- Published: 3 October 2023
- ISBN: 9781787302426
- Imprint: Harvill Secker
- Format: Trade Paperback
- Pages: 864
- RRP: $42.99
Ian Fleming
The Complete Man

















- Published: 3 October 2023
- ISBN: 9781787302426
- Imprint: Harvill Secker
- Format: Trade Paperback
- Pages: 864
- RRP: $42.99
This is a marvellous book about Ian Fleming, but it's also one of the most engaging portraits of a particular period of British history that I have read in a long time
Antonia Fraser
This is a marvellous book about Ian Fleming, but it's also one of the most engaging portraits of a particular period of British history that I have read in a long time
Antonia Fraser
This is a marvellous book about Ian Fleming, but it's also one of the most engaging portraits of a particular period of British history that I have read in a long time
Antonia Fraser
This is a marvellous book about Ian Fleming, but it's also one of the most engaging portraits of a particular period of British history that I have read in a long time
Antonia Fraser
This is a marvellous book about Ian Fleming, but it's also one of the most engaging portraits of a particular period of British history that I have read in a long time
Antonia Fraser
This is a marvellous book about Ian Fleming, but it's also one of the most engaging portraits of a particular period of British history that I have read in a long time
Antonia Fraser
Shakespeare has the rare ability to reinvigorate subjects that had seemed exhausted. If, like me, you thought you knew all there was to be known about Ian Fleming, prepare for a surprise...written with such brio that the pace never slackens
Adam Sisman
Shakespeare has the rare ability to reinvigorate subjects that had seemed exhausted. If, like me, you thought you knew all there was to be known about Ian Fleming, prepare for a surprise...written with such brio that the pace never slackens
Adam Sisman
Shakespeare has the rare ability to reinvigorate subjects that had seemed exhausted. If, like me, you thought you knew all there was to be known about Ian Fleming, prepare for a surprise...written with such brio that the pace never slackens
Adam Sisman
Shakespeare has the rare ability to reinvigorate subjects that had seemed exhausted. If, like me, you thought you knew all there was to be known about Ian Fleming, prepare for a surprise...written with such brio that the pace never slackens
Adam Sisman
Shakespeare has the rare ability to reinvigorate subjects that had seemed exhausted. If, like me, you thought you knew all there was to be known about Ian Fleming, prepare for a surprise...written with such brio that the pace never slackens
Adam Sisman
Shakespeare has the rare ability to reinvigorate subjects that had seemed exhausted. If, like me, you thought you knew all there was to be known about Ian Fleming, prepare for a surprise...written with such brio that the pace never slackens
Adam Sisman
What a masterful and definitive study this is, enhanced by a novelist’s skill in making it so eminently readable and page-turning. I learned a great deal that I did not know. It is compulsively absorbing.
David Stafford
What a masterful and definitive study this is, enhanced by a novelist’s skill in making it so eminently readable and page-turning. I learned a great deal that I did not know. It is compulsively absorbing.
David Stafford
What a masterful and definitive study this is, enhanced by a novelist’s skill in making it so eminently readable and page-turning. I learned a great deal that I did not know. It is compulsively absorbing.
David Stafford
What a masterful and definitive study this is, enhanced by a novelist’s skill in making it so eminently readable and page-turning. I learned a great deal that I did not know. It is compulsively absorbing.
David Stafford
What a masterful and definitive study this is, enhanced by a novelist’s skill in making it so eminently readable and page-turning. I learned a great deal that I did not know. It is compulsively absorbing.
David Stafford
What a masterful and definitive study this is, enhanced by a novelist’s skill in making it so eminently readable and page-turning. I learned a great deal that I did not know. It is compulsively absorbing.
David Stafford
Written with Fleming-esque brio and insouciance, with a feeling for the tragic aspects of his life as well as the ironic comedy of it..elegant...the research here is impeccable.
Telegraph
Written with Fleming-esque brio and insouciance, with a feeling for the tragic aspects of his life as well as the ironic comedy of it..elegant...the research here is impeccable.
