Ian Fleming
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  • Published: 15 October 2024
  • ISBN: 9781529920604
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 864
  • RRP: $27.99
Categories:

Ian Fleming

The Complete Man

Formats & editions
Paperback
15 Oct 2024
EBook
5 Oct 2023
Audiobook
5 Oct 2023
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A fascinating new biography of the man behind James Bond, by an award-winning biographer and novelist who has unprecedented access to the Fleming Archive.

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

*SHORTLISTED FOR THE SALTIRE SOCIETY LITERARY AWARD*

*A The Times, Financial Times, Economist, Spectator and BBC History Magazine Book of the Year*
  • Published: 15 October 2024
  • ISBN: 9781529920604
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 864
  • RRP: $27.99
Categories:

About the author

Nicholas Shakespeare

Nicholas Shakespeare was born in 1957. The son of a diplomat, much of his youth was spent in the Far East and South America. His novels have been translated into twenty languages. They include The Vision Of Elena Silves, winner of the Somerset Maugham Award, Snowleg and The Dancer Upstairs, which was chosen by the American Libraries Association in 1997 as the year's best novel, and in 2001 was made into a film of the same name by John Malkovich. Recent books include Secrets of the Sea and Priscilla. He is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He is married with two sons and divides his time between Oxford and Tasmania.

portrait photo of Nicholas Shakespeare

Also by Nicholas Shakespeare

The Sandpit
Six Minutes in May
Stories from Other Places
Oddfellows
Priscilla
Under The Sun
Inheritance
See all

Praise for Ian Fleming

A magnificent work of empathy and detection

Colin Thubron, Sunday Times, on Bruce Chatwin

A fascinating account of the man behind the myth

Ian Thomson, Guardian

An epic piece of work of immense satisfaction... Awe-inspiring

The Times, on Bruce Chatwin

Quite simply, one of the most beautifully written, painstakingly researched and cleverly constructed biographies of this decade

Literary Review, on Bruce Chatwin

Comprehensively researched, elegantly written, perfectly balanced between the life, the books and the ideas

Independent on Sunday