Live and Let Die

James Bond is not a superstitious man, but its hard not to feel unnerved in the presence of Mr. Big. A ruthless Harlem gangster who uses voodoo to control his criminal empire, hes also one of SMERSHs top American operatives. Mr. Big has been smuggling British pirate treasure to New York from a remote Jamaican islandand funneling the proceeds to Moscow. With help from Solitaire, Mr. Bigs beautiful and enigmatic Creole fortune-teller, and his old friend Felix Leiter, 007 must locate the crime lords hideout, sabotage his operation, and reclaim the pirate hoard for England. From the jazz joints of Harlem to the shark-infested waters of the Florida Everglades, Live and Let Die sends Bond headlong into the exotic. Review "Thrilling" -- Louise Welsh About the Author Ian Fleming was born in London on May 28, 1908. He was educated at Eton College and later spent a formative period studying languages in Europe. His first job was with Reuters News Agency where a Moscow posting gave him firsthand experience with what would become his literary bete noire the Soviet Union. During World War II he served as Assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence and played a key role in Allied espionage operations. After the war he worked as foreign manager of the Sunday Times , a job that allowed him to spend two months each year in Jamaica. Here, in 1952, at his home Goldeneye, he wrote a book called Casino Royale and James Bond was born. The first print run sold out within a month. For the next twelve years Fleming produced a novel a year featuring Special Agent 007, the most famous spy of the century. His travels, interests, and wartime experience lent authority to everything he wrote. Raymond Chandler described him as the most forceful and driving writer of thrillers in England. Sales soared when President Kennedy named the fifth title, From Russia With Love , one of his favorite books. The Bond novels have sold more than one hundred million copies worldwide, boosted by the hugely successful film franchise that began in 1962 with the release of Dr. No . He married Anne Rothermere in 1952. His story about a magical car, written in 1961 for their only son Caspar, went on to become the well- loved novel and film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang . Fleming died of heart failure on August 12, 1964, at the age of fifty-six. ϡ쯦랠