Thrilling Cities

Thrilling Cities Ian Fleming's Thrilling Cities is a travelogue and collection of journalistic pieces recounting visits to global urban centers. The work blends reportage, personal anecdote and cultural observation as Fleming tours ports and capitals, meeting local figures and visiting landmarks notable in literature and history. Compiled from magazine assignments and travel notes, the book occupies a place between travel literature and literary journalism.

Overview and Origins

Fleming wrote pieces for publications such as The Sunday Times, The New Yorker, Esquire and The Sunday Telegraph while drawing on experiences from voyages on vessels like the RMS Queen Elizabeth and passages through hubs such as Gatwick Airport and Heathrow Airport. Influences include earlier travel writers such as Bruce Chatwin, Laurence Sterne and Graham Greene, and contemporaries like William Faulkner and Truman Capote. The genesis of the book relates to Fleming's fascination with cities like New York City, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Venice, and to his network among figures such as Noël Coward, Ian Hunter and reporters at the Daily Express. Editorial oversight came from houses like Jonathan Cape and agents with ties to Curtis Brown.

Structure and Format

The book is organized as episodic chapters, each devoted to a city or port visited on assignments from magazines including Travel and Leisure and Condé Nast Traveler. Fleming's method combines scene-setting reminiscent of Ernest Hemingway and profiling that echoes Llewelyn Powys; he intersperses restaurant and hotel recommendations referencing establishments such as the Ritz London, Hotel Adlon, Athénée Palace and venues near landmarks like the Colosseum and Times Square. Photographs and maps accompany some editions, with contributions from photographers linked to agencies like Magnum Photos and illustrators who worked for Penguin Books, Collins Crime Club and Harper & Row. Chapters follow a consistent narrative arc: arrival, local encounters with figures such as dockworkers at the Port of Hong Kong, entrepreneurs on Wall Street, and artists near Montmartre, concluding with reflections informed by Fleming's acquaintances at institutions like the British Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum and universities such as Oxford University and Cambridge University.

Notable Episodes and Cities Covered

Fleming's accounts include urban portraits of New York City (Manhattan, Broadway, Greenwich Village), Hong Kong (Victoria Harbour, Kowloon), Tokyo (Ginza, Shinjuku), Macau, Naples, Venice, Geneva, Milan, Rome, Istanbul (formerly Constantinople), Lisbon, Dublin (including Trinity College Dublin), Berlin (including the Brandenburg Gate), Moscow (Red Square), Paris (the Eiffel Tower, Champs-Élysées), Barcelona (including La Sagrada Família), Athens (the Acropolis), Cairo (the Pyramids of Giza), Mumbai (formerly Bombay), Singapore, Bangkok (including Wat Pho), Sydney (including Sydney Opera House), Los Angeles (including Hollywood), and San Francisco (including the Golden Gate Bridge). Episodes describe meetings with pilots from airlines like Pan American World Airways and British Overseas Airways Corporation, dockmasters at ports such as the Port of London Authority, restaurateurs linked to establishments bearing names like Le Cordon Bleu, and cultural figures associated with theatres such as The Old Vic and La Scala. Fleming also recounts encounters with politicians and public figures who trace links to events like the Suez Crisis and the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Critical Reception and Impact

Upon publication, reviewers from outlets such as The Times, The Guardian, The New York Times and The Observer noted Fleming's brisk prose and cosmopolitan curiosity, comparing his style to Hugh Trevor-Roper's cultural analysis and to essays by Jan Morris. Critics debated Fleming's perspective on urban inequality and postwar reconstruction tied to policies influenced by events like the Marshall Plan and institutions such as the United Nations and NATO. Literary critics at The London Review of Books and The Spectator discussed the book in relation to Fleming's fiction, including the James Bond novels, while travel writers cited the work in histories of travel writing alongside titles by Paul Theroux and Bill Bryson. The book influenced later city writing and guided tourist interest in locales now promoted by organizations such as UNESCO and municipal tourism boards like VisitBritain and NYC & Company.

Cultural and Literary Significance

Thrilling Cities occupies a liminal space between reportage and fiction, informing cinematic portrayals in films tied to studios such as Eon Productions and directors from Alfred Hitchcock's tradition to later auteurs like Martin Scorsese and Ridley Scott. Its set-piece vignettes contributed to mythmaking around metropolises profiled by films such as Roman Holiday and novels including From Russia, with Love and The Sun Also Rises. Scholars at institutions such as King's College London, Columbia University and Harvard University analyze Fleming's travel writing alongside themes explored by Edward Said and Walter Benjamin. The book remains cited in bibliographies and catalogues at libraries like the British Library and the Library of Congress, and is part of curricula in courses at University of Oxford and University of Cambridge on 20th-century British literature and cultural history.

Category:Books by Ian Fleming Category:Travel books