Allen. Chris Allen.
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The paratrooper turned spy author will present a talk on the life and influences of late James Bond creator Ian Fleming.
Allen chuckles when it’s suggested he’s an appropriate figure to discuss the life of Fleming, given the 53-year-old lived somewhat of a Bond-esque, adventurous lifestyle during his younger years.
“What I like is, as Fleming did, is that I’m able to draw on my own career and how that’s influenced the development of the characters that I write about,” he said.
“I’ve had that fascination of how he did that from the time that I was a teenager until now.
“There’s been a parallel, or a correlation of the themes and the approach.”
Allen will answer questions about Fleming’s upbringing, the stories Fleming read as a boy, and how these elements combined to create the Bond character.
Allen left the military due to injuries, retiring at the rank of Major.
In addition to his military career, Allen has served with three law enforcement agencies in Australia, led security operations for an international aid agency in East Timor during the emergency in 1999, and was headhunted to take over the protection of the Sydney Opera House.
Allen has detailed knowledge and enduring interest in Fleming’s life and creative works, gleaned from decades of fandom and research.
“It goes back a long way to when I was a kid,” he said.
“I first discovered it through the movies obviously, when I was at school. A mate advised there was a movie on a Friday night that I should watch called Dr.No.
“So I did and got hooked immediately. But I was a child of the ‘70s, and back in those days there were no videos, DVDs or Netflix or any of that, so the only thing was the books.
“So I went out and found all the Fleming books, and at that time they hadn’t enjoyed the resurgence they had later on.
“So I was getting the old paperbacks in second hand stores and stuff. I just devoured them, loved them.”
Allen later began writing spy action/thriller books himself, including his Intrepid series.
The first novel in the Intrepid series, Defender, was originally self-published before being re-released by Pan Macmillan’s digital imprint Momentum along with his second novel, Hunter, in 2012.
Allen said he had new books in the works, including a spy story for kids aged eight to 12, and “a new thriller that centres around a guy about my age, who’s left a clandestine life and then has been drawn back into it”.
He's also working on the sixth story in the Intrepid series.
“I’m writing them concurrently... I'm writing them as the ideas come to me,” he said.
The free talk is on at Kiama Library on August 11 from 2.30pm to 4pm, and also at Nowra Library on July 19 from 5.30pm to 6.30pm.
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