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Synopsis
Sportsman, womanizer, naval commander, world traveler, spy, this suave creator of the Cold War's archetypal secret agent was infinitely more complicated and interesting than his major fictional character, Agent 007.
Library Journal
Fleming was not James Bond, but even before his death in 1964 the character Fleming created had taken on a life of his own in books, films, and myth. Well educated, from a wealthy, upper-crust family, Fleming was a desk-bound naval intelligence officer, mediocre stock broker, and newspaper correspondent before writing Casino Royale at age 44, the same year he married and fathered a son. Thirteen more Bond books followed, two posthumously, and the 17th Bond film came out in 1995. Lycett, a British foreign correspondent for various newspapers, had access to more papers and people than did John Pearson in his Life of Ian Fleming (1966). He has produced a thoroughly researched, definitive portrayal of a complex man who was rarely at peace with himself, a man who had a worldwide network of friends and acquaintances but died at age 56 in self-imposed loneliness. Lycett has also succeeded in separating the author from the phenomenon while putting both in the context of their times. Recommended for biography, literature, and cultural history collections.Roland Person, Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale