27 replies to this topic

[Qwerty]

Now on the CBn main page...

'In Secret Service' Reveals The Secrets Of A Lost Fleming Manuscript

New fiction novel features Fleming, Princess Diana, mystery and more...

Really nice find, K1. This sounds like a must-read.

[Gobi-1]

I just saw this. Sounds like a crackerjack thriller. James Bond meets The Da Vinci Code. Great cover art as well.

[K1Bond007]

I just saw this. Sounds like a crackerjack thriller. James Bond meets The Da Vinci Code. Great cover art as well.

Yeah, I got the same impression. I thought the deal with Edward VIII having ties to Nazism and Hitler was a bit outlandish when I first read it, but shows what I know, according to Wikipedia there's some 'possible' truth to it.

If my library gets it in, I may read it at some point.

[Trident]

I just saw this. Sounds like a crackerjack thriller. James Bond meets The Da Vinci Code. Great cover art as well.

Yeah, I got the same impression. I thought the deal with Edward VIII having ties to Nazism and Hitler was a bit outlandish when I first read it, but shows what I know, according to Wikipedia there's some 'possible' truth to it.

If my library gets it in, I may read it at some point.

Speculation about Edward VIII being used by the Nazis have been the object of several thrillers already. Two I can remember are:

Jack Higgins' 'To Catch A King' from 1979
-a (fictitous, most likely) attempt of the SS in 1940 to kidnap the Earl of Windsor from his home in Estoril, Portugese for further use as a political puppet after GB's invasion.

Len Deighton's 'SS-GB' from 1978
-a alternate-history thriller dealing with the successful invasion of Great Britain by the Nazis in 1941. London is a bombed-out city, the Government with Churchill at its head has flown to Canada. The King George VI is held prisoner in the Tower and I think Edward VIII has been re-installed as puppet-King.

However farfetched all this may seem today, the serious background to these storys is that the Nazis did indeed have plans for GB after their 'Operation Sea Lion' (code for the invasion of GB) would have been successful. And these plans didn't only include the British Nazi Party as part of their puppet-government but they also seemed to hope to get the Earl of Windsor as their head-of-state.

Similar speculation, although not to the same extent, around other persons of history such as T.E. Lawrence and Charles Lindbergh have been the theme of a few other novels.

Edited by Trident, 31 May 2007 - 08:24 AM.

[Skudor]

Sounds like an interesting book... might have to read it.

[MarcAngeDraco]

Very interesting... I may have to check this one out...

[Loomis]

Sounds a bit MONEYPENNY DIARIES, as well as more than slightly old hat and predictable.

[marktmurphy]

Sounds like an absolute load of old tosh, but might pass a few hours on a beach somewhere. Seems a bit weird to set what sounds like such an Anglo-centric book in the US, though.

[doublenoughtspy]

I'm just afraid that "experts" on the wikipedia and elsewhere, will start treating the book as fact and claim there is a lost Fleming manuscript about Britain and the Nazis.

[zencat]

Nice find, K1. I think everyone would have missed this if it weren't for you and your site.

Has everyone been to K1's new website: K1Bond007.com. Very solid.

[Mark_Hazard]

I'm just afraid that "experts" on the wikipedia and elsewhere, will start treating the book as fact and claim there is a lost Fleming manuscript about Britain and the Nazis.

Actually there is, well sort of. Ian's brother Peter started (but never finished) a novel caled The Sett, about Britain's last line of defence should the Nazis invade.

Bits and pieces of this organisation (Home Guard types, but a little more lethal, with secret arms dumps secreted in badger type setts - hence the title - in the British countryside), have come to light in recent years.

Some details of this book are mentioned in Peter Fleming a Biography by Duff Hart-Davis and published by Jonathan Cape in 1974. There is also a later paperback edition, but I can't find mine to give details. This is a great book to read for those interested in the Fleming family.

[Gobi-1]

I saw this today at Hastings but passed on the $25.00 price. Walmart.com has it for seventeen but I'll wait until my library gets a copy. I've been burned to many times paying twenty bucks for novels I ended up not liking.

[zencat]

A Bond fan who read this put a mini review on my Young Bond Dossier mySpace blog. He's wasn't a fan. Check it out.

[Qwerty]

A Bond fan who read this put a mini review on my Young Bond Dossier mySpace blog. He's wasn't a fan. Check it out.

Hmm...

Kind of a shame as it sounded like it could have been interesting. I still may give it a try.

[DLibrasnow]

Sounds like a cheap attempt by someone to cash in on the success of THE DA VINCI CODE and the reinvigorated (after Casino Royale) interest in James Bond 007.

And the whole King Edward VIII stuff about ties to the Nazi's is so old-hat. There have been books and documentaries about his supposed Nazi-sympathies for decades.

All in all it sounds pretty naff - I'll be giving it a miss.

EDIT - Just read the review on your blog zencat...seems like my suspicions were correct.

Edited by DLibrasnow, 02 June 2007 - 12:57 PM.

[Loomis]

From the review on zen's site:

...the author is tone deaf on the subject of Bond.

