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Diamonds Are Forever (novel)
Encyclopedia
Diamonds Are Forever is the fourth of Ian Fleming
's James Bond series of novels. It was first published by Jonathan Cape
in the UK on 26 March 1956 and the first print run of 12,500 copies sold out quickly. Much of the background research undertaken by Fleming formed the basis for the non-fiction book The Diamond Smugglers
, which was published in 1957.
The story centres on how James Bond
, an agent of the MI6, closes down a diamond smuggling operation, the pipeline of which originates in the diamond mines of Sierra Leone
and ends in Las Vegas. Along the way Bond meets and falls in love with one of the members of the smuggling gang, Tiffany Case
.
The novel received broadly positive reviews at the time of publication and was serialised in the Daily Express
newspaper, firstly in an abridged, multi-part form and then as a comic strip. In 1971
it was adapted into the seventh Bond film
in the series
and was the last Eon Productions
film to star Sean Connery
as James Bond.
. Acting on information received from Special Branch
, M tasks Bond with infiltrating a smuggling ring running diamonds from mines in Sierra Leone
to the United States
. Bond must travel as far as possible down the pipeline to uncover those responsible. Using the identity of Peter Franks, a country house burglar turned diamond smuggler, he meets Tiffany Case
, an attractive go-between who developed an antipathy
towards men after being gang-raped as a teenager.
Bond discovers that the smuggling ring is operated by "The Spangled Mob
", a ruthless American gang run by the brothers Jack
and Seraffimo Spang
. Bond follows the pipeline from London to New York, where he is instructed by Shady Tree to earn his fee through betting on a rigged horse race in nearby Saratoga. At Saratoga Bond meets Felix Leiter
, a former CIA agent working at Pinkertons
as a private detective investigating crooked horse racing. Leiter bribes the jockey to ensure the failure of the plot to rig the race. When Bond goes to pay the bribe, he witnesses two homosexual thugs, Wint and Kidd, attack the jockey.
Bond calls Shady Tree to enquire further about the payment of his fee and is told to go to the Tiara Hotel in Las Vegas
. The Tiara is owned by Seraffimo Spang and operates as the headquarters of the Spangled Mob. Spang also owns an old Western ghost town, named "Spectreville", restored to be his own private vacation retreat. At the hotel, Bond finally receives payment through a rigged blackjack game where the dealer is Tiffany Case. However, he disobeys his orders by continuing to gamble in the casino after "winning" the money he is owed. Spang suspects that Bond may be a 'plant' and has him captured and tortured. However, with Tiffany's help he escapes from Spectreville aboard a railroad push-car
with Seraffimo Spang in pursuit aboard an old Western train. Bond re-routs the train to a side line and shoots Spang before the resulting crash. Assisted by Leiter, Bond and Case go via California to New York, where they board the Queen Elizabeth
to travel to London. However, Wint and Kidd observe their embarkation and followed them on board. They kidnap Case, planning to kill her and throw her overboard. Bond rescues her and kills both gangsters; for precaution, he makes it look like a murder-suicide
.
Case subsequently informs Bond of the details of the pipeline. It begins in Africa where a dentist would pay miners to smuggle diamonds in their mouths which he would extract during a routine appointment. From there the dentist would take the diamonds and rendezvous with a German helicopter pilot. Eventually the diamonds would go to Paris, and from there to London. There, after telephone instructions from a contact known as ABC, Case would then meet a person to explain how to smuggle the diamonds to New York City. After returning to London, Bond flies on to Freetown
in Sierra Leone
and then to where the next diamond rendezvous takes place. With the collapse of the rest of the pipeline, Jack Spang (who turns out to be the mysterious ABC) shuts down his diamond smuggling pipeline by killing its participants. Spang himself is killed when Bond shoots down his helicopter.
, the character of Bond develops in Diamonds Are Forever, building on what Fleming had written in the previous three novels. This growth arises through Bond's burgeoning relationship with the book's female lead, Tiffany Case. According to Fleming's biographer, Andrew Lycett, after the novel was completed, "almost as an afterthought, [Fleming] appended four extra chapters, recording what happens on the Queen Elizabeth"; and allowing the question of marriage to arise, because Bond falls in love with Case, the first time he has done so since Vesper Lynd
in Casino Royale
. According to Benson, Tiffany Case is portrayed as tough, but lonely and insecure and "is Fleming's first fully developed female character."
