In a message to his staff when he left the Sunday Times, Ian Fleming said, ‘In all these years we have had great fun working together’. He had been a great Foreign News Manager; perhaps only Sid Mason of Reuters attracted such devotion from foreign correspondents in the field. With a sense for detail, an enthusiasm which believed anything was possible, he showed an enormous and sympathetic interest in the lives and problems of the journalists who worked for him round the world, whether they were staff men or stringers. 

Fun and this sympathetic attention to detail were the hallmarks of his working life. But, in spite of a host of admiring and affectionate friends, he does not appear to have had much fun in his private life. At least that is the impression this book gives, written now that