For instance, "Fleming" goes on at length about the real man who was the role model for Q "in the Bond novels" and winds up going to this Q for assistance.

Um. Bond 101: Q was in the movies, not the novels. And unless Fleming read the "Goldfinger" script before he died, he would have been unaware that the armorer/equipment officer of the first two films had been christened Q.

There are similar flubs in the 1989 TV movie GOLDENEYE: THE SECRET LIFE OF IAN FLEMING. To give an example, Charles Dance's Fleming, whom we're presumably supposed to think went around living a Bondian life just subconsciously absorbing by osmosis the future details of his 007 universe, walks past a Blofeld type petting a white cat. I think I switched off at that point. It amazes me that the people who write these things seem to drop the ball on the most basic bits of research.

[K1Bond007]

From the review on zen's site:

...the author is tone deaf on the subject of Bond.

For instance, "Fleming" goes on at length about the real man who was the role model for Q "in the Bond novels" and winds up going to this Q for assistance.

Um. Bond 101: Q was in the movies, not the novels. And unless Fleming read the "Goldfinger" script before he died, he would have been unaware that the armorer/equipment officer of the first two films had been christened Q.

There are similar flubs in the 1989 TV movie GOLDENEYE: THE SECRET LIFE OF IAN FLEMING. To give an example, Charles Dance's Fleming, whom we're presumably supposed to think went around living a Bondian life just subconsciously absorbing by osmosis the future details of his 007 universe, walks past a Blofeld type petting a white cat. I think I switched off at that point. It amazes me that the people who write these things seem to drop the ball on the most basic bits of research.

Well, I kind of forgave the author for this. When you read a book like this you gotta just let it all go otherwise there's a good chance blood will just start shooting out of your nose. There are far more glaring problems and tons of ridiculous things that "Fleming" is apparently involved with in this book. There were some things that I was kind of sketchy on. For instance, I known Winston Churchill was a friend of Valentine Fleming, but in this book "Fleming" flat out calls Churchill his godfather on a number of occasions. I don't remember ever hearing this so I actually went and looked it up and was not surprised to find from all the books I have that it's not mentioned (note, did not check Lycett). Even if it is true I don't think Fleming would refer to him as "my godfather" or even the informal "Winston" rather than his full name or Sir Winston. Again this book covers years before, during, and after Winston's tenure(s) as Prime Minister so I'm not entirely sure how Fleming would address him, but I just don't see Fleming calling him "Winston" especially in a manuscript of this importance.

But yeah.. you really can't nitpick this book. You gotta just go with it. As I said, a lot of the stuff is rather ridiculous. "Fleming" for instance is "hired" by Sir Winston at one point to get close to Wallis Simpson. Lets just say "Fleming" knows far too much about her anatomy which he for some ungodly reason decides to share.

Anyway.. as a Bond fan or Fleming fan, I suppose the question is, "should I read it?" Well if you can get through the above without groaning or rolling your eyes then sure, but don't expect a great thriller. I wouldn't recommend it. Not to any of you anyway.

I wrote up a full review here.

[Mr Twilight]

A trailer for this book on Youtube:

Trailer

[Qwerty]

A trailer for this book on Youtube:

Trailer

Hadn't seen that before. Thanks for the link, Mr Twilight.

[Qwerty]

Short little review here from Canada.com...

http://www.canada.co...cf-9842fa34002c

[Blofeld's Cat]

A headup for Aussie Bond fans!

If you still want to give this book a try, you can buy the paperback (Pocket Star Books - US) from Borders. It'll be located in the "3 for 2" section, but you can buy it individually for $14.95. In addition, if you subscribe to their emails you'll also get 25% off that price during this week.

A message to you frugal Bond fans.

[Mr. Blofeld]

Just a minor quibble in response to the earlier review: Didn't Fleming actually plan out an operation that led to the capture of Hess?

[[dark]]

Now that this one's out in paperback, I'm a bit more tempted to pick it up.

Has anyone else here read it?

[Jaws0178]

I am reading it now. So far, I actually like it. Just my opinion though

[trevanian]

Not sure if I'm all that interested, but it did remind me that an early Stuart Kaminsky private eye novel MURDER ON THE YELLOWBRICK ROAD had his main character Toby become involved with Fleming on a case. I don't recall much beyond Fleming almost falling to his death during a rooftop chase, but he is in a good hunk of the book.

[Jaws0178]

My only problem with the book is that most of the chapters are too short. They are only like one or two pages long at most. That thereby gives it a lot of chapters. Sixty four to be exact and I am on sixty one. A good portion of the book is devoted to the manuscript. Is this a bad thing? Absolutely not. At least I don't think so.

Edited by Jaws0178, 08 October 2008 - 01:59 PM.

[Jaws0178]

Okay, just an update. I actually finished this book a couple of months ago, but then I got so busy with the holidays that I forgot to follow up here. As I said in my last post, I liked it. I still like it. Again, this is just my opinion.

[Righty007]

I must have ignored this thread in 2007 because I stumbled across this book at the local library yesterday and was very surprised when I read the dust jacket blurb.

Lucky for me, the book was on sale for $1.00.