Reviews – Page 4 – What Cathy Read Next…

About the Book

James Bond is in disgrace. His monthly medical report is critical of the high-living that is ruining his health, and M packs him off for a fortnight in a nature-cure clinic to be tuned-up to his former pitch of exceptional fitness.

Furiously, Bond undergoes the shame of the carrot-juice and nut-cutlet regime – and thereby minutlely upsets the plans of S.P.E.C.T.R.E, a new adversary, more deadly, more ruthless even than Smersh.

What is S.P.E.C.T.R.E? What are its plans? Alas, the organisation is all too realistically described, its plans all too contemporary for comfort. This, the latest James Bond adventure, casts a long and terrible shadow.

Format: Hardcover (191 pages) Publisher: Jonathan Cape
Publication date: March 1961 Genre: Thriller

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My Review

Thunderball is the book I read for the #1961Club, the reading event hosted by Simon at Stuck in a Book and Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings that ends today. It’s also one of the books on my second Classics Club list.

Thunderball is the ninth book in Ian Fleming’s spy thriller series starring James Bond. I only know James Bond from the film versions, expecially the classic ones starring Sean Connery, so I was surprised by how closely events in the book resemble the film. As I discovered, there’s a reason for this because the novel is based on an at the time unpublished screenplay that was a collaboration between Ian Fleming and four other people. When it was published under Ian Fleming’s name only a legal case followed.

Thunderball introduces Bond’s future arch-enemy Enrst Stavro Blofeld and his crime organisation S.P.E.C.T.R.E. (the Special Executive for Counter-intelligence, Terrorism, Revenge and Extortion). Blofeld runs S.P.E.C.T.R.E with ruthless fanaticism, despatching members who disappoint him in inventive ways. The book also sees the return of Bond’s friend Felix Leiter, seconded back into the CIA. This is where it can get confusing if you’ve only seen the films because Leiter is bearing the physical evidence of a deadly encounter in an earlier book.

The plot concerns the theft of two atomic bombs by S.P.E.C.T.R.E in a plan to extort a huge ransom from the UK and US governments or risk the bombs being detonated in unnamed locations. The location of the airplane which carried the bombs is unknown but Bond’s boss M has a hunch it might be the Bahamas. Bond’s not so sure but resigns himself to being posted there. After all, there are worse places to be sent. ‘He would get himself a good sunburn, and watch the show from the wings.’ It will come as no surprise that Bond finds himself not on the sidelines but in the thick of it.

The man in charge of S.P.E.C.T.R.E’s plan on the ground is Blofeld’s second-in-command Emilio Largo whose super-yacht, the Disco Volante, is the operation’s headquarters. Aboard the yacht is Largo’s girlfriend, Domino, with whom Bond – naturally – becomes involved. Unknown to Domino she has a connection to S.P.E.C.T.R.E.’s plan and, when she discovers it, she agrees to help Bond, with unpleasant consequences.

Thunderball was a lot of fun. Yes, some of it is dated but I actually found Bond less misogynistic than I expected. There’s actually a quite tender scene at the end. The plot cleverly feeds in to contemporary concerns about nuclear weapons and introduces some great villains. There are exciting underwater scenes, especially towards the end of the book.

You get the sense Fleming’s Bond possesses many of the characteristics of his creator. A heavy smoker, a connoisseur of cocktails, thoroughly at home at the gaming table and with a taste for fast cars.

In three words: Exciting, glamorous, suspensful

About the Author

Ian Fleming was born in 1908. Best known for his post-war James Bond series of spy novels, he came from a wealthy family. Educated at Eton, Sandhurst, and, briefly, the universities of Munich and Geneva, Fleming moved through several jobs before he started writing. He worked for Britain’s Naval Intelligence Division during the Second World War, drawing from his wartime service and career as a journalist for much of the background, detail, and depth of his James Bond novels. Fleming wrote his first Bond novel, Casino Royale, in 1952. It was a success and eleven Bond novels and two collections of short stories followed between 1953 and 1966. Fleming was a heavy smoker and drinker for most of his life and succumbed to heart disease in 1964 at the age of 56. Two of his James Bond books were published posthumously; other writers have since produced Bond novels. Fleming’s creation has appeared in film twenty-seven times, portrayed by six actors in the official film series.

The shortlist for the The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2026 was announced on 16th April 2026. Congratulations to all the shortlisted authors, their publishers and everyone associated with the books.

I always set myself the challenge of trying to predict which of the longlisted books will make the shortlist and I’m pleased to say I got four of the five correct this time around. There’s only one book I haven’t yet read – Once the Deed is Done by Rachel Seiffert – but it’s now firmly at the top of my TBR pile.

Here are the five books on the shortlist. Links from the titles will take you to my full review or the book description on Goodreads.

The Pretender by Jo Harkin (Bloomsbury) – This is a book for those who like their historical fiction full of detail about events, people and places. What the author does exceptionally well is to marry that historical authenticity with storytelling that is full of wit and humanity. I loved the colourful characters, the idiosyncratic mix of archaic and modern day language, and the book’s main character, John aka ‘The Pretender’. [Shortlisted for the Winston Graham Historical Prize 2026]

The Matchbox Girl by Alice Jolly (Bloomsbury) – The book depicts a dark period in European history when unimaginably evil things were done by the Nazi regime. The author has found an imaginative way of telling this story and in its narrator, Adelheid, created a memorable and captivating character.

Benbecula by Graeme Macrae Burnet (Polygon) – Based on the true story of a gruesome triple murder carried out in July 1857 on a small island in the Outer Hebrides, the book explores notions of hereditary insanity and attitudes towards mental illness prevalent at the time but with moments of absurdity and dark humour.

Once the Deed is Done by Rachel Seiffert (Virago) – The book is set in northern Germany in 1945 in a workers’ camp recently been liberated by the British which has become a camp for displaced persons. The men, women, and even children, have suffered appalling deprivation. Now, helped by a British Red Cross officer, they must come to terms with what has happened to them as they face an uncertain future. But the camp is just outside a small German town, and the townspeople too are rapidly adjusting to the reality of their defeat. In different ways, they must detach themselves from the Nazi state of mind and begin to take in the horror of what their country has done.

Seascraper by Benjamin Wood (Viking) – Haunting, timeless and atmospheric, the book is the story of twenty-year-old Thomas who works as a shanker scraping for shrimps along the North West coast of England, in the same way his grandfather did before him. Hemmed in by his circumstances, he is suddenly given a glimpse of a very different possible future. [Winner of the Winston Graham Historical Prize 2026]

Did any of your favourites make the shortlist? Want to venture a winner?