The main theme in the novel is expressed in the title, according to Benson and the theme that diamonds are forever is used to contrast other, less permanent aspects, especially love and life. Towards the end of Diamonds Are Forever Fleming uses the lines "Death is forever. But so are diamonds" and Benson sees diamonds as a metaphor for death "and Bond, who carries the diamonds from London to New York, is the messenger of death."
Academic Jeremy Black
points to the theme of travel in Diamonds Are Forever, which was still a huge novelty to most people in Britain at the time. This travel between a number of a locations did exacerbate one of the issues identified by Black: that there was no centre to the story. In contrast to the previous novels, where Casino Royale
had Royale, From Russia with Love
had Istanbul and Dr. No had Jamaica, Diamonds Are Forever had multiple locations and two villains and there was "no megalomaniac fervour, no weird self-obsession, at the dark centre of the plot".
about diamond smuggling from Sierra Leone. Fleming engineered a meeting with Sir Percy Sillitoe
, the ex-head of MI5
, then working for De Beers
diamond traders. The subsequent material went into Diamonds Are Forever and a non-fiction book Fleming also wrote, The Diamond Smugglers
. In August 1954 he flew to the US for research, visiting Saratoga Springs after his friend, William Stephenson
, sent him a magazine article about the spa town. In the US, Fleming travelled with two friends, Ivar Bryce and Ernest Cuneo
, whose name was changed to 'Ernie Cureo' for the role of Bond's taxi-driving ally in Las Vegas (Bryce's name had already been used as an alias for Bond in Live and Let Die).
Whilst at Saratoga Fleming and Cuneo visited a mud-bath: they took the wrong directions and ended up at a run-down establishment, which was used for the Acme Mud and Sulphur Baths scene in the book. Fleming also met a rich socialite, William Woodward, Jr.
, who drove a Studillac
– a Studebaker
with a powerful Cadillac
engine. According to Henry Chancellor, "the speed and comfort of it impressed Ian, and he shamelessly appropriated this car" for the book. Woodward was killed by his wife shortly afterwards – claiming she mistook him for a prowler – and when Diamonds Are Forever was published, it was dedicated "to Bryce, Cuneo and to 'the memory of W. W. Jr., at Saratoga, 1954 and 55'."
Fleming also visited Los Angeles with Cuneo, going to the Los Angeles Police Intelligence headquarters, where they met Captain James Hamilton, who provided Fleming with information on the Mafia
organisation in the US. From Los Angeles the pair travelled to Las Vegas, where they stayed at the Sands Hotel
; Fleming interviewed the hotel owner, Jack Entratta, where he learnt the background to the security systems and methods of cheating that he used in the novel.
As well as appropriating the name of Ernie Cuneo in the novel, one of the homosexual villains, 'Boofy' Kidd, was named after one of Fleming's close friends – and a relative of his wife – Arthur Gore, 8th Earl of Arran
, known to his friends as "Boofy". Gore heard about the use of his name before publication and complained to Flemnig about it, but was ignored and the name was retained for the novel. Fleming wrote Diamonds Are Forever at his Goldeneye estate
in Jamaica in the early months of 1955, returning to London with the completed manuscript in March that year.
newspaper from 12 April 1956 onwards, and the serialisations undertaken by the newspaper had led to an overall rise in the sales of the novels. From November 1956 sales of Diamonds Are Forever, as well as Fleming's other novels, all rose following Prime Minister
Sir Anthony Eden
's visit to Fleming's Jamaican Goldeneye estate
, which was much reported in the British press. The book later received a boost in sales in 1971 when the novel was adapted for the cinema by Eon Productions
, with Sean Connery
cast as Bond.
, writing in The Times Literary Supplement
thought that Fleming had some enviable qualities as a writer, including "a fine eye for places...an ability to convey his own interest in the mechanics of gambling and an air of knowledgeableness". However, Symonds also saw defects in Fleming's style, including "his inability to write convincing dialogue"; For Symonds, Diamonds Are Forever was Fleming's "weakest book, a heavily padded story about diamond smuggling", where "the exciting passages are few."
