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Lucky MI6 readers can win new paperback copies
of The Man Who Saved Britain by Simon Winder.
Enter the MI6 competition for your chance
to win. | |
Win The Man Who Saved Britain
14th August 2006
MI6 Competition
Thanks to our friends at Picador, MI6 can bring
you a great competition to new paperback copies of "The
Man Who Saved Britain" by Simon Winder.
Official Blurb
Bond. James Bond. The ultimate British hero—suave,
stoic, gadget-driven—he was more than anything the
necessary invention of a traumatized country whose self-image
as a great power had just been shattered by the Second World
War. Bond’s creator, Ian Fleming, was an upper-class
wastrel who had found purpose and excitement in the war,
and to whom, like so many others, its end was a terrible
disappointment—the elation of survival stifled by
the reality of the new British impotence.
By writing "Casino Royale" and inventing the
magical, parallel world of secret British greatness, Fleming
fabricated a durable icon - one who for millions of bored
former servicemen holding down dreary jobs or for members
of the ruling class, lashed almost daily by the humiliation
of international events throughout the 1950s, made life
more bearable. Written with humour, wit and a great deal
of personal insight and affection, Simon Winder illuminates
and makes sense of the oddities and contrasts which emerged
in Britain as a result of the war.
As victory over Japan was declared in 1945, Britain was
a relieved but also a profoundly traumatized country. It
was a very peculiar trauma, created by having won the war
while in many ways losing it. The war had ruined Britain's
image of itself as a great power. It had only prevailed
through the assistance of the two greatest nations on earth;
and it now found itself bankrupt, dependent and - despite
the efforts of the new Labour reform government - with no
discernible future. This feeling prevailed for decades and
it still seeps into national life today. "The Man Who
Saved Britain" explores this trauma through a figure
who can now be seen as the quintessential British figure
of the time, the great necessary invention who provided
a palliative of sorts to many millions of people: James
Bond.
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In 1952 Ian Fleming invented a magical, parallel world of secret
British greatness and glamour, he fabricated an icon that has
endured long past its maker’s death.
To grow up in England in the 1970s was to grow up with James Bond,
and The Man Who Saved Britain is first of all the story of the
author’s relationship with the “national religion.”
Simon Winder lovingly and ruefully re-creates the nadirs and humiliations
of fandom while illuminating what Bond’s evolution—from
books to film, from his roots in the 1940s to his “managed
decline” today—says about the conservative movement,
sex, the monarchy, food, attitudes toward America, class, and
everything in between.
The Man Who Saved Britain is an insightful and, above all, entertaining
exploration of postwar Britain through the palliative influence
of one of its most legendary icons, the larger-than-life Agent
007.
"The Man Who
Saved Britain" Copies For MI6 Readers To Be Won!
MI6 has copies of the new book The Man Who Saved
Britain by Simon Winder to give away to lucky readers. Simply
answer the question correctly for your chance to win:
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Terms & Conditions
The competition closes at midnight GMT on 14th September
2006. MI6 will choose the winners at random from the correct answers
received.
The winners will be contacted via the email address supplied and their postal
address will be requested. If a winner fails to respond within 7 days of prize
notification, another winner will be chosen until all prizes are allotted.
Competition is open to international MI6 readers.
Images courtesy Amazon.co.uk