Telegraph
Written with Fleming-esque brio and insouciance, with a feeling for the tragic aspects of his life as well as the ironic comedy of it..elegant...the research here is impeccable.
Telegraph
Written with Fleming-esque brio and insouciance, with a feeling for the tragic aspects of his life as well as the ironic comedy of it..elegant...the research here is impeccable.
Telegraph
Written with Fleming-esque brio and insouciance, with a feeling for the tragic aspects of his life as well as the ironic comedy of it..elegant...the research here is impeccable.
Telegraph
Written with Fleming-esque brio and insouciance, with a feeling for the tragic aspects of his life as well as the ironic comedy of it..elegant...the research here is impeccable.
Telegraph
This excellent biography is as worldly and clever as one could wish.
Philip Hensher, Spectator
This excellent biography is as worldly and clever as one could wish.
Philip Hensher, Spectator
This excellent biography is as worldly and clever as one could wish.
Philip Hensher, Spectator
This excellent biography is as worldly and clever as one could wish.
Philip Hensher, Spectator
This excellent biography is as worldly and clever as one could wish.
Philip Hensher, Spectator
This excellent biography is as worldly and clever as one could wish.
Philip Hensher, Spectator
A monumental record of Fleming’s life. The completeness of the book is beyond doubt. Shakespeare leaves no future biographer much to discover. Fleming’s place in history is assured.
Max Hastings, Sunday Times
A monumental record of Fleming’s life. The completeness of the book is beyond doubt. Shakespeare leaves no future biographer much to discover. Fleming’s place in history is assured.
Max Hastings, Sunday Times
A monumental record of Fleming’s life. The completeness of the book is beyond doubt. Shakespeare leaves no future biographer much to discover. Fleming’s place in history is assured.
Max Hastings, Sunday Times
A monumental record of Fleming’s life. The completeness of the book is beyond doubt. Shakespeare leaves no future biographer much to discover. Fleming’s place in history is assured.
Max Hastings, Sunday Times
A monumental record of Fleming’s life. The completeness of the book is beyond doubt. Shakespeare leaves no future biographer much to discover. Fleming’s place in history is assured.
Max Hastings, Sunday Times
A monumental record of Fleming’s life. The completeness of the book is beyond doubt. Shakespeare leaves no future biographer much to discover. Fleming’s place in history is assured.
Max Hastings, Sunday Times
Elegant and painstakingly researched
Observer
Elegant and painstakingly researched
Observer
Elegant and painstakingly researched
Observer
Elegant and painstakingly researched
Observer
Elegant and painstakingly researched
Observer
Elegant and painstakingly researched
Observer
A sustained and engrossing homage to the Olympic icon of a beleaguered Britain, and a writer damned to fame. With scarcely a dull page, it’s a chip off the old block... steeped in exceptional research....stitches up the loose ends of Fleming’s story into a satisfying 21st-century biography.
Robert McCrum, Independent
A sustained and engrossing homage to the Olympic icon of a beleaguered Britain, and a writer damned to fame. With scarcely a dull page, it’s a chip off the old block... steeped in exceptional research....stitches up the loose ends of Fleming’s story into a satisfying 21st-century biography.
Robert McCrum, Independent
A sustained and engrossing homage to the Olympic icon of a beleaguered Britain, and a writer damned to fame. With scarcely a dull page, it’s a chip off the old block... steeped in exceptional research....stitches up the loose ends of Fleming’s story into a satisfying 21st-century biography.
Robert McCrum, Independent
A sustained and engrossing homage to the Olympic icon of a beleaguered Britain, and a writer damned to fame. With scarcely a dull page, it’s a chip off the old block... steeped in exceptional research....stitches up the loose ends of Fleming’s story into a satisfying 21st-century biography.