Milward Kennedy
, writing in The Manchester Guardian
, though that Fleming was "determined to be as tough as Chandler, if a little less lifelike", whilst Maurice Richardson, in The Guardian's sister paper, The Observer
, thought that Bond was "one of the most cunningly synthesised heroes in crime-fiction". Richardson noted in his review that "Mr. Fleming's method is worth noting, and recommending: he does not start indulging in his wilder fantasies until he has laid down a foundation of factual description." Elements of a review by Raymond Chandler
which he wrote for The Sunday Times
were used as advertising for the novel: Chandler wrote that it was "about the nicest piece of book-making in this type of literature which I have seen for a long time...Mr. Fleming writes a journalistic style, neat, clean, spare and never pretentious".
Writing in The New York Times
, Anthony Boucher
—described by a Fleming biographer, John Pearson
as "throughout an avid anti-Bond and an anti-Fleming man"—was mixed in his review, thinking that "Mr. Fleming's handling of American and Americans is well above the British average", although he felt that "the narrative is loose-jointed and weakly resolved", whilst Bond resolves his assignments "more by muscles and luck than by any sign of operative intelligence."
Fleming's original novel was adapted as a daily comic strip
which was published in the Daily Express
newspaper and syndicated around the world. The original adaptation ran from 10 August 1959 to 30 January 1960. The strip was written by Henry Gammidge
and illustrated by John McLusky
. Diamonds Are Forever was published again in 2005 as part of the Dr. No anthology by Titan Books
.
Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
In 1971 the novel was loosely adapted into a film starring Sean Connery
as Bond; the film was directed by Guy Hamilton
and produced by Albert R. Broccoli
and Harry Saltzman
's Eon Productions. Diamonds Are Forever marked the final Bond film undertaken by Sean Connery with Eon Productions, although he returned to the role of James Bond twelve years later with Kevin McLory's Taliafilm company for Never Say Never Again
.
Ian Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British author, journalist and Naval Intelligence Officer.Fleming is best known for creating the fictional British spy James Bond and for a series of twelve novels and nine short stories about the character, one of the biggest-selling series of fictional books of...
's James Bond series of novels. It was first published by Jonathan Cape
Jonathan Cape
Jonathan Cape was a London-based publisher founded in 1919 as "Page & Co" by Herbert Jonathan Cape , formerly a manager at Duckworth who had worked his way up from a position of bookshop errand boy. Cape brought with him the rights to cheap editions of the popular author Elinor Glyn and sales of...
in the UK on 26 March 1956 and the first print run of 12,500 copies sold out quickly. Much of the background research undertaken by Fleming formed the basis for the non-fiction book The Diamond Smugglers
The Diamond Smugglers
The Diamond Smugglers is a non-fiction work by Ian Fleming that was first published in 1957 in the United Kingdom and in 1958 in the United States....
, which was published in 1957.
The story centres on how James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
, an agent of the MI6, closes down a diamond smuggling operation, the pipeline of which originates in the diamond mines of Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...
and ends in Las Vegas. Along the way Bond meets and falls in love with one of the members of the smuggling gang, Tiffany Case
Tiffany Case
Tiffany Case is a fictional character in the James Bond novel and film Diamonds Are Forever. For the 1971 film she was portrayed by Jill St. John...
.
The novel received broadly positive reviews at the time of publication and was serialised in the Daily Express
Daily Express
The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...
newspaper, firstly in an abridged, multi-part form and then as a comic strip. In 1971
1971 in film
The year 1971 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*February 8 - Bob Dylan's hour long documentary film, Eat the Document, premieres at New York's Academy of Music...
it was adapted into the seventh Bond film
Diamonds Are Forever (film)
Diamonds Are Forever is the seventh spy film in the Eon Productions James Bond series, and the sixth and final Eon Productions film to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. The film is based on Ian Fleming's 1956 novel of the same name, and is the second of four James Bond films...
in the series
James Bond (film series)
The James Bond film series is a British series of motion pictures based on the fictional character of MI6 agent James Bond , who originally appeared in a series of books by Ian Fleming. Earlier films were based on Fleming's novels and short stories, followed later by films with original storylines...
and was the last Eon Productions
EON Productions
Eon Productions is a film production company known for producing the James Bond film series. The company is based in London's Piccadilly and also operates from Pinewood Studios in the United Kingdom...
film to star Sean Connery
Sean Connery
Sir Thomas Sean Connery , better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy...
as James Bond.
