There is a fantastic Youtube video where a proud mother interrupts a Michael Buble concert to insist that her son is a fantastic singer. Buble gets the kid on stage and the rest is history:
I recently read ‘The Man with the Golden Typewriter’. Ian Fleming, author of James Bond was a prolific writer. He wrote constantly, to his wife, publisher, editors, fans, friends and critics. The bulk of the book is his letters, interwoven with responses and context of Fleming’s journey as an author.
It’s a fantastic read. He was a fascinating man, obsessed with details, known for driving his traveling companions wild by taking thirty minutes to explain his martini order to every barman he met. I was a huge James Bond fan as a kid, as the Tux always spoke to me more than a superhero suit; and I also read a lot of action books but I’d never made it to Fleming. As an adult I read Casino Royale (the first book) and The Man with the Golden Gun (the last) and very much enjoyed both, and surprised by the quality of the writing. Golden Typewriter spurred me to read them all in order.
I read Casino Royale (Again) then Live and let die, thoroughly enjoying both, then I came to Moonraker.
“A mile ahead the great eyes of the Mercedes hooded themselves as they went over the crest of Wrotham Hill and disappeared down into the moonlit panorama of the Weald of Kent”
By the time I was eighty pages in, I was channeling my inner Buble, ‘HOLY SHITBALLS IAN, YOU CAN REALLY WRITE’.
“Each dark conjecture came and for a moment settled like a vulture on Bond’s shoulder and croaked into his ear that he had been a blind fool.”
This shouldn’t have come as a huge shock given the popularity of the books when they were published, but tend to think of Fleming as the instigator of the Bond behemoth rather than an amazing author in his own right. Also, based on the movies, it is easy to assume that the books may be cheesy or too fantastic. Not so!
“His headache was still sitting over his right eye as if it had been nailed there.”
My action Library runs from the top shelf (Le Carre) all the way to the bottom (looking at you Cussler, Gérard de Villiers) and I was surprised that Fleming has far more in common Le Carre than I imagined. The first 80 pages of Moonraker contains an office meeting and a game of Bridge. I don’t know how to play Bridge, but as the scene came to its climax I could literally feel my pulse in my neck. For me the mark of a truly great writer is the make the boring or the obvious extraordinary and Fleming did that for me with Moonraker.
Notes from a small Life 