BOOK TALK

Bond Behind the Iron Curtain

• Date: Wednesday, May 22, 2024
• Time: 7 p.m. for 7.30 p.m.

James Fleming presents a talk about his book:

BOND Behind the Iron Curtain

James Fleming will be joined by Blażej Mikula. The talk will be followed by Q&A and a chance to buy a copy of the book

Wednesday, May 22, 2024 at 7pm for 7:30pm
£15 (Members: £10)
includes wine & cocktail snacks


On Wednesday, 22nd May, Ian Fleming’s nephew James Fleming will join us for an evening to talk about his most recent book, Bond Behind the Iron Curtain which was published to great acclaim in 2021. He is joined by Blazej Mikula, who wrote one of the chapters in the book about watching 07 in 1980s Poland.

Just when you thought there was nothing left to say about James Bond and his creator, James managed to look at the world’s most famous secret agent from a completely different angle, through the eyes of the communist bloc.

Even before the film of Dr No was released, the Bond phenomenon was being attacked as pornography, capitalist filth and anti-socialist poison. Its popularity in the West only stoked Russian derision. This book perfectly captures the political face of Bond with a variety of texts translated into English for the first time. What makes it of exceptional interest is that much of the Russian ridicule of the figure of Bond in the 1960s has turned out to be extremely accurate.

Reviewers agreed that it was “one of the best things [they] ever read on Bond” (Daily Telegraph) and commented on what a remarkably researched book it is (Literary Review).

Bio:
James Fleming is the nephew of Ian, his father, Richard, being one of Ian’s brothers.
He has worked with books since an early age and is the author of five novels published by Jonathan Cape, the first being ‘The Temple of Optimism’ (2000). He is publisher and editor of ‘The Book Collector’, a quarterly magazine founded by Ian Fleming in 1953.