From Russia with Love: Read the fifth gripping unforgettable James Bond novel

Description

There is only one Bond. Enjoy these intoxicating spy novels in stylish Vintage Classics editions. There's no better time to rediscover James Bond. SMERSH, the Russian intelligence unit, is hell-bent on destroying Special Agent James Bond. His death would deal a hammer blow to the heart of The British Secret Service. The lure? The chance for 007 to bring the Spektor decoding machine from Istanbul to London, and for the British to take the upper hand in a chilling new front of the Cold War. So begins a deadly game of bluff and double bluff, with Bond a marked man as he enters the murky world of Balkan espionage. 'Bond is a hero for all time' Jeffrey Deaver

Ian Lancaster Fleming was born in London on 28 May 1908 and was educated at Eton College before spending a formative period studying languages in Europe. His first job was with Reuters news agency, followed by a brief spell as a stockbroker. On the outbreak of the Second World War he was appointed assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence, Admiral Godfrey, where he played a key part in British and Allied espionage operations. After the war he joined Kemsley Newspapers as Foreign Manager of the Sunday Times, running a network of correspondents who were intimately involved in the Cold War. His first novel, Casino Royale, was published in 1953 and introduced James Bond, Special Agent 007, to the world. The first print run sold out within a month. Following this initial success, he published a Bond title every year until his death. His own travels, interests and wartime experience gave authority to everything he wrote. Raymond Chandler hailed him as 'the most forceful and driving writer of thrillers in England.' The fifth title, From Russia with Love, was particularly well received and sales soared when President Kennedy named it as one of his favourite books. The Bond novels have sold more than sixty million copies and inspired a hugely successful film franchise which began in 1962 with the release of Dr No starring Sean Connery as 007. The Bond books were written in Jamaica, a country Fleming fell in love with during the war and where he built a house, 'Goldeneye'. He married Anne Rothermere in 1952. His story about a magical car, written in 1961 for their only child Caspar, went on to become the well-loved novel and film, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Fleming died of heart failure on 12 August 1964, aged fifty-six. www.ianfleming.com

Mr Fleming's tautest, most exciting and most brilliant tale * Times Literary Supplement * Mr Fleming is in a class by himself...immense detail, eleaborate settings and continuallymounting tension, flavoured with sex, brutality and sudden death -- Anthony Price Adds the pleasures of a credible plot to the excitement of extreme violence. Highly polished...irresistible * Sunday Times *