Andrew Lycett
Bond Abroad
The Diamond Smugglers
By Ian Fleming
Ian Fleming Publications 116pp £15 order from our bookshop
Thrilling Cities
By Ian Fleming
Ian Fleming Publications 246pp £15 order from our bookshop
There was more to Ian Fleming’s writing than merely James Bond. People are often surprised to learn that he was also the author of the classic children’s story Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. In addition, he composed poetry – mostly gushy, youthful stuff that he collected in a volume called The Black Daffodil and was later so embarrassed by it that he destroyed all copies. (If you happen to have one hidden away, it would now be worth a fortune.)
And then there was his non-fiction prose, which was where he started. The skills he learnt as a trainee with Reuters in the 1930s and as the report-writing personal assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence from 1939 to 1945 contributed directly to the pithy, colourful style of
Sign Up to our newsletter
Receive free articles, highlights from the archive, news, details of prizes, and much more.@Lit_Review
Follow Literary Review on Twitter
'Within hours, the news spread. A grimy gang of desperadoes had been captured just in time to stop them setting out on an assassination plot of shocking audacity.'
@katheder on the Cato Street Conspiracy of 1820.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/butchers-knives-treason-and-plot
'It is the ... sketches of the local and the overlooked that lend this book its density and drive, and emphasise Britain’s mostly low-key riches – if only you can be bothered to buy an anorak and seek.'
Jonathan Meades on the beauty of brutalism.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/castles-of-concrete
'Cruickshank’s history reveals an extraordinary eclecticism of architectural styles and buildings, from Dutch Revivalism to Arts and Crafts experimentation, from Georgian terraces to Victorian mansion blocks.'
William Boyd on the architecture of Chelsea.
https://literaryreview.co.uk/where-george-eliot-meets-mick-jagger