Ian Fleming’s greatest creation, James Bond, has had an enormous and ongoing impact on our culture, but Fleming’s life was more mysterious than anything he wrote.

Only a writer for his last twelve years, his dramatic personal experiences and career in Naval Intelligence put him at the heart of critical moments in world history, while also providing rich inspiration for his fiction.

Nicholas Shakespeare is one of the most gifted biographers working today. His talent for uncovering new material that casts fresh light on his subjects is fully evident in Ian Fleming: The Complete Man — a masterful, definitive biography, which has been written at the invitation of the Ian Fleming estate.

In this special talk, Nicholas will tell the story of his quest for Ian Fleming, and speak about his wider career as a novelist and biographer.

Ian Fleming: The Complete Man has been awarded the Crime Writers’ Association Golden Dagger for Non-Fiction. Copies of the book will be available on the night from our event partners, Blackwell’s.