The Folio Society releases DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER

The Folio Society has released their next illustrated slip-cased Ian Fleming classic, Diamonds Are Forever.

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’.

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.

Bound in blocked cloth

Set in Miller Text with Folio Bold Condensed as display

240 pages

Frontispiece and 6 colour illustrations

Pictorial slipcase

9˝ x 6¼˝

The Diamonds Are Forever Folio Edition is priced at $56.59 and is available now from the Folio Society website.

Also available are illustrated editions of Casino Royale, Moonraker, From Russia With Love, Dr. No, and Goldfinger.

Thanks to Double O Section for the alert.