For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond
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'A marvellously entertaining and informative book ... deserves to fly off the shelves every bit as quickly as Devil May Care' Spectator 'Thrilling' Sunday Times 'Everything that makes Bond interesting with relation to the real world, in fact, is explored here. Ben Macintyre's skill, in this entertaining mix of history, espionage, biography, and post-war sociology, is to make you see clearly where Ian Fleming's world ended and the fantasy of James Bond began' Tom Fleming, Literary Review 'Fleming, a journalist like Macintyre, would have approved of Macintyre's fast, witty and informative style, and this is the perfect starting place for anyone wanting to find out more about Bond and his creator' Mail on Sunday
Product Description
'I am going to write the spy story to end all spy stories' One morning in February 1952, a journalist called Ian Fleming sat down at his desk and set about creating a fictional secret agent. James Bond was born and would go on to become one of the most successful, enduring and lucrative creations in literature. But Bond's world of glamour and romance, gadgets and cocktails, espionage and villainy wasn't entirely drawn from imagination: Fleming's background and his experiences as an intelligence officer during the Second World War were all formative parts in the creation of the world's most famous spy. Packed with astonishing detail and written in Macintyre's inimitable style, For Your Eyes Only is the most enlightening, enlivening book on the creator of the spy who not only lived twice, but proved to be immortal.
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A book written to accompany an exhibition at the Imperial War Museum to celebrate the centenary of Ian Fleming's birth, it is, according to author Ben Macintyre, neither a biography of Ian Fleming nor a "Biography" of James Bond, but "a personal investigation into the intersection of two lives, one real and one fictional".
There certainly are many elements of a biography of Fleming. We learn of his father's death, when he was just nine, on the Western Front, and of his relationship with his domineering mother Evelyn, referred to by him and his brothers, interestingly, as "M". Fleming's search for a career that combined high earnings with a relaxed lifestyle, his compulsive womanising, his taste for the good things of life, but also his war service in naval intelligence, are all covered, as a backdrop to the elements of Bond's character. The many actual people who may have contributed to Bond as well as Fleming, including his late father, Valentine Fleming, his brother Peter, also involved in intelligence work, a variety of commandos and Special Forces types like Fitzroy MacLean, and a similar treatment to the other principal characters in the books, like M and Miss Moneypenny. The way that Fleming adopted names from acquaintances for other characters is fascinating: he was almost sued by the architect Erno Goldfinger for the misappropriation of his one.
While Macintyre comments primarily on the books, he also brings in the films. I suspect that part of the reason for this was that it gave the book (and the exhibition) much more material to display, but on the whole inclusion of film material is not intrusive and allows Macintyre to point out the differences. For example, while there was a Q-Section in the books, and an Armourer, Major Boothroyd (named after one of Fleming's correspondents, who persuaded him that a Beretta was no suitable pistol for a secret agent), it was only in the films that these were combined into the character "Q".
If you have read one of the biographies of Ian Fleming (and Macintyre, by the way, recommends those by John Pearson and Andrew Lycett) then this book may seem a little thin. If, like me, you have not, then this book is an excellent, easy to read starting point to looking behind the character of James Bond to the man who created him. Macintyre succeeds, in this short but excellently illustrated book, in showing us where Fleming's world ended and Bond's began.
There certainly are many elements of a biography of Fleming. We learn of his father's death, when he was just nine, on the Western Front, and of his relationship with his domineering mother Evelyn, referred to by him and his brothers, interestingly, as "M". Fleming's search for a career that combined high earnings with a relaxed lifestyle, his compulsive womanising, his taste for the good things of life, but also his war service in naval intelligence, are all covered, as a backdrop to the elements of Bond's character. The many actual people who may have contributed to Bond as well as Fleming, including his late father, Valentine Fleming, his brother Peter, also involved in intelligence work, a variety of commandos and Special Forces types like Fitzroy MacLean, and a similar treatment to the other principal characters in the books, like M and Miss Moneypenny. The way that Fleming adopted names from acquaintances for other characters is fascinating: he was almost sued by the architect Erno Goldfinger for the misappropriation of his one.
