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Glamorous, fun and packed with scandalous anecdotes and exclusive interviews, Never Shaken, Never Stirred tells the story of two extraordinary sisters, Ann and Laura Charteris, who made marrying well an art form. While Laura eventually became the Duchess of Marlborough, Ann's third and final husband was the journalist Ian Fleming, who she inspired to start writing the spy franchise he would become famous for. Along the way there were marriages, and affairs, with some of the biggest names of the twentieth century. The sisters' collective husbands included a duke, four peers, Jacqueline Kennedy's former brother-in-law and the alleged illegitimate son of Queen Elizabeth's uncle. There were also...
British secret agent James Bond is given an assignment of gambling at the casino in Royale-les-Eaux to bankrupt Le Chiffre, the treasurer of a French union and a member of the Russian secret. But soon the stakes run higher... Ian Fleming (1908–1964) was an English author, journalist and naval intelligence officer who is best known for his James Bond series of spy novels. James Bond is a British Secret Service agent and often referred to by his code name, 007.
A kid named Kid, a dog named Cat, and a goat on a roof A blind skateboarding writer, an old man who can't speak (and his wife), a smartly dressed non-hamster-owner, plus Kid and her parents, are all apparently sharing their Manhattan apartment building with a mountain goat. But in all the wonders and marvels of New York City, who has time to see this impossible goat? How did the goat even get there? And is the goat really capable of something a little like magic? In this tender and hilarious tale of a misplaced animal, a road trip, and a Broadway show, neighbours who were previously strangers may find the goat is just what they needed... ANNE FLEMING is the author of Pool-Hopping and Other Stories (shortlisted for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize, the Danuta Gleed Award and the Governor General's Award), Anomaly and Gay Dwarves of America. She is a long-time and highly regarded teacher of creative writing who has taught at the University of British Columbia, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Douglas College, Kwantlen University College and the Banff Centre for the Arts. The Goat is her first full-length work for young readers. Anne lives in Vancouver.
From the bestselling author of Restless.
The definitive history of the flamboyant life of Ian Fleming and his most famous creation, James Bond. This new biography of Ian Fleming presents a fresh and illuminating portrayal of the iconic creator of James Bond. Oliver Buckton provides the first in-depth exploration of the entire process of Ian Fleming’s writing—from initial conception, through composition, to his involvement in the innovative publication methods of his books. He also investigates the vital impact of Fleming’s work in naval intelligence during World War Two on his later writings, especially the wartime operations he planned and executed and how they drove the plots of the James Bond novels. Buckton considers the ...
Our story begins in 1920s London, at a time when women's rights were surging after the long battle for suffrage and nightclubs emerged as spaces where single women could socialise unchaperoned. This was the age of the dance craze and the gender-bending 'Flapper', who inspired the creation of the Gargoyle club, a nocturnal hunting ground for Femmes Fatales. Meanwhile, London's Bohemia was ruled by the 'Queen of Clubs', Kate Meyrick; the taboo-breaking 'Tiger Woman', Betty May; the original 'Chelsea Girl', Viva King; the artist, Nina Hamnett; the 'Euston Road Venus', Sonia Orwell; and Isabel Rawsthorne, artist, spy, pornographer, model and muse ... to name but a few. Using previously unpublished memoirs and interviews, Queens of Bohemia creates a soundscape of voices that gives the reader a taste of their world, so exotic and yet often wracked with despair. It offers a unique insight into a generation of women for whom ideals of duty and self-sacrifice had been debunked by the horrors of war and whose morality resided in being true to one's self, as they took their struggle for freedom into the wider world and learned to value their individuality along the way.
With In Churchill's Shadow, David Cannadine offers an intriguing look at ways in which perceptions of a glorious past have continued to haunt the British present, often crushing efforts to shake them off. The book centers on Churchill, a titanic figure whose influence spanned the century. Though he was the savior of modern Britain, Churchill was a creature of the Victorian age. Though he proclaimed he had not become Prime Minister to "preside over the liquidation of the British Empire," in effect he was doomed to do just that. And though he has gone down in history for his defiant orations during the crisis of World War II, Cannadine shows that for most of his career Churchill's love of rhetoric was his own worst enemy. Cannadine turns an equally insightful gaze on the institutions and individuals that embodied the image of Britain in this period: Gilbert & Sullivan, Ian Fleming, Noel Coward, the National Trust, and the Palace of Westminster itself, the home and symbol of Britain's parliamentary government. This superb volume offers a wry, sympathetic, yet penetrating look at how national identity evolved in the era of the waning of an empire.
Toxic Airs brings together historians of medicine, environmental historians, historians of science and technology, and interdisciplinary scholars to address atmospheric issues on a spectrum of scales from body to place to planet. The chapters analyze airborne and atmospheric threats posed to humans, and contributors demonstrate how conceptions of toxicity have evolved and how humans have both created and mitigated toxins in the air. Specific topics discussed include medieval beliefs in the pestilent breath of witches, malarial theory in India, domestic and military use of tear gas, Gulf War Syndrome, Los Angeles smog, automotive emissions control, the epidemiological effects of air pollution, transboundary air pollution, ozone depletion, the contributions of contemporary artists to climate awareness, and the toxic history of carbon "die"-oxide. Overall, the essays provide a wide-ranging historical study of interest to students and scholars of many disciplines.
“A journey through Fleming’s direct involvement in World War II intelligence and how this translated through his typewriter into James Bond’s world.” —The Washington Times Secret agent James Bond is among the best known fictional characters in history, but what most people don’t know is that almost all of the characters, plots, and gadgets come from the real life of Bond’s creator, Commander Ian Fleming. This book goes through the plots of Fleming’s novels—explaining the experiences that inspired them. Along with Fleming’s direct involvement in World War II intelligence, the book notes the friends who Fleming kept, among them Noel Coward and Randolph Churchill, and the influential people he would mingle with, including British prime ministers and American presidents. Bond is known for his exotic travel, most notably to the island of Jamaica, where Fleming spent much of his life. The desk in his Caribbean house, Goldeneye, was also where his life experiences would be put onto paper in the guise of James Bond. This book takes us to that island, and many other locales, as it traces the adventures of both 007 and the man who created him.