Diamonds Are Forever.

First edition of the fourth novel in Ian Fleming’s James Bond series. Octavo, original black cloth. Association copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper, "To Lionel from Ian with affection." The recipient is most likely British Conservative politician and newspaper proprietor Lionel Berry, 2nd Viscount Kemsley, was professionally and socially connected to Ian Fleming through their shared involvement in the British press in the immediate postwar period. They likely met at Kemsley Newspapers, the media group owned by Berry’s father, William Berry, 1st Viscount Kemsley, which was a major force in mid-twentieth-century British journalism. Fleming’s appointment as Foreign Manager in 1945, drawing on his wartime naval intelligence experience, placed him in senior managerial circles where he would have worked with Berry. Their professional association subsequently developed into a personal friendship. Very good in a very good dust jacket. Light toning to the first and last few leaves and text block edges. Three small, neat repairs to the verso of the jacket. Jacket design by Pat Marriott. Diamonds Are Forever was the first of the Bond novels to feature a pictorial dust jacket, and the first to be illustrated by Pat Marriott. The three previous jackets, all executed by Ken Lewis, featured simple typographic and patterned designs. Housed in a custom full morocco clamshell box.