Listen to Ian Fleming's Thrilling Cities on BBC Radio Online

BBC Radio 4 have previously adapted four of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels - "Dr. No," "Goldfinger," "From Russia With Love" and "On Her Majesty's Secret Service." Now they've created an audio production of the author's non-fiction travelogue, Thrilling Cities. Culled from a series of columns he wrote for the Sunday Times in 1960 and originally published as a book in 1963, Thrilling Cities was a uniquely Fleming sort of travelogue, which focused not on the usual tourist sights in far-flung travel destinations in Europe, America and the Far East, but on the seedier, seemier side that Fleming found thrilling. It's terrific writing, and provides an excellent account of cities like Tokyo, Hamburg, Chicago and Macau at a very specific time - the dawn of the Jet Age. The radio version is, obviously, abridged. The first of three 15-minute segments aired on Friday, October 10. It's available to stream on BBC's iPlayer for the next four weeks. Subsequent installments will be broadcast over the next two Fridays. Give it a listen!

Via MI6