Ian Fleming ensured his immortality when he sat down while on holiday in Jamaica and started to write his first novel, allegedly to take his mind of his imminent marriage to Ann Rothermere in 1952.
The book was Casino Royale and by introducing the world to his hero, James Bond, Fleming created the most enduring icon of the 20th century.
His writing style was influenced heavily by his career as a journalist, full of detail that managed to ground the more fantastic elements in reality, even when that detail turned out, on occasion, to be incorrect.
While the literary character has long been overshadowed by his cinematic incarnation, it is time to redress the balance and introduce more of the book-reading world to Fleming’s works.
Ian Fleming’s life
The road to James Bond on the big screen
Ian Fleming on Desert Island Disks
His books
Books on Fleming’s life
The Life of Ian Fleming (1966)
John Pearson
The James Bond Bedside Companion (1984)
Raymond Benson
Ian Fleming (1996)
Andrew Lycett
The Battle for Bond (2007)
Robert Sellers
Ian Fleming’s Commandos: The story of 30 Assault Unit in WWII (2011)
Nicholas Rankin
Goldeneye: Where Bond was Born: Ian Fleming’s Jamaica (2014)
Matthew Parker
Ian Fleming: A Personal Memoir (2015)
Robert Harling
The Man With The Golden Typewriter: Ian Fleming’s James Bond Letters (2015)
Fergus Fleming (editor)
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