Cities To Be Thrilled In - a brief introduction to Thrilling Cities by Ian Fleming

To celebrate the 100 years since Ian Fleming's birth there are many events happening at the moment -whether it be in the form of exhibitons (The Imperial War Museum, London) special screenings of popular James Bond movies (London's Barbican Centre) or the publication of a new James Bond novel  Devil May Care - written by Sebastian Faulks, and commissioned  by  Ian Fleming Publication's Limited to name but a few. It only seemed right that we here at AJB should celebrate too. The Licence To Read series is back on track and now I wish to look at and share with you  another one of Fleming's publications which came in two parts. In this article I will briefly introduce you to  the first part - and the publication?  Thrilling Cities.

Thrilling Cities is the title of a collection of non-fiction travel articles by James Bond creator Ian Fleming. The book was published by Glidrose Productions first in Great Britain in 1963, followed by an American edition in 1964.
The book is a collection of articles Fleming wrote for the London Sunday Times, based on two trips he took between 1959 and 1960 at the behest of Times travel editor Leonard Russell. The book version includes material edited out of the original articles.

Thrilling Cities part one sees Fleming visiting :
Hong Kong
Macau
Tokyo
Honolulu
Los Angeles and Las Vegas (the two cities are examined in one article)
Chicago
New York

During the Asian portion of Fleming's trip, he was assisted by The Times Asian correspondent Richard Hughes and Tokyo journalist "Tiger" Saito. Fleming's impressions of these two men are reflected in the creations of Dikko Henderson and Tiger Tanaka for Fleming's James Bond novel You Only Live Twice. The importance of these two excursions around various cities and exotic countries can not be under estimated by the James Bond fan for the information that Ian Fleming absorbed and then regurgitated into his books provide so much of the environment and background his creation lived in. A man of his times and particular tastes his articles about some places were not always unbiased -one example would be his treatment of New York.

As Fleming's essay on New York City was intensely critical, the editors of the American edition of Thrilling Cities asked him to provide some extra material as some form of mitigation. Fleming obliged with "007 in New York," a short story describing James Bond's impressions of New York City while waiting to perform an inconsequential assignment. The episode, which is actually a shaggy dog story in disguise, is most notable for including the recipe for "Scrambled Eggs James Bond."
"007 in New York" may be considered a "lost" Bond story because it was not reprinted outside reissues of the American edition of Thrilling Cities until 1999, when the London Sunday Times reprinted the story. In 2002 it was added to new Penguin editions of the short story collection Octopussy and The Living Daylights.

On the back cover of the UK paperback edition it states:

Here is no ordinary travel book. Here are the places where tourists rarely venture and guide books daren't describe - as seen through the searching eyes of today's finest thriller-writer.

Finally some critics reviews taken from the back cover of the UK paperback edition and the New American Library edition:

"WILL BE READ AT A SITTING" - FINANCIAL TIMES

"ENTERTAINING AND EXHILIRATING" -YORKSHIRE POST

"SUPREMELY READABLE" - SUNDAY TIMES

"It's almost as much fun as 007 battling SMERSH for the safety of Fort Knox. Other travel tomes may list beaches and shopping centers but Fleming concentrated on more interesting matters: bawdy houses, GIRLS, gambling, GIRLS, whiskey, GIRLS, dirty entertainment -with and without GIRLS. He provides a sort of PLAYBOY guide to... the cities where James Bond would go for recreation." - DENVER POST

"HEADY, POWERFULL STUFF BOTTLED BY BOND . . . I ENJOYED FLEMING BOND'S BOOK IMMENSLEY." - NEW YORK TIMES

A Look At Thrilling Cities Part Two Next Week.

Cover Gallery

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