Anyone read any Peter Fleming (Ian's brother)?

Napoleon Plural

I saw some of his 1950s travel books for sale in Charing Cross Road. Good reviews, and writing top notch - no mention of brother Ian on the dust jacket, of course for a while Ian would be in his brother's shadow. Anyway, of course relatives don't get mentioned in blurb!

One of his book went to Brazil, another to China I believe. Fleming did his own travel writing with Thrilling Cities, now out of print surprisingly. You'd think with the taste for reissuing Bond they could do these as well, they're of some historical or period value.

Polar Bear 0007

I read Peter Fleming's "To Peking" and enjoyed it very much. It reads like a true adventure story. His writing style is very fast paced and enjoyable.

Highly recommended.

The Domino Effect

I very recently read 'Brazilian Adventure' and thoroughly enjoyed it. Fleming joins an expedition to a remote - and at that time largely unexplored - region of the Brazilian Amazon to search for a British explorer who had disappeared a few years earlier. Having been written in the 1930s, much of the book is now rather dated and certainly non-PC (delightfully so in many cases!), but it is still a wonderful account of their trials and tribulations and their relations within the group. It is very humourous and has withstood the test of time well. For anyone interested in travel literature, I would highly recommend it.

Mark Hazard

Read a few of Peter Flemings books some years ago, too long ago to remember the details, although they are in my collection for re-reading when I get the time (along with some that I haven't read yet).

I was first introduced to his works with his only spy novel The Sixth Column, figuring that as Ian's brother it ought to be good - I didn't like it at all, maybe I should try re-reading that too.

He also left an unfinished manuscript called The Sett, based on the rather more lethal Dad's Army of WW2, the British resistance, how I wish someone would finish that.

His biography is also a book to read (again one I read many years ago), well written by Duff Hart-Davis.