Thunderball.

The ninth James Bond book by Ian Fleming, and the eighth full-length novel in the series, with a memorable film version (the fourth in that series) starring Sean Connery and featuring a theme tune sung by Tom Jones. It was the most successful Bond film to date, and out performed the following five as well, generating receipts of $141 million (that's about $1.4 billion in 2024). The plot centres on the theft of two nuclear weapons by SPECTRE and the blackmail of the Western powers for their return - the ransom being £100 million in diamonds (a paltry sum by today's standards). Bond travels to the Bahamas where he meets Domino, the mistress of Emilio Largo, SPECTRE's Number Two, before saving the world.

First edition, first impression; 8vo (19.5 x 13.5 cm); very faint stain to top of p.139, else internally clean; publisher's grey-black cloth with blind-stamped skeletal hand on upper cover, spine lettered in gilt, illustrated dust-jacket by Richard Chopping, some wear to extremities, some general toning, spine a little faded, else very good; 254pp, [2]pp.