Plot
British Secret Service agent James Bond, 007 is sent on an assignment by his superior, MM (James Bond)
M is a fictional character in Ian Fleming's James Bond series, as well as the films in the Bond franchise. The head of MI6 and Bond's superior, M has been portrayed by three actors in the official Bond film series: Bernard Lee, Robert Brown and since 1995 by Judi Dench. Background =Ian Fleming...
. Acting on information received from Special Branch
Special Branch
Special Branch is a label customarily used to identify units responsible for matters of national security in British and Commonwealth police forces, as well as in the Royal Thai Police...
, M tasks Bond with infiltrating a smuggling ring running diamonds from mines in Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...
to the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. Bond must travel as far as possible down the pipeline to uncover those responsible. Using the identity of Peter Franks, a country house burglar turned diamond smuggler, he meets Tiffany Case
Tiffany Case
Tiffany Case is a fictional character in the James Bond novel and film Diamonds Are Forever. For the 1971 film she was portrayed by Jill St. John...
, an attractive go-between who developed an antipathy
Antipathy
Antipathy is dislike for something or somebody, the opposite of sympathy. While antipathy may be induced by previous experience, it sometimes exists without a rational cause-and-effect explanation being present to the individuals involved....
towards men after being gang-raped as a teenager.
Bond discovers that the smuggling ring is operated by "The Spangled Mob
The Spangled Mob
The Spangled Mob is a fictional crime organisation from the James Bond novel series by Ian Fleming.-Creation and Organisation:The Spangled Mob was created by Jack and Seraffimo Spang also known as the Spang brothers. Its enforcers were Albert Wint and Charles Kidd.-Novels:The Spangled Mob's first...
", a ruthless American gang run by the brothers Jack
Jack Spang
Jack Spang is a fictional character in Ian Fleming's 1957 James Bond novel Diamonds Are Forever. He does not appear in the 1971 film adaptation of the novel, which substantially revises the plot and makes Ernst Stavro Blofeld the chief villain....
and Seraffimo Spang
Seraffimo Spang
Serrafimo Spang is a fictional character in Ian Fleming's 1957 James Bond novel Diamonds Are Forever. He does not appear in the 1971 film adaptation, which substantially revises the novel's plot and makes Ernst Stavro Blofeld the chief villain....
. Bond follows the pipeline from London to New York, where he is instructed by Shady Tree to earn his fee through betting on a rigged horse race in nearby Saratoga. At Saratoga Bond meets Felix Leiter
Felix Leiter
Felix Leiter is a fictional CIA agent created by Ian Fleming in the James Bond series of novels and films. In both, Leiter works for the CIA and assists Bond in his various adventures as well as being his best friend. In further novels Leiter joins the Pinkerton Detective Agency and in the film...
, a former CIA agent working at Pinkertons
Pinkerton National Detective Agency
The Pinkerton National Detective Agency, usually shortened to the Pinkertons, is a private U.S. security guard and detective agency established by Allan Pinkerton in 1850. Pinkerton became famous when he claimed to have foiled a plot to assassinate president-elect Abraham Lincoln, who later hired...
as a private detective investigating crooked horse racing. Leiter bribes the jockey to ensure the failure of the plot to rig the race. When Bond goes to pay the bribe, he witnesses two homosexual thugs, Wint and Kidd, attack the jockey.
Bond calls Shady Tree to enquire further about the payment of his fee and is told to go to the Tiara Hotel in Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...
. The Tiara is owned by Seraffimo Spang and operates as the headquarters of the Spangled Mob. Spang also owns an old Western ghost town, named "Spectreville", restored to be his own private vacation retreat. At the hotel, Bond finally receives payment through a rigged blackjack game where the dealer is Tiffany Case. However, he disobeys his orders by continuing to gamble in the casino after "winning" the money he is owed. Spang suspects that Bond may be a 'plant' and has him captured and tortured. However, with Tiffany's help he escapes from Spectreville aboard a railroad push-car
Handcar
A handcar is a railroad car powered by its passengers, or by people pushing the car from behind. It is mostly used as a maintenance of way or mining car, but it was also used for passenger service in some cases...
