First edition of the fourth novel in the James Bond series, the film of which was the last to star Sean Connery.

Fleming was inspired to write Diamonds are Forever by a 1954 Sunday Times story on diamond smuggling, and his background research for the novel would later be published as the non-fiction work The Diamond Smugglers. On completing the book, Fleming wrote to his friend Hilary Bray that, 'I baked a fresh cake in Jamaica this year which I think has finally exhausted my inventiveness as it contains 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' (Parker, Goldeneye, p. 45).

First edition, first impression; 8vo (19.5 x 13.5 cm); some mild spotting, primarily to early and late leaves and page edges, occasionally affecting extreme edges of textblock, some light staining to title-page and one or two others, not affecting legibility of text, else good; original black boards blocked with a diamond pattern in blind, titles to spine and diamond to upper board in silver, light spotting to edges, with the unclipped pictorial dust-jacket, spine ends and corner tips chipped, three small pieces of tape to interior of dust-jacket, two to top of spine and one to lower edge, a little worn to extremities, liquid splash to rear panel, not affecting text, small pink marks to lower edge of rear panel, else a bright and bold copy of one of the most famous books in Fleming's series; 257pp, [1]pp.