THE REAL JAMES BOND: A True Story of Identity Theft, Avian Intrigue, and Ian Fleming, not quite what you're expecting

THE REAL JAMES BOND: A True Story of Identity Theft, Avian Intrigue, and Ian Fleming
JIM WRIGHT
Schiffer Books
$24.99 hardcover, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Whatever happened to him actually outshines anything I’ve had my James Bond do. —Ian Fleming

James Bond: author, ornithologist, marksman, and . . . identity-theft victim?

When James Bond published his landmark book, Birds of the West Indies, he had no idea it would set in motion events that would link him to the most iconic spy in the Western world and turn his life upside down. Born into a wealthy family but cut off in his early twenties, James Bond took off to the West Indies in search of adventure.

Armed with arsenic and a shotgun, he took months-long excursions to the Caribbean to collect material for his iconic book, Birds of the West Indies, navigating snake-infested swamps, sleeping in hammocks, and island-hopping on tramp steamers and primitive boats. Packed with archival photos, many never before published, and interviews with Bond's colleagues, here is the real story of the pipe-smoking, ruthless ornithologist who introduced the world to the exotic birds of the West Indies.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.

My Review: Gotcha!

You thought, like I did, that this was about someone glamourous and important to the intelligence agencies rife in the world, didn't you? After all, James Bond....

Turns out that the REAL James Bond, the one whose book inspired the stuck-for-a-name birder Ian Fleming to call 007 by his name, was a bad-ass adventurer and ornithologist whose privileged background and education prepared him for a leisurely life of loafing and then poof! got pulled out from under him by his dear old Dad. (007 has some daddy issues, you'll recall.)

The ancestral pile, now part of a university campus near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Being disinherited in favor of second wife of father, Bond went out to get his daily bread the best he could. It was some adventuring best! His ornithological methods weren't to modern tastes:

...but that's how it was done in those days.

The important part is that Bond and Ian Fleming shared a taste for adventure, an interest in birds, and resdency in the West Indies:

The only known photo of the Real James Bond with Ian Fleming, at Fleming's Jamaica home
...or we'd never have had the iconic 007 that we do now.

The book is quite a treat on the eyes with its over-a hundred photos, most in color, and its clear, easy-to-read text. The story of a man making another man's name and nature famous would play out very differently today. In this case the way it unfolded was amicable. The author got famous, but died young; the subject lived on, an ornithologist with the definitive textbook to his name; the character is immortal. The story's so astounding that your film-buff giftee might not believe it at first. If you know a Bond guy, he'll have heard the story in its outlines as part of the lore. The reality of James Bond, though, is less well-known and very much worth learning about. A birder friend? Get 'em in the tent by saying, perfectly truthfully, that James Bond was a bird-watcher.

The world the Real James Bond spent his life exploring and explaining to the world
Tomorrow I'm posting #Booksgiving ideas about Nature, so this seemed like a fun way to make the transition. Enjoy the read; I sure did.