A fascinating look at the British Royal Family as they were perceived in the 1980s. In recent times the British monarchy has become an 'ultimate family' of international superstars, their adventures and personalities transmitted round the globe like episodes in the world's most popular soap opera. The process began with Queen Mary's transformation of the family into symbols of middle-class morality, but accelerated greatly with the televising of Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation and the euphoric sense of a 'new Elizabethan age' about to begin in gloomy post-war Britain. Prince Charles's Investiture in 1969 was the springboard of a major PR campaign to provide royalty with a human face and helped shape the contemporary image of the royal family as both 'special' and 'ordinary'. First published in 1986, this work came at a time of heightened interest in the royals as it followed the establishment of Lady Diana as the 'ultimate dream princess', Diana, and arrived in the wake of Prince Andrew's wedding. John Pearson's fascinating book defines the Royal Family for the 1980s.

From the author of All the Money in the World and The Profession of Violence comes the definitive biography of James Bond's creator, Ian Fleming. It is now over fifty years since the premiere of Dr No, the very first Bond film, with Sean Connery introducing 007 as the glamorous secret agent who would become the single most profitable movie character in the history of cinema. But James Bond was invented by one man, Ian Fleming, a wartime intelligence officer and Sunday Times newspaper man who lived to see only the very beginning of the Bond cult. Pearson, who worked with Fleming at the Sunday Times, based this biography on his own memories of Fleming, on Fleming's private papers, and on a series of interviews with an extraordinary collection of Fleming's contemporaries – family, friends, enemies, teachers, colleagues, mistresses, and former spies from around the world. First published in 1966, John Pearson's famous biography remains the definitive account of how only Ian Fleming could have dreamed up James Bond, for he led a life as colourful as anything in his fiction, which in turn became a covert autobiography. Charming, debonair and a ruthless womaniser, globetrotting from wartime Algiers to beachside Jamaica, Fleming was as elusive and opaque as his imaginary creation. In his new introduction to this edition, Pearson examines the extent to which Fleming's character informs the movie portrayals of Bond, from Sean Connery through to Daniel Craig, and how Bond himself has achieved immortality beyond Fleming's wildest dreams.