Robert McCrum, Independent
A sustained and engrossing homage to the Olympic icon of a beleaguered Britain, and a writer damned to fame. With scarcely a dull page, it’s a chip off the old block... steeped in exceptional research....stitches up the loose ends of Fleming’s story into a satisfying 21st-century biography.
Robert McCrum, Independent
A sustained and engrossing homage to the Olympic icon of a beleaguered Britain, and a writer damned to fame. With scarcely a dull page, it’s a chip off the old block... steeped in exceptional research....stitches up the loose ends of Fleming’s story into a satisfying 21st-century biography.
Robert McCrum, Independent
The Complete Man is packed with women, their characters and stories carefully filled in...highly accomplished and readable
New Statesman
The Complete Man is packed with women, their characters and stories carefully filled in...highly accomplished and readable
New Statesman
The Complete Man is packed with women, their characters and stories carefully filled in...highly accomplished and readable
New Statesman
The Complete Man is packed with women, their characters and stories carefully filled in...highly accomplished and readable
New Statesman
The Complete Man is packed with women, their characters and stories carefully filled in...highly accomplished and readable
New Statesman
The Complete Man is packed with women, their characters and stories carefully filled in...highly accomplished and readable
New Statesman
Fascinating, well researched, neatly written
D.J. Taylor, Literary Review
Fascinating, well researched, neatly written
D.J. Taylor, Literary Review
Fascinating, well researched, neatly written
D.J. Taylor, Literary Review
Fascinating, well researched, neatly written
D.J. Taylor, Literary Review
Fascinating, well researched, neatly written
D.J. Taylor, Literary Review
Fascinating, well researched, neatly written
D.J. Taylor, Literary Review
The most comprehensive picture yet of Bond’s creator… definitive
Economist
The most comprehensive picture yet of Bond’s creator… definitive
Economist
The most comprehensive picture yet of Bond’s creator… definitive
Economist
The most comprehensive picture yet of Bond’s creator… definitive
Economist
The most comprehensive picture yet of Bond’s creator… definitive
Economist
The most comprehensive picture yet of Bond’s creator… definitive
Economist
A definitive biography that deepens and reshapes previous versions of Fleming’s life… light-footed and swift-moving despite its copious research… Shakespeare’s Fleming rises from these richly textured pages as a more substantial and sympathetic figure than the preening snob of myth.
Financial Times
A definitive biography that deepens and reshapes previous versions of Fleming’s life… light-footed and swift-moving despite its copious research… Shakespeare’s Fleming rises from these richly textured pages as a more substantial and sympathetic figure than the preening snob of myth.
Financial Times
A definitive biography that deepens and reshapes previous versions of Fleming’s life… light-footed and swift-moving despite its copious research… Shakespeare’s Fleming rises from these richly textured pages as a more substantial and sympathetic figure than the preening snob of myth.
Financial Times
A definitive biography that deepens and reshapes previous versions of Fleming’s life… light-footed and swift-moving despite its copious research… Shakespeare’s Fleming rises from these richly textured pages as a more substantial and sympathetic figure than the preening snob of myth.
Financial Times
A definitive biography that deepens and reshapes previous versions of Fleming’s life… light-footed and swift-moving despite its copious research… Shakespeare’s Fleming rises from these richly textured pages as a more substantial and sympathetic figure than the preening snob of myth.
Financial Times
A definitive biography that deepens and reshapes previous versions of Fleming’s life… light-footed and swift-moving despite its copious research… Shakespeare’s Fleming rises from these richly textured pages as a more substantial and sympathetic figure than the preening snob of myth.
