Ian Fleming S Secret War

While his extravagant and glamorous lifestyle is well known, little has been published concerning Ian Fleming's contribution during the Second World War. In the very early days of the War, Fleming was earmarked by the Director of Naval Intelligence as his 'right hand man'. From the outset he was in the center of events, meeting with key political and military figures as well as those of exceptional intelligence, experience and courage. All this was to give him invaluable background when he came to write the Bond novels. The author has uncovered through official documentation, private papers and contacts the depth of Fleming's work in Naval Intelligence. Fascinating insights of those he worked with and details of covert trips to Europe and North Africa emerge. Fleming was closely associated with 30 Assault Unit, a crack team of Commandos who took the fight to the enemy. The book reveals both the history of 30 AU and Fleming's role.

James Bond is possibly the most well known fictional character in history. What most people don’t know is that almost all of the characters, plots and gadgets come from the real life experiences of Bond’s creator - Commander Ian Fleming. In this book, we go through the plots of Fleming’s novels explaining the real life experiences that inspired them. The reader is taken on a journey through Fleming’s direct involvement in World War II intelligence and how this translated through his typewriter into James Bond’s world, as well as the many other factors of Fleming’s life which were also taken as inspiration. Most notably, the friends who Fleming kept, among whom were Noel Coward and Randolph Churchill and the influential people he would mingle with, British Prime Ministers and American Presidents. Bond is known for his exotic travel, most notably to the island of Jamaica, where Fleming spent much of his life. The desk in his Caribbean house, Goldeneye, was also where his life experiences would be put onto paper in the guise of James Bond. As the island was highly influential for Fleming, it features heavily in this book, offering an element of escapism to the reader, with tales of a clear blue sea, Caribbean climate and island socialising. Ian Fleming might have died prematurely aged 53, but so much of him lives on to this day through the most famous spy in the world, James Bond.

In a closely guarded bastion of evil high in the Swiss Alps. ERNST STAVRO BLOFELD puts the finishing touches to a most fiendish plot involving ten beautiful and ingenuous girls...to a most diabolical plot for murder on a mass scale. Only one man can stop him and that man is Blofeld’s archenemy secret agent JAMES BOND. IAN FLEMING’S ON HER MAJESTY’S SERVICE The superlative thriller that pits the secret agent James Bond once more against SPECTRE’s archfiend Bloefeld, architect of a nefarious scheme to destroy the free world...the thriller in which 007 falls in love with the lovely Tracy, daughter of Marc-Ange Draco, head of the Union Corse.... “The hottest sleuth in the suspense field, James Pond, really tops himself in this new Ian Fleming thriller.’—St. Paul Dispatch. “James Bond, 007, the best-known spy of our times, now by public acclaim one of the master-spies of the cloak-and-dagger fantasy. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is packed with danger, mystery, crime, and wild pursuit, to which the author has added sear in generous proportions.”—Chicago Sunday Tribune. “One of Bond’s most ominous and chilling adventures.”—Newsweek. “Solid Fleming.”—New York Herald Tribune.

The elaborate Allied schemes to keep Spain and Portugal out of WWII—featuring the real-life spy work of Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond. Historian Mark Simmons reveals the various Allied operations designed to keep the Iberian Peninsula out of WWII. It is a tale of widespread bribery of high ranking Spanish officials, the duplicity of Adm. Wilhelm Canaris, head of the Abwehr, and an elaborate scheme developed by a Naval Intelligence commander who would later create the iconic spy character. Ian Fleming and Alan Hillgarth were the architects of Operation Golden Eye, the sabotage and disruption scheme that would have been put in place, had Germany invaded Spain. Fleming visited the Iberian Peninsula and Tangiers during the war, in what was arguably the closest he came to being a real secret agent. It was these visits that supplied much of the background material for his James Bond novels. Fleming even called his home on Jamaica where he created 007 “Goldeneye.” The book begins in October 1940, when Hitler met with Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. At that time, an alliance between Germany and Spain seemed possible. In response, Adm. Godfrey of British Naval Intelligence created Operation Tracer, in which a listening and observation post would be buried in the Rock of Gibraltar, should it fall to the Germans. Simmons also explores the SIS and SOE operations in Portugal and the vital Wolfram wars. Though Operation Golden Eye was eventually put on standby in 1943, its intrigue and intricacy are both fascinating and enlightening.

"In 1953 Ian Fleming's literary sensation James Bond emerged onto the world's stage. Nearly seven decades later he has become a multi-billion-dollar film franchise, now equipped with all the gizmos of the modern world. Yet Fleming's creation that battled his way through the fourteen Bond novels, from 1953-1966, was a maverick, a man out of place. Bond even admits it, wishing he was back in the real war...the Second World War. Indeed, the thread of the Second World War runs through all the Bond books, and many were inspired by the real events and people Ian Fleming came across during his time in Naval Intelligence. In Fleming's 007, Mark Simmons explores these remarkable similarities. For example, Thunderball has a clear link to Operation Ruthless, Fleming's scheme to capture a German naval code book desperately wanted by the boffins at Bletchley Park. Also, the exploits of 30 Assault Unit, the commando team he helped to create, provided the inspiration for Moonraker. Both of these examples and many more are explored in this unique book"--

A riveting look into the world of James Bond and his creator.

"This is a very extraordinary book... a first-rate thriller." -The Tablet As Mussolini's troops invade Abyssinia the international situation deteriorates, and the armaments kings look forward greedily to even fatter profits. No one, it seems, can halt the carnage. Except perhaps the Millers of God, a group of wealthy individuals dedicated to the systematic execution of all those who feed off human suffering. Sir Anthony Lovelace doesn't approve of the organisation's methods. But when Christopher Penn and his beautiful fiancee call on his friendship, he too finds himself involved in a desperate gamble for the cause of peace.