Oldie Literary Lunch Recording - Nicholas Shakespeare's favourite magazine? The Oldie, of course! Nicholas on Fleming: The Complete Man

Nicholas was flattered to be commissioned by the Fleming family to write this biography but also was daunted. He discovered Fleming was "a lot kinder" than he had first thought, although there were "enough women to fill the Albert Hall" that he had affairs with. Even though, he was a "cad, a bounder", kindliness was not a characteristic that Nicholas has associated with James Bond, but something that a lot of his friends often described him as. Fleming far more important than Nicholas first realised. Max Hastings said of Fleming during the war, "he was basically in charge of in-trays, out-trays and ash-trays!"