Financial Times
An exceptional novelist & a prodigious researcher, Shakespeare has produced a compelling narrative that justifies his bold subtitle The Complete Man. Like his seminal life of Bruce Chatwin, he has tackled & unravelled an extraordinarily complex subject
Sydney Morning Herald
An exceptional novelist & a prodigious researcher, Shakespeare has produced a compelling narrative that justifies his bold subtitle The Complete Man. Like his seminal life of Bruce Chatwin, he has tackled & unravelled an extraordinarily complex subject
Sydney Morning Herald
An exceptional novelist & a prodigious researcher, Shakespeare has produced a compelling narrative that justifies his bold subtitle The Complete Man. Like his seminal life of Bruce Chatwin, he has tackled & unravelled an extraordinarily complex subject
Sydney Morning Herald
An exceptional novelist & a prodigious researcher, Shakespeare has produced a compelling narrative that justifies his bold subtitle The Complete Man. Like his seminal life of Bruce Chatwin, he has tackled & unravelled an extraordinarily complex subject
Sydney Morning Herald
An exceptional novelist & a prodigious researcher, Shakespeare has produced a compelling narrative that justifies his bold subtitle The Complete Man. Like his seminal life of Bruce Chatwin, he has tackled & unravelled an extraordinarily complex subject
Sydney Morning Herald
An exceptional novelist & a prodigious researcher, Shakespeare has produced a compelling narrative that justifies his bold subtitle The Complete Man. Like his seminal life of Bruce Chatwin, he has tackled & unravelled an extraordinarily complex subject
Sydney Morning Herald
A scintillating read...Shakespeare presents his readers with a rounded portrait of a complicated man...remarkable and beautifully written...wholly successful
Entertainment Focus
A scintillating read...Shakespeare presents his readers with a rounded portrait of a complicated man...remarkable and beautifully written...wholly successful
Entertainment Focus
A scintillating read...Shakespeare presents his readers with a rounded portrait of a complicated man...remarkable and beautifully written...wholly successful
Entertainment Focus
A scintillating read...Shakespeare presents his readers with a rounded portrait of a complicated man...remarkable and beautifully written...wholly successful
Entertainment Focus
A scintillating read...Shakespeare presents his readers with a rounded portrait of a complicated man...remarkable and beautifully written...wholly successful
Entertainment Focus
A scintillating read...Shakespeare presents his readers with a rounded portrait of a complicated man...remarkable and beautifully written...wholly successful
Entertainment Focus
[This book] impressed me enormously… stupendous research
Spectator, *Books of the Year*
[This book] impressed me enormously… stupendous research
Spectator, *Books of the Year*
[This book] impressed me enormously… stupendous research
Spectator, *Books of the Year*
[This book] impressed me enormously… stupendous research
Spectator, *Books of the Year*
[This book] impressed me enormously… stupendous research
Spectator, *Books of the Year*
[This book] impressed me enormously… stupendous research
Spectator, *Books of the Year*
Shakespeare, renowned biographer of Bruce Chatwin, reveals a story worthy of a Bond novel in his life of Ian Fleming. The painstakingly researched yet fast-paced book explores Fleming’s childhood, dramatic war years and complex personal life and reveals how they shaped his hugely successful books
Financial Times, Best Books of the Year
Shakespeare, renowned biographer of Bruce Chatwin, reveals a story worthy of a Bond novel in his life of Ian Fleming. The painstakingly researched yet fast-paced book explores Fleming’s childhood, dramatic war years and complex personal life and reveals how they shaped his hugely successful books
Financial Times, Best Books of the Year
Shakespeare, renowned biographer of Bruce Chatwin, reveals a story worthy of a Bond novel in his life of Ian Fleming. The painstakingly researched yet fast-paced book explores Fleming’s childhood, dramatic war years and complex personal life and reveals how they shaped his hugely successful books
Financial Times, Best Books of the Year
Shakespeare, renowned biographer of Bruce Chatwin, reveals a story worthy of a Bond novel in his life of Ian Fleming. The painstakingly researched yet fast-paced book explores Fleming’s childhood, dramatic war years and complex personal life and reveals how they shaped his hugely successful books
Financial Times, Best Books of the Year
Shakespeare, renowned biographer of Bruce Chatwin, reveals a story worthy of a Bond novel in his life of Ian Fleming. The painstakingly researched yet fast-paced book explores Fleming’s childhood, dramatic war years and complex personal life and reveals how they shaped his hugely successful books
