For Your Eyes Only: Ian Fleming and James Bond »

Ben Macintyre is a columnist and associate editor at the London Times. He has worked as the newspaper’s correspondent in New York, Paris, and Washington. He now lives in London with his wife and three children. Agent Zigzag, the true story of a WWI double agent, was a recent Sunday Times bestseller.

A riveting look into the world of James Bond and his creator, published on the centenary of Ian Fleming’s birth.

In For Your Eyes Only, Ben Macintyre reveals where the world of Ian Fleming ends and the world of James Bond begins. Macintyre looks at the actual people on whom the writer based his fictional creations—friends, colleagues, lovers, and, of course, the notorious villains. Exploring the tradition of spy fiction past and present, with specific attention to the Cold War, Macintyre explains how Bond was based on the realities—and fantasies—of Fleming’s life as a wartime spymaster and peacetime bon vivant.

Stylishly illustrated, For Your Eyes Only features a collector’s dream of gadgets, costumes, props, and storyboards from the films—Daniel Craig’s bloodstained shirt from Casino Royale, the Aston Martin DB5, complete with weaponry—as well as memorabilia from Fleming’s personal archive: his smoking jacket, the manuscript for Casino Royale, his golden typewriter, his guns, and much more.

School Library Journal

Adult/High School- This thoroughly researched, intelligently written, and beautifully presented book explores in detail the connections between a super-successful writer and his marvelously engaging creation. Fictional characters, even one as exotic, sexy, and talented as Bond, seldom emerge from the pure, unaltered imagination of the author. Bond has deep roots in Fleming's life, in the places where the author lived and visited, the people he knew and worked with, and in the family, social, and love life he experienced. Macintyre also investigates the real-life roots of other major characters, such as Miss Moneypenney, M, and supervillain Ernst Stavro Biofeld. He examines the plot origins of several of the stories, as well as the real-world gadgets and gizmos that show up so famously in the books and movies. Where does the "Bond girl" come from? And what should we make of Bond's life of luxury? These and other questions are answered here, revealing Macintyre's convincing reverence for and fascination with the intertwining worlds of these figures. The volume is lavishly illustrated with black-and-white and color photographs.-Robert Saunderson, Berkeley Public Library, CA

Author's Note 10

001 The Scent and Smoke and Sweat of a Casino 12

002 The Life: Smelling Battle from Afar 22

003 Who Was James Bond? 60

004 The Plots: From Hot War to Cold War 94

005 Gadgets, Guns, Gizmos and Gear-Sticks 116

006 Bond Girls 142

007 Shaken, Stirred and Custom-Made: Bond's Life of Luxury 162

008 The Short Life of Ian Fleming; The Eternal Life of James Bond 190

The Bond Books 216

Selected Further Reading 217

Credits 218

Index 219

Acknowledgements 224