[♪ INTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪

Brett McKay here and welcome to another edition of the Art of Mamminess Podcast. Bond. James Bond.

007 is a masculine film, icon, he's handsome, dubanar, and dangerous. He completely epitobizes the French idea of Savoir Faire.

The ability to know what to do in any situation. Bond is so darn manly, be easy to think that he was purely the creation of author Ian Flimmings' imagination.

But in fact, Bond was inspired by a real-life World War II spy, and his life in career was even more Bond-like than James Bond.

My guest today on the show has written a biography of the real-life inspiration for James Bond. His name is Larry Loftus, and he's the author of the book, Into the Lion's Mouth.

The true story of Dusko Pop-Off, World War II spy, Patriot, and the real-life inspiration for James Bond.

Today on the show, we talk about Dusko Pop-Off and his career as a double agent during World War II.

Larry and I discuss how Dusko got involved with Spine, the insanely dangerous missions he went on, and the real-life encounter between him and Ian Flimmings

that inspired one of popular cultures' most iconic characters, really fascinating show. When you're done, check out the show notes at aawm.is slash Bond for links to explore more into this topic.

So without further ado, Larry Loftus and Into the Lion's Mouth.

Larry Loftus, welcome to the show.

Thank you, Brett.

So you have a new book out that was just a fantastic read. It's an actual, it's a true story, but it read like a thriller. It's called Into the Lion's Mouth.

The true story of Dusko Pop-Off, World War II spy, Patriot, and the real-life inspiration for James Bond.

When I was, I had no idea this guy existed. And when I finished the book, I was like, why don't more people know about this guy?

Because he contributed so much to the ally cause during World War II. So I'm curious, how did you get started researching Pop-Off's espionage career and his connection to Ian Flimmings James Bond?

Well, I actually stumbled across it. I was working on basically just an historical fiction novel and wanted to do espionage because I liked the area, I liked his genre.

And so I thought, you know, I'd better do some research to find out what actual spies did to my stories believable.

So I started googling and researching best spy ever, greatest spy, most daring spy. And all Rose led to Pop-Off, his name just kept popping up again and again.

So then I started focusing on him and researching him. And I quickly found out, holy cow, this guy did more in real life than I'm making up for my fictional character.

So I switched then just to focusing on him and then my fiction novel basically became a nonfiction. But he did so many things, so many unbelievable things, so many cool things that it does read like a thriller novel.

...