The Creative Life Adventure

Welcome back to the Creative Life Adventure.

I’m slowly re-visiting Ian Fleming’s James Bond books, as I tend to do every few years. This time, I’m preparing informal reader’s guides to answer a few questions of context and background; the same questions I’ve had every time I’ve read these books but was too lazy to answer previously. I’ve now completed a guide for Fleming’s ninth Bond book, Thunderball (1961), and it can be found here: Thunderball. The first in the so-called Blofeld Trilogy (followed by On Her Majesty’s Secret Service and You Only Live Twice), Thunderball is, in some ways, the beginning of the end of the Fleming/Bond era: some believed that the resulting lawsuits over book and film rights contributed to Fleming’s declining health and his death in 1964.

All of the Bond guides completed so far can be found under “Selected Writings” at the top of the page. I expect to update these guides from time to time but with no set schedule. I’m focusing on the books, not the movies, which any fan knows are often quite different. The books (according to Fleming) were primarily intended as entertainment, so my intent in filling in some blanks regarding historic events, brand names, etc., is to enhance my own entertainment from the stories. If this reader’s guide gives you more entertainment from the book also, so much the better. I plan to post similar documents on the subsequent Fleming Bond books over time. Enjoy!