Ian Fleming

The Complete Man

By: Nicholas Shakespeare

Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble

Brought to you by Penguin.

A fresh portrait of the man behind James Bond, and his enduring impact, by an award-winning biographer with unprecedented access to the Fleming Archive.

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' and he would search for the means to achieve this 'completeness' all his life. 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.

A pivotal figure in the Second World War, Fleming's work on covert naval operations was hugely significant. He also acted as a vital bridge between Britain and America, pursuing this relationship into the Cold War in his later work as a journalist. Widely travelled and incredibly well-connected, from Communist Russia to his beloved Jamaica, Fleming had access to the most powerful political figures at a time of extraordinary change.

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. His unprecedented access to the Fleming archives and his nose for a story make this a fresh and eye-opening picture of a man who lived his life in the shadow of his famous creation.

©2023 Nicholas Shakespeare (P)2023 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

This is a marvellous book about Ian Fleming, but it’s also one of the most engaging portraits of a particular period of British history that I have read in a long time (Antonia Fraser)

Shakespeare has the rare ability to reinvigorate subjects that had seemed exhausted. If, like me, you thought you knew all there was to be known about Ian Fleming, prepare for a surprise: the creator of James Bond turns out to be more interesting and less unpleasant than we had thought him to be. Shakespeare’s life of Bruce Chatwin showed him to be a very fine biographer, as well as a much-admired novelist; his life of Ian Fleming is equally compelling. Though a long book, it is written with such brio that the pace never slackens – much like a Bond, one might say. (Adam Sisman)

What a masterful and definitive study this is, enhanced by a novelist’s skill in making it so eminently readable and page-turning. I learned a great deal that I did not know. It is compulsively absorbing. (David Stafford)