Ian Fleming · 1963 · global

Ian Fleming's 1963 travel book, written for a newspaper between Bond novels, in which the creator of 007 circles the globe in search of the world's most thrilling cities. The first journey runs eastward from London through Hong Kong, Macau and Tokyo, across the Pacific to Honolulu and on across America. A second trip, sketched at the end, takes in Hamburg, Berlin, Vienna, Geneva, Naples and Monte Carlo. Sharp, snobbish and hugely entertaining. Mapped here as the round-the-world first journey.

1. 1
   London

   Commissioned by a newspaper to find the world's most exciting cities, Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, sets off eastward around the globe.

2. 2
   Hong Kong

   Hong Kong, which he calls the most romantic and beautiful of the world's cities, all junks and neon and the smell of the East.

3. 3
   Macau

   A hydrofoil across to Macau, the old Portuguese gambling colony, with its gold smugglers and faded grandeur.

4. 4
   Tokyo

   Tokyo, a city he finds both thrilling and unnerving, where he is guided through the demimonde by his friend Tiger Saito.

5. 5
   Honolulu

   Across the Pacific to Honolulu, which disappoints him, too soft and packaged for his taste.

6. 6
   Los Angeles

   Los Angeles and the dream factories of Hollywood, glamour and menace side by side.

7. 7
   Las Vegas

   Las Vegas, neon temple of the gambler, which the creator of Bond regards with a connoisseur's eye.

8. 8
   Chicago

   Chicago, where he goes looking for the ghosts of Al Capone and the gangland of his imagination.

9. 9
   New York

   New York, the last and greatest of the American cities, before the flight home.

10. 10
    London (return)

    And home to London, the circle of the world closed, the book turning next to the great cities of Europe.