Blofeld holds the world to ransom, having hatched a staggeringly audacious plot to steal British atomic weapons. The book that introduced the most imitated and parodied of all the Bond villains, Thunderball also has one of Fleming's most deranged plots and a spectacularly described Caribbean setting. Bond's efforts to defeat SPECTRE lead modern readers through an amazing, baroque series of set-pieces and a treasure-trove of 1950s attitudes.