On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.

FLEMING, Ian.

Item Number: 34076

London: Jonathan Cape, 1963.

First edition of the eleventh novel in Ian Fleming’s James Bond series. Octavo, original cloth. Boldly signed by Ian Fleming on the front free endpaper. From the library of Francis Cory-Wright,  with a loosely inserted typescript card, signed “Robin” and dated 1 July 1963, by Robin De La Lanne-Mirrlees. Lanne-Mirrlees, Rouge Dragon Pursuivant at the College of Arms, assisted Fleming with research for On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, providing heraldic and genealogy information on Bond, and being an inspiration for Bond’s cover as a College of Arms researcher in the novel. Lanne-Mirrlees claimed descent from an ancient Basque family, whose members were said to be born without earlobes. Fleming gave this unusual deformity to Blofeld. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with a touch of rubbing. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell box. A superior example with noted provenance.

On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is the eleventh novel in the James Bonds series and the first since the debut of the Bond film. It became "an immediate bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic" (Biondi & Pickard, 48). "By the time of publication, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service had received nearly a quarter more subscriptions than any previous Fleming novel" (Lycett, 419). George Lazenby starred in the 1969 film version, with Diana Rigg as Tracy and Telly Savalas as Blofeld.