with Seraffimo Spang in pursuit aboard an old Western train. Bond re-routs the train to a side line and shoots Spang before the resulting crash. Assisted by Leiter, Bond and Case go via California to New York, where they board the Queen Elizabeth
RMS Queen Elizabeth
RMS Queen Elizabeth was an ocean liner operated by the Cunard Line. Plying with her running mate Queen Mary as a luxury liner between Southampton, UK and New York City, USA via Cherbourg, France, she was also contracted for over twenty years to carry the Royal Mail as the second half of the two...
to travel to London. However, Wint and Kidd observe their embarkation and followed them on board. They kidnap Case, planning to kill her and throw her overboard. Bond rescues her and kills both gangsters; for precaution, he makes it look like a murder-suicide
Murder-suicide
A murder–suicide is an act in which an individual kills one or more other persons before or at the same time as killing himself or herself. The combination of murder and suicide can take various forms, including:...
.
Case subsequently informs Bond of the details of the pipeline. It begins in Africa where a dentist would pay miners to smuggle diamonds in their mouths which he would extract during a routine appointment. From there the dentist would take the diamonds and rendezvous with a German helicopter pilot. Eventually the diamonds would go to Paris, and from there to London. There, after telephone instructions from a contact known as ABC, Case would then meet a person to explain how to smuggle the diamonds to New York City. After returning to London, Bond flies on to Freetown
Freetown
Freetown is the capital and largest city of Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa. It is a major port city on the Atlantic Ocean located in the Western Area of the country, and had a city proper population of 772,873 at the 2004 census. The city is the economic, financial, and cultural center of...
in Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...
and then to where the next diamond rendezvous takes place. With the collapse of the rest of the pipeline, Jack Spang (who turns out to be the mysterious ABC) shuts down his diamond smuggling pipeline by killing its participants. Spang himself is killed when Bond shoots down his helicopter.
Characters and themes
According to the author of "continuation" Bond novels, Raymond BensonRaymond Benson
Raymond Benson is an American author best known for being the official author of the adult James Bond novels from 1997 to 2003. Benson was born in Midland, Texas and graduated from Permian High School in Odessa in 1973...
, the character of Bond develops in Diamonds Are Forever, building on what Fleming had written in the previous three novels. This growth arises through Bond's burgeoning relationship with the book's female lead, Tiffany Case. According to Fleming's biographer, Andrew Lycett, after the novel was completed, "almost as an afterthought, [Fleming] appended four extra chapters, recording what happens on the Queen Elizabeth"; and allowing the question of marriage to arise, because Bond falls in love with Case, the first time he has done so since Vesper Lynd
Vesper Lynd
Vesper Lynd is a fictional character featured in Ian Fleming's James Bond novel Casino Royale. The name is a pun on "West Berlin". It has been claimed that Fleming based Lynd on the real life Special Operations Executive agent Christine Granville. In the 1967 film of Casino Royale, she is played by...
in Casino Royale
Casino Royale (novel)
Casino Royale is Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel. It paved the way for a further eleven novels by Fleming himself, in addition to two short story collections, followed by many "continuation" Bond novels by other authors....
. According to Benson, Tiffany Case is portrayed as tough, but lonely and insecure and "is Fleming's first fully developed female character."
The main theme in the novel is expressed in the title, according to Benson and the theme that diamonds are forever is used to contrast other, less permanent aspects, especially love and life. Towards the end of Diamonds Are Forever Fleming uses the lines "Death is forever. But so are diamonds" and Benson sees diamonds as a metaphor for death "and Bond, who carries the diamonds from London to New York, is the messenger of death."
Academic Jeremy Black
Jeremy Black (historian)
Jeremy Black MBE is a British historian and a Professor of History at the University of Exeter. He is a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of America and the West at the Foreign Policy Research Institute...
points to the theme of travel in Diamonds Are Forever, which was still a huge novelty to most people in Britain at the time. This travel between a number of a locations did exacerbate one of the issues identified by Black: that there was no centre to the story. In contrast to the previous novels, where Casino Royale
Casino Royale (novel)
Casino Royale is Ian Fleming's first James Bond novel. It paved the way for a further eleven novels by Fleming himself, in addition to two short story collections, followed by many "continuation" Bond novels by other authors....
had Royale, From Russia with Love
From Russia with Love (film)
From Russia with Love is the second in the James Bond spy film series, and the second to star Sean Connery as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. Released in 1963, the film was produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, and directed by Terence Young. It is based on the 1957 novel of the...
had Istanbul and Dr. No had Jamaica, Diamonds Are Forever had multiple locations and two villains and there was "no megalomaniac fervour, no weird self-obsession, at the dark centre of the plot".