Financial Times, Best Books of the Year
Shakespeare, renowned biographer of Bruce Chatwin, reveals a story worthy of a Bond novel in his life of Ian Fleming. The painstakingly researched yet fast-paced book explores Fleming’s childhood, dramatic war years and complex personal life and reveals how they shaped his hugely successful books
Financial Times, Best Books of the Year
Will surely be the last word on James Bond’s creator. Shakespeare’s intimate grasp of Fleming’s social milieu makes this superb biography even more authoritative
William Boyd, Spectator
Will surely be the last word on James Bond’s creator. Shakespeare’s intimate grasp of Fleming’s social milieu makes this superb biography even more authoritative
William Boyd, Spectator
Will surely be the last word on James Bond’s creator. Shakespeare’s intimate grasp of Fleming’s social milieu makes this superb biography even more authoritative
William Boyd, Spectator
Will surely be the last word on James Bond’s creator. Shakespeare’s intimate grasp of Fleming’s social milieu makes this superb biography even more authoritative
William Boyd, Spectator
Will surely be the last word on James Bond’s creator. Shakespeare’s intimate grasp of Fleming’s social milieu makes this superb biography even more authoritative
William Boyd, Spectator
Will surely be the last word on James Bond’s creator. Shakespeare’s intimate grasp of Fleming’s social milieu makes this superb biography even more authoritative
William Boyd, Spectator
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind on the best book of the year.... the writing is phenomenal. It’s so good that I barely have space for three other great books.
Michael Smith, author of The Real Special Relationship.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind on the best book of the year.... the writing is phenomenal. It’s so good that I barely have space for three other great books.
Michael Smith, author of The Real Special Relationship.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind on the best book of the year.... the writing is phenomenal. It’s so good that I barely have space for three other great books.
Michael Smith, author of The Real Special Relationship.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind on the best book of the year.... the writing is phenomenal. It’s so good that I barely have space for three other great books.
Michael Smith, author of The Real Special Relationship.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind on the best book of the year.... the writing is phenomenal. It’s so good that I barely have space for three other great books.
Michael Smith, author of The Real Special Relationship.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind on the best book of the year.... the writing is phenomenal. It’s so good that I barely have space for three other great books.
Michael Smith, author of The Real Special Relationship.
A revealing insight into postwar, post-Empire Britain...A terrific read
Michael Wood, BBC History Magazine
A revealing insight into postwar, post-Empire Britain...A terrific read
Michael Wood, BBC History Magazine
A revealing insight into postwar, post-Empire Britain...A terrific read
Michael Wood, BBC History Magazine
Shakespeare leaves no stone unturned in his 850-plus-page biography of a man as enigmatic as his creation
Sunday Times, *Books of the Year*
Shakespeare leaves no stone unturned in his 850-plus-page biography of a man as enigmatic as his creation
Sunday Times, *Books of the Year*
Shakespeare leaves no stone unturned in his 850-plus-page biography of a man as enigmatic as his creation
Sunday Times, *Books of the Year*
Shakespeare leaves no stone unturned in his 850-plus-page biography of a man as enigmatic as his creation
Sunday Times, *Books of the Year*
Shakespeare leaves no stone unturned in his 850-plus-page biography of a man as enigmatic as his creation
Sunday Times, *Books of the Year*
A fascinating book and a pretty good last-minute Christmas present
Round & About
A fascinating book and a pretty good last-minute Christmas present
Round & About
A fascinating book and a pretty good last-minute Christmas present
Round & About
A fascinating book and a pretty good last-minute Christmas present
Round & About
A fascinating book and a pretty good last-minute Christmas present
Round & About
This biography…[is] definitive, tracing Fleming’s childhood, military service, espionage and writing career
Economist, *Books of the Year*
This biography…[is] definitive, tracing Fleming’s childhood, military service, espionage and writing career
Economist, *Books of the Year*
This biography…[is] definitive, tracing Fleming’s childhood, military service, espionage and writing career
Economist, *Books of the Year*