While Macintyre comments primarily on the books, he also brings in the films. I suspect that part of the reason for this was that it gave the book (and the exhibition) much more material to display, but on the whole inclusion of film material is not intrusive and allows Macintyre to point out the differences. For example, while there was a Q-Section in the books, and an Armourer, Major Boothroyd (named after one of Fleming's correspondents, who persuaded him that a Beretta was no suitable pistol for a secret agent), it was only in the films that these were combined into the character "Q".
If you have read one of the biographies of Ian Fleming (and Macintyre, by the way, recommends those by John Pearson and Andrew Lycett) then this book may seem a little thin. If, like me, you have not, then this book is an excellent, easy to read starting point to looking behind the character of James Bond to the man who created him. Macintyre succeeds, in this short but excellently illustrated book, in showing us where Fleming's world ended and Bond's began.
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
As one who studied Fleming's work extensively as a graduate student and later publishing a thesis on the writer's impact on pop culture of the period, I must admit I was a bit skeptical about yet another bland and redundant Bond "coffee table" book for the masses. Happily, this is not the case with "For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond" by Ben Macintyre, written on the centenary of the author's birth. Highly readable and enjoyable and chock full with full-color photos of props used throughout all 21 Bond films, this book is a comprehensive survey of not just of Bond's impact on fiction and the cinema, but a real in-depth analysis of the man who breathed live into one of popular culture's most endurable icons.
Much is written about Fleming's childhood, adolescence, education at Eton, relationships with family (brother Peter, noted travel writer), his military career, his closest friends (Ivar Bryce and Noel Coward), his love-hate relationships with wife Ann, and the author's affairs with numerous beautiful women which oddly resemble Fleming's fictional alter-ego. For those who wish to learn more about Bond and the writer who created him, this tome is a great springboard into the Bond phenomenon which has spanned over forty years.
Much is written about Fleming's childhood, adolescence, education at Eton, relationships with family (brother Peter, noted travel writer), his military career, his closest friends (Ivar Bryce and Noel Coward), his love-hate relationships with wife Ann, and the author's affairs with numerous beautiful women which oddly resemble Fleming's fictional alter-ego. For those who wish to learn more about Bond and the writer who created him, this tome is a great springboard into the Bond phenomenon which has spanned over forty years.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
A kazilion authors have attempted to connect the real life of Ian Fleming to his famous fictional creation. Macintyre does an excellent job of summarizing the life of Fleming and the inspirations both in his personality and in his experience that led to the famous mythical world of 007.
As you would expect of an Imperial War Museum production, there are excellent photos from the archives as well as artifacts from the James Bond movies.
As you would expect of an Imperial War Museum production, there are excellent photos from the archives as well as artifacts from the James Bond movies.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
lots of conjecture, slim on facts
Interesting for only those who havent read the numerous Fleming autobiographies and/or Bond books where the contents of this book are covered in much more detail. Read more
Published 12 months ago by An avid reader
Feeble pretence of a book
The cover calls this effort "The ultimate biography of Ian Fleming and James Bond" yet the Author's Note states in the second sentence that: "it is not a biography of Ian Fleming... Read more
Published 13 months ago by John Fitzpatrick
007 seen by a true Historian
I am a vivid reader of James Bond novels; also I like WW II spy stories and I greatly enjoyed Agent Zigzag and Operation Mincemeat by Ben Macintyre. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Paolo Tagini
Highly Readable
Andrew Lycett and John Pearson have both written very creditable biographies of Ian Fleming (as well as a number of other authors on the same subject, who have failed to come... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Mr. R. D. M. Kirby
Bond-tastic
After all the bond books on the market, this one is very refreshing. It compares the life of Fleming to that of Bond. Well written and researched by the author.
Published 24 months ago by Bianconero
An Excellent Read for Fleming Fans
Tying in with a major exhibition at the Imperial War Museum, Ben MacIntyre's 'For Your Eyes Only' represents a fascinating insight into the origins of the world's most famous... Read more
Published on 21 May 2009 by A. Foxley
An excellent light read.
A great book for all Bond fans. An introspective look at the parodies between author and Bond. Great to hear who characters were based on and hints of the real heroes behind the... Read more
Published on 29 Dec 2008 by Simon Haslam
It's a Fleming & Bond Blockbuster
Dr Blockbuster got a signed copy when Ben MacIntyre was at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in August. The title says it all ... Read more
Published on 30 Aug 2008 by Dr Blockbuster
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