Fleming, Peter
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
(1907-1971) UK journalist, author and travel writer, brother of Ian Fleming, known mainly for such travel books as Brazilian Adventure (1933), whose gritty irreverence (both for the place visited and for the visitor) made him famous. In his spoof sf novel, The Flying Visit (1940), Adolf Hitler parachutes into the UK with amusing results (the book was published before Rudolf Hess's actual descent upon Scotland in May 1941). The tale was reprinted, along with a fantasy, "The Man with Two Hands", in With the Guards to Mexico! and Other Excursions (coll 1957). Some of the tales in A Story to Tell and Other Tales (coll 1942) are fantasies; The Sixth Column: A Singular Tale of our Time (1951), a political Satire set in an implied Near Future, verges on sf. Invasion 1940: An Account of the German Preparations and the British Counter-Measures (1957; vt Operation Sea Lion 1957), a nonfiction study of German plans to invade the UK, speculatively presents a successful outcome (see Hitler Wins). [JC]
Robert Peter Fleming
born London: 31 May 1907
died Argyll, Scotland: 18 August 1971
works
- The Flying Visit (London: Jonathan Cape, 1940) [hb/David Low]
- A Story to Tell and Other Tales (London: Jonathan Cape, 1942) [coll: hb/]
- The Sixth Column: A Singular Tale of our Time (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1951) [hb/]
- With the Guards to Mexico! and Other Excursions (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1957) [coll: hb/]
- Invasion 1940: An Account of the German Preparations and the British Counter-Measures (London: Rupert Hart-Davis, 1957) [nonfiction: hb/]
- Operation Sea Lion (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1957) [nonfiction: vt of the above: hb/]
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