As a travel writer Ian Fleming didn't hold his ammunition

Considering James Bond's exotic backdrops, it shouldn't be a surprise that spy novels were not Ian Fleming's only outlet for describing some of the world's postcard-worthy places. Fleming, is turns out, was also a travel writer.

The recent editions of Ian Fleming's "Thrilling Cities" include an introduction by famed travel author Jan Morris, who wrote that the essays display a kind of literary defiance: "They are a very unorthodox kind of travel writing; Fleming was rich, he was fashionably connected, he was famously successful, he was a man of cultivated and urbane tastes and he didn't give a damn."