IAN FLEMING

THE SPY WHO LOVED ME. LONDON: JONATHAN CAPE, 1962

8vo, FIRST EDITION, FIRST IMPRESSION, PRESENTATION COPY INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR ("To | Philip | Tho𝓡 its a bit | old f𒊎or him! | from | Ian") on front free endpaper, double-page illustration pp. 6-7, original dark grey/brown cloth, lettered in silver, design to upper cover in silver and blind, red endpapers, DUST-JACKET, collector's red cloth chemise with red morocco-backed slipcase

Philip Brownrigg was one of Fleming's old friends from Eton. He had been an editor at the Sunday Graphic before joining de Beers, the diamond merchants. As noted by Pearson, "..as a senior executive of de Beers [Brownrigg] enjoyed the entree to that curiously closed society of the London diamond market" (see John Pearson, The Life of Ian Fleming, London, 1966, p. 250). It was, therefore, through Brownrigg that Fleming gained access to a number of contacts connected to the illicit diamond trade. These contacts (including Peter Sillitoe, former head of MI5) assisted Fleming in his research for both Diamonds are Forever (1956) and also his non-fiction work The Diamond Smugglers (1957).

See also lots 30 and 59.

LITERATURE:

Gilbert A10a (1.1)

PROVENANCE:

From the library of Philip Brownrigg; Sotheby's, 🍌11 December 1997, lot 275