Background
In 1954 Fleming read a story in The Sunday TimesThe Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
about diamond smuggling from Sierra Leone. Fleming engineered a meeting with Sir Percy Sillitoe
Percy Sillitoe
Sir Percy Joseph Sillitoe KBE was Director General of MI5, the United Kingdom's internal security service, from 1946 to 1953...
, the ex-head of MI5
MI5
The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its core intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service focused on foreign threats, Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence...
, then working for De Beers
De Beers
De Beers is a family of companies that dominate the diamond, diamond mining, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. De Beers is active in every category of industrial diamond mining: open-pit, underground, large-scale alluvial, coastal and deep sea...
diamond traders. The subsequent material went into Diamonds Are Forever and a non-fiction book Fleming also wrote, The Diamond Smugglers
The Diamond Smugglers
The Diamond Smugglers is a non-fiction work by Ian Fleming that was first published in 1957 in the United Kingdom and in 1958 in the United States....
. In August 1954 he flew to the US for research, visiting Saratoga Springs after his friend, William Stephenson
William Stephenson
Sir William Samuel Stephenson, CC, MC, DFC was a Canadian soldier, airman, businessman, inventor, spymaster, and the senior representative of British intelligence for the entire western hemisphere during World War II. He is best known by his wartime intelligence codename Intrepid...
, sent him a magazine article about the spa town. In the US, Fleming travelled with two friends, Ivar Bryce and Ernest Cuneo
Ernest Cuneo
Ernest L. Cuneo was a lawyer, newspaperman, author, and intelligence liaison. He was also a professional football player in the National Football League.-Athletics:...
, whose name was changed to 'Ernie Cureo' for the role of Bond's taxi-driving ally in Las Vegas (Bryce's name had already been used as an alias for Bond in Live and Let Die).
Whilst at Saratoga Fleming and Cuneo visited a mud-bath: they took the wrong directions and ended up at a run-down establishment, which was used for the Acme Mud and Sulphur Baths scene in the book. Fleming also met a rich socialite, William Woodward, Jr.
William Woodward, Jr.
William "Billy" Woodward, Jr. was the heir to the Hanover National Bank fortune , the Belair Estate and stud farm and legacy,...
, who drove a Studillac
Studillac
Studillac is a name given to a customised aftermarket car assembled between 1953 and 1955, comprising a hard-top Studebaker coupé fitted with a Cadillac V8 engine. The assemblers charged about $1500 more than the Studebaker standard model. An option was a dual-range Hydra-Matic transmission, at an...
– a Studebaker
Studebaker
Studebaker Corporation was a United States wagon and automobile manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana. Founded in 1852 and incorporated in 1868 under the name of the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company, the company was originally a producer of wagons for farmers, miners, and the...
with a powerful Cadillac
Cadillac
Cadillac is an American luxury vehicle marque owned by General Motors . Cadillac vehicles are sold in over 50 countries and territories, but mostly in North America. Cadillac is currently the second oldest American automobile manufacturer behind fellow GM marque Buick and is among the oldest...
engine. According to Henry Chancellor, "the speed and comfort of it impressed Ian, and he shamelessly appropriated this car" for the book. Woodward was killed by his wife shortly afterwards – claiming she mistook him for a prowler – and when Diamonds Are Forever was published, it was dedicated "to Bryce, Cuneo and to 'the memory of W. W. Jr., at Saratoga, 1954 and 55'."
Fleming also visited Los Angeles with Cuneo, going to the Los Angeles Police Intelligence headquarters, where they met Captain James Hamilton, who provided Fleming with information on the Mafia
American Mafia
The American Mafia , is an Italian-American criminal society. Much like the Sicilian Mafia, the American Mafia has no formal name and is a secret criminal society. Its members usually refer to it as Cosa Nostra or by its English translation "our thing"...
organisation in the US. From Los Angeles the pair travelled to Las Vegas, where they stayed at the Sands Hotel
Sands Hotel
The Sands Hotel was a historic Las Vegas Strip hotel/casino that operated from December 15, 1952 to June 30, 1996. Designed by architect Wayne McAllister, the Sands was the seventh resort that opened on the Strip....
