and gadgets come from the real life experiences of Bond’s creator - Commander Ian Fleming. In this book, we go through the plots of Fleming’s novels explaining the real life experiences that inspired them. The reader is taken on a journey through Fleming’s direct involvement in World War II intelligence and how this translated through his typewriter into James Bond’s world, as well as the many other factors of Fleming’s life which were also taken as inspiration. Most notably, the friends who Fleming kept, among whom were Noel Coward and Randolph Churchill and the influential people he would mingle with, British Prime Ministers and American Presidents. Bond is known for his exotic travel, most notably to the island of Jamaica, where Fleming spent much of his life. The desk in his Caribbean house, Goldeneye, was also where his life experiences would be put onto paper in the guise of James Bond. As the island was highly influential for Fleming, it features heavily in this book, offering an element of escapism to the reader, with tales of a clear blue sea, Caribbean climate and island socialising. Ian Fleming might have died prematurely aged 53, but so much of him lives on to this day through the most famous spy in the world, James Bond.

Forged during the Second World War, the close and abiding friendship of Robert Harling and Ian Fleming, one of the twentieth century's most iconic authors, would go on to define the lives and literature of both men significantly. Their paths first crossed in 1939, and Harling later became Fleming's deputy in the commando unit dubbed 'Fleming's Secret Navy', which was tasked with obtaining equipment, codebooks and intelligence from the enemy. The war made fast friends of the two writers, and Fleming would go on to immortalise Harling in his hugely popular Bond novels Thunderball and The Spy Who Loved Me. Yet beneath the pair's charm, charisma and creativity was an altogether darker reality. Documenting in vivid detail his private exchanges with Fleming, Harling exposes the personality behind his protagonist - one tempered by debilitating bouts of depression and a deep-rooted distrust of women. This extraordinary memoir provides a fascinating and unprecedented insight into the mind of the creator of James Bond - from one of those who knew him best.

We all know who James Bond is, but how many of us know much about his creator, Ian Fleming, a master of espionage and thrillers? In this full-length biography, author Andrew Lycett tells the story of Ian Fleming's life proving that it was just as dramatic as that of his fictional creation. Educated at Eaton and Sandhurst, he joined Naval Intelligence in 1939 participating in both Operation Mincemeat and Operation Golden Eye. After the war, he became a journalist and, in 1953, wrote Casino Royale thereby introducing the world to an English spy named James Bond. Set in London, Switzerland and Fleming's Jamaican estate Goldeneye, his life was peopled with luminaries like Noel Coward, Sean Connery, Ursula Andress, Bond film producer "Cubby" Broccoli and others. With direct access to Fleming's family and friends, Lycett goes behind the complicated façade of this enigmatic and remarkable man. Ian Fleming by Andrew Lycett is biography at its best—a glittering portrait of the brilliant and enigmatic man who created Agent 007.

Rankin tells the story of a secret intelligence outfit conceived and organized by Ian Fleming during World War II, named "30 Assault Unit", a group who was expected to seize enemy codebooks, cipher machines, and documents in high-stakes operations, and which inspired his creation of the James Bond character

While his extravagant and glamorous lifestyle is well known, little has been published concerning Ian Fleming's contribution during the Second World War. In the very early days of the War, Fleming was earmarked by the Director of Naval Intelligence as his 'right hand man'. From the outset he was in the center of events, meeting with key political and military figures as well as those of exceptional intelligence, experience and courage. All this was to give him invaluable background when he came to write the Bond novels. The author has uncovered through official documentation, private papers and contacts the depth of Fleming's work in Naval Intelligence. Fascinating insights of those he worked with and details of covert trips to Europe and North Africa emerge. Fleming was closely associated with 30 Assault Unit, a crack team of Commandos who took the fight to the enemy. The book reveals both the history of 30 AU and Fleming's role.

The elaborate Allied schemes to keep Spain and Portugal out of WWII—featuring the real-life spy work of Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond. Historian Mark Simmons reveals the various Allied operations designed to keep the Iberian Peninsula out of WWII. It is a tale of widespread bribery of high ranking Spanish officials, the duplicity of Adm. Wilhelm Canaris, head of the Abwehr, and an elaborate scheme developed by a Naval Intelligence commander who would later create the iconic spy character. Ian Fleming and Alan Hillgarth were the architects of Operation Golden Eye, the sabotage and disruption scheme that would have been put in place, had Germany invaded Spain. Fleming visited the Iberian Peninsula and Tangiers during the war, in what was arguably the closest he came to being a real secret agent. It was these visits that supplied much of the background material for his James Bond novels. Fleming even called his home on Jamaica where he created 007 “Goldeneye.” The book begins in October 1940, when Hitler met with Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. At that time, an alliance between Germany and Spain seemed possible. In response, Adm. Godfrey of British Naval Intelligence created Operation Tracer, in which a listening and observation post would be buried in the Rock of Gibraltar, should it fall to the Germans. Simmons also explores the SIS and SOE operations in Portugal and the vital Wolfram wars. Though Operation Golden Eye was eventually put on standby in 1943, its intrigue and intricacy are both fascinating and enlightening.

Previously considered an avowed nationalist, this book explores how Ian Fleming's writings and his representational politics contain an implicit resistance to imperial rhetoric. Through an examination of Fleming's Jamaica-set novels Live and Let Die, Dr. No, and The Man with the Golden Gun, as well as the later film adaptations of these novels, Ian Kinane reveals Fleming's deep ambivalence to British decolonisation and to wider Anglo-Caribbean relations. Offered here is a crucial insight into the public imagination during the birth of modern British multiculturalism that encompasses broader links between Fleming's writings on race and the representation of early British-Jamaican cultural relations. By exploring the effects of racial representation in these popular works, Kinane connects the novels to more contemporary concerns regarding migration and the ways in which the misrepresentation of cultures, races, and peoples has led to fraught and contentious global geo-political relations as figured in the fictional icon, James Bond.