Ian Fleming - Hardcover

by Andrew Lycett (Author)

We all know who James Bond is, but how many of us know much about his creator, Ian Fleming, a master of espionage and thrillers? In this full-length biography, author Andrew Lycett tells the story of Ian Fleming's life proving that it was just as dramatic as that of his fictional creation. Educated at Eaton and Sandhurst, he joined Naval Intelligence in 1939 participating in both Operation Mincemeat and Operation Golden Eye. After the war, he became a journalist and, in 1953, wrote Casino Royale thereby introducing the world to an English spy named James Bond.

Set in London, Switzerland and Fleming's Jamaican estate Goldeneye, his life was peopled with luminaries like Noel Coward, Sean Connery, Ursula Andress, Bond film producer "Cubby" Broccoli and others. With direct access to Fleming's family and friends, Lycett goes behind the complicated façade of this enigmatic and remarkable man. Ian Fleming by Andrew Lycett is biography at its best--a glittering portrait of the brilliant and enigmatic man who created Agent 007.

Back Jacket

More than a quarter century after the death of Ian Fleming, Andrew Lycett has produced his definitive biography. Through hundreds of interviews and direct access to Fleming's papers, as well as those of family and friends (which contain much previously unpublished and highly controversial material), Lycett has been able to reveal, for the first time, the truth behind the complicated facade of an enigmatic and remarkable man. With an extraordinary cast of characters, this is biography at its best - part history, part gossip, and part informed reassessment. Sportsman, womanizer, naval commander, world-traveler, spy, this suave Old Etonian creator of the Cold War's archetypal secret agent was infinitely more complicated and interesting than his major fictional character, Agent 007. Fleming's wide-ranging and exciting life inevitably provided the plausible backdrop for the Bond novels, and while his temperamental, sometimes violent nature got him into difficulties as a young man, the second World War was the making of him. Highly regarded in British naval intelligence for his international contacts, he master-minded numerous top secret operations, including "Golden Eye", which is uncovered here for the first time. His role in shaping the prototype CIA is also fully detailed.

Author Biography

ANDREW LYCETT is an English biographer and journalist. He is the author of Rudyard Kipling, Dylan Thomas: A New Life and Conan Doyle: The Man Who Created Sherlock Holmes. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2009. He lives in London.