James Bond Book Club – Man With the Golden Gun

My friend, the film critic, John Bleasdale invited me to join him on his James Bond Book Club podcast to talk about the Man with the Golden Gun. This was the first book of Ian Fleming’s that I’d read back when I was in my early teens. I remembered being puzzled by it and quite liking it at the time.
I didn’t read many of the Fleming Bonds until I was in my early twenties. When I was a teenager my Uncle Gerry up in Ullapool had introduced me to John Gardner’s take on the literary character and I got hooked into that world for a good chunk of my adolescence. I maintain that Icebreaker still stands up as a fine read.
In preparation for John’s Bondcast I thought I better refresh my memory on the Bond stories. I’m so glad I did. They were an utter delight to read again. Properly enjoyable spy fiction. A glimpse into a world that is, happily, past, but one that is so compelling you can’t wait to find out what happens next.
I really liked You Only Live Twice, that was a particularly enjoyable one. I was surprised by how much I was taken with The Spy Who Loved Me. I’d always heard of it talked of as a lesser Bond, but I thought it was a valid sidestep into something else by a writer who was trying to keep their hand fresh. I wonder how much of the portrayal of the young rogue in the book is a self portrait by Fleming?
Trying to be ever rigorous with my approach I also read and listened to Nicholas Shakespeare’s biography of Fleming, Ian Fleming: The Complete Man. Shakespeare wrote the biography of Bruce Chatwin, one of my all time favourite writers, which I loved, so it was a delight to return to his work.

It looks like I’ll be back with John for the next series of the podcast to talk about Colonel Sun and Icebreaker which I’m looking forward to immensely.