; Fleming interviewed the hotel owner, Jack Entratta, where he learnt the background to the security systems and methods of cheating that he used in the novel.
As well as appropriating the name of Ernie Cuneo in the novel, one of the homosexual villains, 'Boofy' Kidd, was named after one of Fleming's close friends – and a relative of his wife – Arthur Gore, 8th Earl of Arran
Arthur Gore, 8th Earl of Arran
Arthur Gore was a Conservative whip in the House of Lords. His father was Arthur Gore, 6th Earl of Arran. He was the father of Arthur Gore, 9th Earl of Arran....
, known to his friends as "Boofy". Gore heard about the use of his name before publication and complained to Flemnig about it, but was ignored and the name was retained for the novel. Fleming wrote Diamonds Are Forever at his Goldeneye estate
Goldeneye (estate)
Goldeneye was the name given by Ian Fleming to his estate in Oracabessa, Jamaica. He purchased the land next door to Golden Clouds estate and built his house on the edge of a cliff, overlooking a private beach. The original house was a modest structure consisting of three bedrooms and a swimming...
in Jamaica in the early months of 1955, returning to London with the completed manuscript in March that year.
Release and reception
Diamonds Are Forever was released on 26 March 1956 by Jonathan Cape with a cover designed by Pat Marriott and cost 12s. 6d. As with the four previous Bond books, the first edition (this time 12,500 copies) sold out quickly; the US edition was published in October 1956. The novel was serialised in the Daily ExpressDaily Express
The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...
newspaper from 12 April 1956 onwards, and the serialisations undertaken by the newspaper had led to an overall rise in the sales of the novels. From November 1956 sales of Diamonds Are Forever, as well as Fleming's other novels, all rose following Prime Minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
Sir Anthony Eden
Anthony Eden
Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, KG, MC, PC was a British Conservative politician, who was Prime Minister from 1955 to 1957...
's visit to Fleming's Jamaican Goldeneye estate
Goldeneye (estate)
Goldeneye was the name given by Ian Fleming to his estate in Oracabessa, Jamaica. He purchased the land next door to Golden Clouds estate and built his house on the edge of a cliff, overlooking a private beach. The original house was a modest structure consisting of three bedrooms and a swimming...
, which was much reported in the British press. The book later received a boost in sales in 1971 when the novel was adapted for the cinema by Eon Productions
EON Productions
Eon Productions is a film production company known for producing the James Bond film series. The company is based in London's Piccadilly and also operates from Pinewood Studios in the United Kingdom...
, with Sean Connery
Sean Connery
Sir Thomas Sean Connery , better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy...
cast as Bond.
Reviews
Julian SymonsJulian Symons
Julian Gustave Symons 1912 - 1994) was a British crime writer and poet. He also wrote social and military history, biography and studies of literature.-Life and work:...
, writing in The Times Literary Supplement
The Times Literary Supplement
The Times Literary Supplement is a weekly literary review published in London by News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation.-History:...
thought that Fleming had some enviable qualities as a writer, including "a fine eye for places...an ability to convey his own interest in the mechanics of gambling and an air of knowledgeableness". However, Symonds also saw defects in Fleming's style, including "his inability to write convincing dialogue"; For Symonds, Diamonds Are Forever was Fleming's "weakest book, a heavily padded story about diamond smuggling", where "the exciting passages are few."
Milward Kennedy
Milward Kennedy
Milward Rodon Kennedy Burge was an English civil servant, journalist, crime writer and literary critic. He was educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford. He served with British Military Intelligence in World War I and then worked for the International Labor Office and the Egyptian...
, writing in The Manchester Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, though that Fleming was "determined to be as tough as Chandler, if a little less lifelike", whilst Maurice Richardson, in The Guardian's sister paper, The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
, thought that Bond was "one of the most cunningly synthesised heroes in crime-fiction". Richardson noted in his review that "Mr. Fleming's method is worth noting, and recommending: he does not start indulging in his wilder fantasies until he has laid down a foundation of factual description." Elements of a review by Raymond Chandler
Raymond Chandler
Raymond Thornton Chandler was an American novelist and screenwriter.In 1932, at age forty-five, Raymond Chandler decided to become a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Depression. His first short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in...
which he wrote for The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
were used as advertising for the novel: Chandler wrote that it was "about the nicest piece of book-making in this type of literature which I have seen for a long time...Mr. Fleming writes a journalistic style, neat, clean, spare and never pretentious".
