Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
The Folio Society (London, 2018), 229 pages
Description
Tiffany Case is the sort of beautiful, devil-may-care blonde who could get a man into deep trouble - if he wanted. She stands between James Bond and the leaders of a diamond-smuggling ring that stretches from Africa via London to the States. Bond uses her to infiltrate this gang, but once in America the hunter becomes the hunted. Bond is in real danger until help comes from an unlikely quarter...
Subjects
Original publication date
1956-03-26
Physical description
ix, 229 p.; 9 inches
Local notes
Ian Fleming
Illustrated by Fay Dalton
Ian Fleming’s superspy returns in Diamonds Are Forever, the sixth volume of our James Bond collection, with Fay Dalton’s artwork oozing glamour and danger.
'Probably the most forceful and driving writer of thrillers in England’
Raymond Chandler
The job sounded a simple one. Take on the identity of a diamond smuggler and follow his path across to the States, to find out who is behind the millions of pounds leaking out the diamond mines of Sierra Leone. Bond isn’t worried – how can these American hoodlums compare to the diabolical minds of SMERSH? Besides which, with the tough but dazzling Tiffany Case as his contact, the mission promises to have its entertainments. But Bond has made a serious mistake in underestimating the Spangled Mob. With no backup and enemies on all sides, he must call on every skill he has if he’s to escape with his life. After all, diamonds might be forever, but death is just as permanent.
PRODUCTION DETAILS
Bound in blocked cloth
Set in Miller
Text with Folio Bold Condensed display
240 pages
Frontispiece and 7 colour illustrations
Pictorial slipcase
9˝ x 6¼˝
THE BOND NOVEL THAT HAS EVERYTHING
For the fourth book in the Bond series, America is the backdrop for the adventures of Fleming’s hero, taking the reader from the simmering, sulphurous mud baths of Saratoga to the ‘ghastly glitter’ of Las Vegas. It is in the gambling dens of ’50s Vegas – a world of glamour and gangsters – that we see Bond in his element, sizing up the roulette wheel and casually taking the house for everything it’s got. The only Bond novel not to have roots in the Cold War, Fleming makes certain that Diamonds Are Forever has more than its share of larger-than-life villains and set pieces: the dreadful Spang brothers and their associated gallery of thugs, and the ghost town of Spectreville, complete with its very own steam train, are especially memorable. Writing to a friend, Fleming commented with typical humour that for this novel he had included ‘every single method of escape and every variety of suspenseful action that I had omitted from my previous books – in fact everything except the kitchen sink, and if you can think up a good plot involving kitchen sinks, please send it along speedily’.
‘Fleming, by reason of his plausibility, sense of pace, brilliant descriptive powers and superb imagination, provides sheer entertainment.’
Spectator
ILLUSTRATING AN ICE QUEEN
Bond is initially dismissive of American gangs, a stance he quickly comes to regret when faced with their ingenious brutality. His unlikely saviour comes in the delectable form of Miss Tiffany Case, a woman with a bad past and a broken future. Tiffany proves to be one of the series’ most complex and compelling female characters, and with his growing attachment to her, we see a new, more conflicted side to Bond. Fans of this series will no doubt be excited to see what illustrator Fay Dalton has created with the tantalising combination of Vegas, Bond and Tiffany Case, and they certainly won’t be disappointed. This is the sixth volume in the Folio Bond collection, featuring the distinctive and stylish binding design inspired by the secret agent’s impeccable suits, and a stunning illustrated slipcase.
ABOUT IAN FLEMING
Ian Lancaster Fleming was born in London in 1908. He was educated at Eton College and abroad in Germany and Austria. After working as a stockbroker he became the assistant to the Director of Naval Intelligence in the Admiralty during the Second World War. In 1952 he wrote Casino Royale, the first of 14 James Bond titles, of which 30 million copies were sold during his lifetime. He was married to Ann Rothermere and together they had one son, Caspar. Fleming died in 1964.
ABOUT FAY DALTON
Fay Dalton is a London-based illustrator. She has a first-class degree in Illustration and was the winner of the 2010 Pickled Ink Award for illustration. Fay combines traditional drawing and painting methods with digital painting. She has also illustrated Casino Royale (2015), From Russia with Love (2016), Dr No (2017), Moonraker (2017), Goldfinger (2018), Diamonds Are Forever (2018), Thunderball (2019), Live and Let Die (2019) and The Spy Who Loved Me (2020) for The Folio Society.