Goldeneye: Ian Fleming's Jamaica by Matthew Parker (UK paperback)

By: FSWL team

Published:
2015-05-21

Goldeneye Ian Fleming in Jamaica paperback

The TOP 10 Sunday Times Bestseller Goldeneye: Where Bond was Born: Ian Fleming's Jamaica written by Matthew Parker (first published in August 2014) is now published in a paperback edition from Windmill Books.

"Completely fascinating, authoritative and intriguing." – William Boyd, author of the 2013 James Bond novel SOLO

"The big bang of Bond books... Beautiful, brilliant." – Tony Parsons

Goldeneye: the story of Ian Fleming in Jamaica and the creation of British national icon, James Bond.

From 1946 until the end of his life, Ian Fleming lived for two months of every year at Goldeneye – the house he built on a point of high land overlooking a small white sand beach on Jamaica’s north coast. All the James Bond novels and stories were written here.

Fleming adored the Jamaica he had discovered, at the time an imperial backwater that seemed unchanged from the glory days of the empire. Amid its stunning natural beauty, the austerity and decline of post-war Britain could be forgotten. For Fleming, Jamaica offered the perfect mixture of British old-fashioned conservatism and imperial values, alongside the dangerous and sensual: the same curious combination that made his novels so appealing, and successful. The spirit of the island – its exotic beauty, its unpredictability, its melancholy, its love of exaggeration and gothic melodrama – infuses his writing.

Fleming threw himself into the island’s hedonistic Jet Set party scene: Hollywood giants, and the cream of British aristocracy, the theatre, literary society and the secret services spent their time here drinking and bed-hopping. But while the whites partied, Jamaican blacks were rising up to demand respect and self-government. And as the imperial hero James Bond – projecting British power across the world – became ever more anachronistic and fantastical, so his popularity soared.

Drawing on extensive interviews with Ian’s family, his Jamaican lover Blanche Blackwell and many other islanders, Goldeneye is a beautifully written, revealing and original exploration of a crucially important part of Ian Fleming’s life and work.

Book details:
Hardcover: 400 pages
Publisher: Windmill Books
Language: English
ISBN-10: 009959174X
ISBN-13: 978-0099591740

Reviews:
>New York Times (March 11, 2015)
>Licence Renewed (March 11, 2015)
>Mark O'Connell (August 8, 2014)
>The James Bond International Fan Club (August 8, 2014)

About the Author:
Born in Central America in 1970, Matthew Parker spent part of his childhood in the West Indies. He has written for most UK national newspapers as well as The Literary Review, History Today and BBC History Magazine, as well as lecturing around the world and contributing to TV and radio programmes in the UK, Canada and US. His bestselling and critically-acclaimed books include Monte Cassino, Panama Fever and The Sugar Barons. His new book, Goldeneye, published in August 2014, explores the importance of Jamaica in the creation of British national icon James Bond. He lives in east London with his family and annoying dog.

Editor's note:
For more Ian Fleming books featured on From Sweden with Love, click here.

Photo above:
UK paperback cover for Matthew Parker's book Goldeneye: Where Bond was Born: Ian Fleming's Jamaica. © 2015 Windmill Books. All rights reserved.

Order Goldeneye: Where Bond was Born: Ian Fleming's Jamaica from Amazon:

www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/009959174X/fromswedenwit-21/

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Goldeneye: Ian Fleming's Jamaica by Matthew Parker (UK paperback)

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