Diamonds Are Forever: undressing a collecting obsession
Diamonds Are Forever has had some of the series’ finest covers. The latest edition, published to mark 70 years of Bond being in print, is no exception. But it’s also a twist with tradition, taking things in an aptly deadly direction. Looks like I’m going to have to find more space on my shelves… and hopefully not a new husband.
Released to celebrate 70 years since the publication of Casino Royale (on 13th April 1953), the new editions of Fleming’s books - direct from Ian Fleming Publications themselves - feature striking covers that I think will appeal to both new readers and collectors like me.
Damn them!
Back in October 2022, when I spoke with Ian Fleming Publications’ Managing Director Corinne Turner and Publishing Manager Simon Ward, no one knew - aside from them, obviously - what was in store. If I’m honest, there was a part of me that was almost hoping the new UK covers would be a disappointment. I already own multiple editions of each Bond book and, while my husband is a big supporter of my obsession, my Bond collection has burgeoned in recent years, threatening to overspill onto shelves previously occupied with the objet d’art from his obsessions (namely X-Men and Nintendo).
Unlike some collectors, I wouldn’t say I’m a completist. I’m more of a coinosseur: if I genuinely don’t like something I won’t give it precious house space, even when it comes to Bond books. There are additional pragmatic considerations besides house space: if I purchased every Bond book I came across I would not only be impecunious but I would also be giving my husband entirely valid grounds for divorce.
There have been literally hundreds of different editions of each Bond novel in the last 70 years so picking and choosing one’s favourites is a necessity - that’s what him indoors says, anyway.
And to be honest, I can see his point.
I have seven copies of Diamonds Are Forever alone. This includes two 1960s Pan editions, a US printing from the 1980s, two noughties Penguin editions, the Fay Dalton-illustrated Folio Society edition from 2018 and a first edition. In case my husband is reading this (or this article ends up being used in divorce proceedings at some point in the future) I would just like to state for the record that it’s a second printing of the first edition (I’ve seen first printings go for up to £45,000!) and the cover is a facsimile of the original. So it’s not especially valuable. It’s just nice to have a copy featuring the striking painting by Pat Marriott.
Diamonds Are Forever was actually the first Bond hardcover to feature a human figure (or at least the torso of one, the low cut dress drawing attention to the pendulous diamond). This has become an established trope across Bond covers, particularly editions of Diamonds Are Forever. All but two of my copies feature female figures, either wearing diamond necklaces and/or nothing much at all.
One of the exceptions is the Raymond Hawkey design on my 1965 Pan printing, the first copy I ever owned. Simply and strikingly, the cover features a large diamond.
My beloved Wint and Kidd feature on my 2006 Penguin edition, the only time this has happened to my knowledge.
None of my existing editions of Fleming’s novel feature an scorpion, which is a bit of an oversight really. Bond fans only familiar with the film of Diamonds Are Forever might associate Wint and Kidd with scorpions, but this is an invention of the film - a brilliant one it has to be said, although I very much doubt dropping a scorpion down someone’s shirt is as efficient a murder method as it is presented to be on screen.
As anyone who has already read Diamonds Are Forever knows, the novel doesn’t open with Wint and Kidd but it does begin with a scorpion. It’s not a spoiler (for those who have yet to read Diamonds) to say that the passage is one of the most evocative in all of Fleming.
In this opening, Fleming pushes his trademark unsettling imagery to its limits, describing the scorpion’s sting in disconcertingly phallic terms. A cigar is rarely just a cigar (especially in the world of Bond) and this is not merely a scorpion attacking and killing a beetle: it is an eroticised dance to the death. When the scoprion has struck and decided the coast is clear enough to enjoy its meal, Fleming has it do so with the Epicurean relish Bond might display tucking into one of his seafood and pink Champagne suppers at Scott’s.
It’s a chilling way to begin a novel which is, for the most part, bathed in sweltering heat. It also sets up the central thematic concern: diamonds are forever, as is death.
This scorpion is not just a scorpion, so it’s brilliant that it finally makes the cover of this new edition. To my mind, the new covers are redolent of the approach taken by Raymond Hawkey in the 1960s, with a single object given prominence.
Looks like I’ll be adding an eighth copy of Diamonds Are Forever to the collection…
The book is published on 13th April and you can pre-order it here:
https://www.waterstones.com/book/diamonds-are-forever/ian-fleming/9781906772789
View all of the new covers here: https://www.ianfleming.com/007s-new-look/
Synopsis
An international diamond-smuggling pipeline has opened up and the British Treasury wants to know who’s controlling it. Impersonating a captured courier named Peter Franks, Bond infiltrates the criminal ring and finds an unlikely ally in Tiffany Case. As the ring’s stateside go-between, she may be just another link in the chain, but Tiffany is also Bond’s best shot at finding the elusive figure at the head of the operation - a syndicate boss known only by the initials “ABC.” But if Bond’s cover gets blown, he’ll find that the only thing harder than a diamond is surviving the payback of a pair of murderous henchmen.
With a sparkling trail of smuggled gems as bait, Diamonds Are Forever leads Bond on a globe-hopping mission where deadly assassins lurk behind every corner.
