FLEMING, Ian (1908-1964) . On Her Majesty's Secret Service . London: Jonathan Cape, 1963. First edition, first impression, presentation copy inscribed by Fleming to Noël Coward ‘To Noël / This slice of real / Swiss life! / With love / Ian .’ On Her Majesty's Secret Service is the second Bond novel in the ‘Blofeld trilogy’, following the villain’s first appearance in Thunderball (1961). Unable to locate Blofeld and convinced that S.P.E.C.T.R.E no longer exists, Bond learns that he has taken on an assumed name and is living in a mountaintop lair in Switzerland. To Coward, who had himself taken up residence in a mountain home in Les Avants, Switzerland, in 1959, he humorously suggests that his narrative represents the ‘real’ Switzerland. Fleming was partly educated in Switzerland and made frequent visits to the country in the 1920s and 30s. In the novel, we learn that Bond had a Swiss mother, Monique, a name borrowed from the young Swiss woman to whom Fleming was briefly engaged. Gilbert A11a (1.1). Octavo (188 x 124mm). Original dark grey cloth, upper cover with ‘ski-track’ motif in white, spine lettered in silver, original dust-jacket after Richard Chopping (minor stain to small portion of top edge, a few faint marks on dust-jacket). Provenance : Noël Coward (1899-1973; author’s presentation inscription, bookplate).
FLEMING, Ian (1908-1964) . On Her Majesty's Secret Service . London: Jonathan Cape, 1963. First edition, first impression, presentation copy inscribed by Fleming to Noël Coward ‘To Noël / This slice of real / Swiss life! / With love / Ian .’ On Her Majesty's Secret Service is the second Bond novel in the ‘Blofeld trilogy’, following the villain’s first appearance in Thunderball (1961). Unable to locate Blofeld and convinced that S.P.E.C.T.R.E no longer exists, Bond learns that he has taken on an assumed name and is living in a mountaintop lair in Switzerland. To Coward, who had himself taken up residence in a mountain home in Les Avants, Switzerland, in 1959, he humorously suggests that his narrative represents the ‘real’ Switzerland. Fleming was partly educated in Switzerland and made frequent visits to the country in the 1920s and 30s. In the novel, we learn that Bond had a Swiss mother, Monique, a name borrowed from the young Swiss woman to whom Fleming was briefly engaged. Gilbert A11a (1.1). Octavo (188 x 124mm). Original dark grey cloth, upper cover with ‘ski-track’ motif in white, spine lettered in silver, original dust-jacket after Richard Chopping (minor stain to small portion of top edge, a few faint marks on dust-jacket). Provenance : Noël Coward (1899-1973; author’s presentation inscription, bookplate).
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