FLEMING | On Her Majesty's Secret Service, 1963, first edition, presentation copy

IAN FLEMING

ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE. LONDON: JONATHAN CAPE, 1963

8vo, FIRST EDITION, FIRST IMPRESSION, PRESENTATION COPY INSCRIBED BY THE AUTHOR ("To | Phillip [sic] | Instead of | balance-sheets + | boreholes! | Ian.") on front free endpaper, original dark brown cloth, lettered in silver, design to upper cover in white, DUST-JACKET, collector's blue cloth chemise with blue morocco-backed slipcase

The inscription refers to Brownrigg's position at the time as Director in Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) of the Anglo American Corporation of South Africa.

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 51.

LITERATURE:

Gilbert A11a (1.1)

PROVENANCE:

The library of Philip Brownrigg; Sotheby's, 11 December 1997, lot 276