Jonathan Keeble

Ian Fleming's greatest creation, James Bond, has had an enormous impact on our culture. What Bond represents about ideas of masculinity, the British national psyche, and global politics has shifted over time, as has the interpretation of the life of his author. But Fleming himself was more mysterious and subtle than anything he wrote.

His childhood with his gifted brother Peter and his extraordinary mother set the pattern for Fleming's ambition to be 'the complete man'. Only a writer for his last twelve years, his dramatic personal life and impressive career before this put him at the heart of critical moments in world history, while also providing rich material for his fiction.

Nicholas Shakespeare is one of the most gifted biographers working today. His talent for uncovering material that casts new light on his subjects is fully evident in this masterful, definitive biography.