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