FLEMING, Ian.

£17,500 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

The Diamond Smugglers. First edition, first state, presentation copy, inscribed on the front free endpaper in blue ballpoint pen, "to Mildred Marshall, who uses - I hope - 'Vent Vert'. Ian Fleming, 1957". The reference is to a perfume created by Balmain which Fleming incorrectly attributed to Christian Dior in Live and Let Die.In November 1957, Mildred Marshall, of Liverpool, wrote to Fleming "in swirly script and on notepaper headed Palace Hotel, Milano (crossed out)". Explaining that "she much enjoyed" Fleming's books, Marshall questioned the origin of the perfume in Live and Let Die and then asked if Fleming "could sign for her a copy of his latest" (Fleming, p. 106).Fleming responded, lamenting his lapses of factual accuracy: "Alas, attributing 'Vent Vert' to Dior was nearly as bad as when... I made Bond eat asparagus with Sauce Bearnaise instead of Mousseline. I have also been severely reprimanded for having provided... the Orient Express with hydraulic brakes instead of vacuum ones. If I go on like this I shall one day find myself giving my heroine green hair". In reply to the request for a signed volume, Fleming responded "I will certainly autograph a book for you" (Fleming, p. 107).One of only two non-fiction books published by Fleming, The Diamond Smugglers was written in collaboration with John Collard (under the pseudonym "John Blaize"), the MI5 agent who co-ordinated the elimination of a diamond smuggling racket in West Africa during the mid-1950s, and Sir Percy S

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.