20 Greatest Spy Books Ever Written

9. "Moonraker" (1955) - Ian Fleming

Moonraker Ian Fleming "Moonraker" may be best known as the 11th James Bond film - and the fourth to feature Roger Moore at the titular character - but it was actually Ian Fleming's third novel about the fictional British Secret Service agent. Published in 1955, the book is split into two halves - the first featuring a battle over a game of bridge in London's clubland between industrialist and serial cheat Sir Hugo Drax and "the best card-player in the service" Bond, and the second featuring the secret agent trying to stop Drax from blowing up London with a nuclear weapon. Successful at the time due to the fact it played on fears of the V-2 rocket, Soviet socialism and the re-emergence of Nazism during the 1950s, this book highlights the "fear from within" phenomenon - with Drax being a war hero revered by the British public, but whose Moonraker missile defence programme could actually destroy the nation itself. One of Fleming's best works, without a doubt, and the film does not do the book justice.
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Contributor

NUFC editor for WhatCulture.com/NUFC. History graduate (University of Edinburgh) and NCTJ-trained journalist. I love sports, hopelessly following Newcastle United and Newcastle Falcons. My pastimes include watching and attending sports matches religiously, reading spy books and sampling ales.