Written with Fleming-esque brio and insouciance, with a feeling for the tragic aspects of his life as well as the ironic comedy of it..elegant...the research here is impeccable. * Telegraph *
This excellent biography is as worldly and clever as one could wish. -- Philip Hensher * Spectator *
Elegant and painstakingly researched * Observer *
A monumental record of Flemings life. The completeness of the book is beyond doubt. Shakespeare leaves no future biographer much to discover. Flemings place in history is assured. -- Max Hastings * Sunday Times *
A sustained and engrossing homage to the Olympic icon of a beleaguered Britain, and a writer damned to fame. With scarcely a dull page, its a chip off the old block... steeped in exceptional research....stitches up the loose ends of Flemings story into a satisfying 21st-century biography. -- Robert McCrum * Independent *
This is a marvellous book about Ian Fleming, but it's also one of the most engaging portraits of a particular period of British history that I have read in a long time -- Antonia Fraser
A must-read * Evening Standard *
A definitive biography that deepens and reshapes previous versions of Flemings life light-footed and swift-moving despite its copious research Shakespeares Fleming rises from these richly textured pages as a more substantial and sympathetic figure than the preening snob of myth. * Financial Times *
The Complete Man is packed with women, their characters and stories carefully filled in...highly accomplished and readable * New Statesman *
A revealing insight into postwar, post-Empire Britain...A terrific read -- Michael Wood * BBC History Magazine *
The most comprehensive picture yet of Bonds creator definitive * Economist *
Fascinating, well researched, neatly written -- D.J. Taylor * Literary Review *
Shakespeare has the rare ability to reinvigorate subjects that had seemed exhausted. If, like me, you thought you knew all there was to be known about Ian Fleming, prepare for a surprise...written with such brio that the pace never slackens -- Adam Sisman
What a masterful and definitive study this is, enhanced by a novelists skill in making it so eminently readable and page-turning. I learned a great deal that I did not know. It is compulsively absorbing. -- David Stafford
Shakespeare, renowned biographer of Bruce Chatwin, reveals a story worthy of a Bond novel in his life of Ian Fleming. The painstakingly researched yet fast-paced book explores Flemings childhood, dramatic war years and complex personal life and reveals how they shaped his hugely successful books * Financial Times, Best Books of the Year *
[This book] impressed me enormously stupendous research * Spectator, *Books of the Year* *