Writing in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Anthony Boucher
Anthony Boucher
Anthony Boucher was an American science fiction editor and author of mystery novels and short stories. He was particularly influential as an editor. Between 1942 and 1947 he acted as reviewer of mostly mystery fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle...
—described by a Fleming biographer, John Pearson
John Pearson (author)
John Pearson is a writer best associated with James Bond creator Ian Fleming.Pearson was Fleming's assistant at the London Sunday Times and would go on to write the first biography of Ian Fleming, 1966's The Life of Ian Fleming....
as "throughout an avid anti-Bond and an anti-Fleming man"—was mixed in his review, thinking that "Mr. Fleming's handling of American and Americans is well above the British average", although he felt that "the narrative is loose-jointed and weakly resolved", whilst Bond resolves his assignments "more by muscles and luck than by any sign of operative intelligence."
Adaptations
Comic strip (1959-1960)Fleming's original novel was adapted as a daily comic strip
Comic strip
A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions....
which was published in the Daily Express
Daily Express
The Daily Express switched from broadsheet to tabloid in 1977 and was bought by the construction company Trafalgar House in the same year. Its publishing company, Beaverbrook Newspapers, was renamed Express Newspapers...
newspaper and syndicated around the world. The original adaptation ran from 10 August 1959 to 30 January 1960. The strip was written by Henry Gammidge
Henry Gammidge
Henry Gammidge was a writer of the James Bond comic strip that appeared in Daily Express newspaper and syndicated worldwide. Gammidge adapted Ian Fleming's James Bond novels, which were then drawn by illustrator John McLusky. Gammidge worked on eleven stories, which were published from 15 December...
and illustrated by John McLusky
John McLusky
John McLusky is a former comics artist best known as the original artist of the comic strip featuring Ian Fleming's James Bond.-Biography:...
. Diamonds Are Forever was published again in 2005 as part of the Dr. No anthology by Titan Books
Titan Books
Titan Publishing Group is an independently owned publishing company, established in 1981. It is based at offices in London, England's Bankside area. The Books Division has two main areas of publishing: film & TV tie-ins/cinema reference books; and graphic novels and comics reference/art titles. The...
.
Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
In 1971 the novel was loosely adapted into a film starring Sean Connery
Sean Connery
Sir Thomas Sean Connery , better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes Sir Thomas Sean Connery (born 25 August 1930), better known as Sean Connery, is a Scottish actor and producer who has won an Academy...
as Bond; the film was directed by Guy Hamilton
Guy Hamilton
Guy Hamilton is an English film director.Hamilton was born in Paris, France where his English parents were living. Remaining in France during the Nazi occupation, he was active in the French Resistance...
and produced by Albert R. Broccoli
Albert R. Broccoli
Albert Romolo Broccoli, CBE , nicknamed "Cubby", was an American film producer, who made more than 40 motion pictures throughout his career, most of them in the United Kingdom, and often filmed at Pinewood Studios. Co-founder of Danjaq, LLC and EON Productions, Broccoli is most notable as the...
and Harry Saltzman
Harry Saltzman
Harry Saltzman was a Canadian theatre and film producer best known for his mega-gamble which resulted in his co-producing the James Bond film series with Albert R...
's Eon Productions. Diamonds Are Forever marked the final Bond film undertaken by Sean Connery with Eon Productions, although he returned to the role of James Bond twelve years later with Kevin McLory's Taliafilm company for Never Say Never Again
Never Say Never Again
Never Say Never Again is a 1983 spy film based on the James Bond novel Thunderball, which was previously filmed in 1965 as Thunderball...
.
External links
See also
- James Bond novels
- James Bond (character)James Bond (character)Royal Navy Commander James Bond, CMG, RNVR is a fictional character created by journalist and novelist Ian Fleming in 1953. He is the main protagonist of the James Bond series of novels, films, comics and video games...
- Differences between James Bond novels and filmsDifferences between James Bond novels and filmsThe James Bond novels, written by English author, journalist and World War II intelligence officer Ian Fleming, and the later James Bond films, often differ in tone and detail, a trend which increased with each new movie production. The James Bond novels, written mainly in the 1950s and early...