Customer Reviews

The Life of Ian Fleming (Coronet Books)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book was written while Fleming's wife Anne was still alive, so out of respect for her, many details of his affairs during their marriage were left out. Otherwise, this is a fantastic account of the life of this amazing man, the details of his career in Naval Intelligence during WWII are fascinating. The little points you see here and there that are later reflecting in one of his Bond novels are always neat to pick up on.

For Ian Fleming, writing was an escape from the restraints of real life. One spring in 1952 he sat down at his typewriter and began 'Casino Royale', first of the James Bond thrillers. He drew upon his six years of wartime service as personal assistant to the director of naval intelligence in Whitehall. Research followed the initial burst of writing; he was not shy about consulting experts. Over the next eleven years he wrote a book a year. Gradually the lifestyle he prescribed for himself and his hero -- 60 cigarettes a day, whiskey or gin -- took its toll, and he saw the beginning of real success just about the time he succumbed to "the iron crab" -- heart disease. The books took real incidents, real places, and real parts of his own personality and turned them into enduring fantasies -- popular not just with people familiar with these settings but with those for whom they seemed realistic in detail but far removed from personal experience.

This book is the best account of the author of the James Bond novels, Ian Fleming's, life yet. Written in 1965-1966, it is the one and only biography of Fleming that was written with true research by the author. Pearson's biography is also drawn on personel expiriences (he worked with Fleming on the Sunday Times for many years). Many excerpts of interviews with people who knew Fleming, or stayed at his house Goldeneye, have been included, and statements by close friends are plentifull. This book is to be read for pleasure, other biographies of Fleming (e.g. Andre Lycett's Ian Fleming: the man behind James Bond) are to be navigated through using an index. An excellent book.