Thrilling Cities
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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.
Contents |
[edit] The 1959 Journey
Fleming's first trip involved a tour of the Far East and the United States. His essays highlighted the following cities:
- Hong Kong
- Macao
- 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 Times Asian correspondent Richard Hughes and Tokyo journalist "Tiger" Saito. Fleming's impressions of these to men are reflected in the creations of Dikko Henderson and Tiger Tanaka for Fleming's James Bond novel You Only Live Twice.
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.
[edit] The 1960 Journey
The initial series having been considered a success, Fleming was commissioned to make a sequel journey, this time using an automobile to tour Europe. Fleming toured and wrote essays on the following cities:
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
| Works of Ian Fleming | |
|---|---|
| James Bond: | Casino Royale (1953) | Live and Let Die (1954) | Moonraker (1955) | Diamonds Are Forever (1956) | From Russia with Love (1957) | Dr. No (1958) | Goldfinger (1959) | For Your Eyes Only (1960) | Thunderball (1961) | The Spy Who Loved Me (1962) | On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1963) | You Only Live Twice (1964) | The Man with the Golden Gun (1965) | Octopussy and The Living Daylights (1966) |
| Other Fiction: | Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1964) |
| Non-Fiction: | The Diamond Smugglers (1957) | Thrilling Cities (1963) |
