The Diamond Smugglers
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''The Diamond Smugglers'' is a non-fiction work by
Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer who is best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., a ...
that was first published in 1957 in the United Kingdom and in 1958 in the United States. The book is based on two weeks of interviews Fleming undertook with John Collard, a member of the International Diamond Security Organization (IDSO), which was headed by Sir
Percy Sillitoe Sir Percy Joseph Sillitoe KBE DL (22 May 1888 – 5 April 1962) was a chief constable of several police forces. He changed the role of radios, civilian staff, and women police officers within the police. He was later Director General of MI5, ...
, the ex-chief of MI5 who worked for the diamond company
De Beers De Beers Group is an international corporation that specializes in diamond mining, diamond exploitation, diamond retail, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. The company is active in open-pit, large-scale alluvial and c ...
. The IDSO was formed by Sillitoe to combat the smuggling of diamonds from Africa, where, it was estimated, £10 million (£ in pounds) worth of gems were being smuggled every year out of South Africa alone. The book expands upon articles Fleming wrote for ''
The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...
'' in 1957. Fleming was better known as the author of a series of books about his super-spy creation,
James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...
; ''The Diamond Smugglers'' is one of two non-fiction books he wrote. It was broadly well-received, although some reviewers commented on the stories not being new.


Synopsis

''The Diamond Smugglers'' is the account of
Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer who is best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., a ...
's meeting with John Collard, a member of the International Diamond Security Organisation (IDSO). The book takes the form of background narrative by Fleming of where the two men met, interspersed with the interview between Fleming and Collard, who is introduced under the pseudonym of "John Blaize". Collard relates how he was recruited into the IDSO by Sir
Percy Sillitoe Sir Percy Joseph Sillitoe KBE DL (22 May 1888 – 5 April 1962) was a chief constable of several police forces. He changed the role of radios, civilian staff, and women police officers within the police. He was later Director General of MI5, ...
, the ex-head of MI5, under whom Collard had worked. The book goes on to look at the activities of the IDSO from the end of 1954 until the operation was closed down in April 1957, when its job was complete. Collard explained that the IDSO was set up at the instigation of the Chairman of
De Beers De Beers Group is an international corporation that specializes in diamond mining, diamond exploitation, diamond retail, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. The company is active in open-pit, large-scale alluvial and c ...
, Sir Philip Oppenheimer, after an
Interpol The International Criminal Police Organization (ICPO; french: link=no, Organisation internationale de police criminelle), commonly known as Interpol ( , ), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and cri ...
report stated that £10 million of diamonds were being smuggled out of South Africa each year, as well as additional amounts from
Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...
, Portuguese Angola, Portuguese West Africa, the
Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...
and
Tanganyika Tanganyika may refer to: Places * Tanganyika Territory (1916–1961), a former British territory which preceded the sovereign state * Tanganyika (1961–1964), a sovereign state, comprising the mainland part of present-day Tanzania * Tanzania Main ...
. As well as providing a history of the IDSO's operations, Collard relates a number of illustrative vignettes concerning the diamond smuggling cases he and the organisation dealt with.


Background

Fleming became interested in diamond smuggling after reading an article in ''
The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...
'' in 1954 concerning the Sierra Leone diamond industry. Philip Brownrigg, an old friend from
Eton Eton most commonly refers to Eton College, a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. Eton may also refer to: Places *Eton, Berkshire, a town in Berkshire, England * Eton, Georgia, a town in the United States * Éton, a commune in the Meuse dep ...
and a senior exec of De Beers, arranged for Fleming to visit the London Diamond Club to see diamonds being sorted and polished. In 1955 Brownrigg also introduced Fleming to Sir Percy Sillitoe, former head of MI5, who was working for De Beers and investigating the illicit diamond trade through the International Diamond Security Organisation. Fleming met Sillitoe and used much of the research as background material for his fictional Bond novel, ''Diamonds Are Forever''. Fleming retained an interest in the subject and when Sillitoe suggested to the editor of ''The Sunday Times'',
Denis Hamilton Lieutenant Colonel Sir Charles Denis Hamilton, DSO, TD (6 December 1918 – 7 April 1988) was an English newspaper editor. He was born in South Shields, County Durham, England, the son of an engineer from the Acklam iron and steel work ...
, that the paper may want to write a story on the International Diamond Security Organization, Hamilton offered the story to Fleming. Sillitoe also offered his deputy, retired MI5 officer John Collard, as liaison for Fleming to interview. During
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Collard had assisted in the planning of
Operation Overlord Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allies of World War II, Allied operation that launched the successful invasion of German-occupied Western Front (World War II), Western Europe during World War II. The operat ...
as part of
MI11 MI11, or Military Intelligence, Section 11, was a department of the British Directorate of Military Intelligence, part of the War Office. During the Second World War, MI11 was responsible for field security: protecting British military person ...
and had joined MI5 under Sillitoe at the war's end. Whilst in MI5 he played a major role in the capture and conviction of the atomic spy
Klaus Fuchs Klaus Emil Julius Fuchs (29 December 1911 – 28 January 1988) was a German theoretical physicist and atomic spy who supplied information from the American, British and Canadian Manhattan Project to the Soviet Union during and shortly aft ...
, before Sillitoe had approached him in 1954 to work for the International Diamond Security Organisation. Fleming and Collard met in Tangiers on 13 April 1957; Fleming considered Collard to be a "reluctant hero, like all Britain's best secret agents". The pair spent two weeks discussing the issue of diamond smuggling, with Collard explaining what happened in South Africa and Sierra Leone. Fleming would then dictate an average of 5,000 words a day to a secretary. When the drafts of the books were shown to De Beers they objected to a number of areas and threatened an injunction against Fleming and ''The Sunday Times'', which resulted in much material being removed. ''The Sunday Times'' serialised the book over six weeks, starting on 15 September 1957 and finishing on 20 October 1957.


Release and reception

''The Diamond Smugglers'' was published in the UK in November 1957, by
Jonathan Cape Jonathan Cape is a London publishing firm founded in 1921 by Herbert Jonathan Cape, who was head of the firm until his death in 1960. Cape and his business partner Wren Howard set up the publishing house in 1921. They established a reputation ...
, was 160 pages long and cost 12
shillings The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence or ...
6d. The book was published in the US on 13 May 1958, by
Macmillan MacMillan, Macmillan, McMillen or McMillan may refer to: People * McMillan (surname) * Clan MacMillan, a Highland Scottish clan * Harold Macmillan, British statesman and politician * James MacMillan, Scottish composer * William Duncan MacMillan ...
and cost $3.50.


Reviews

The book received largely positive reviews. Michael Crampton, writing for ''The Sunday Times'' considered it an "exciting and richly fascinating account" and thought Fleming authored a book that "ringing true as fact, is at the same time as highly entertaining as any fiction." ''
The Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication i ...
'' obtained the services of the Earl of Cardigan to review the book. He noted that "the book is put together with a skill one would expect from Mr. Fleming", which leads to something that is "very entertaining reading". Reviewing for ''
The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...
'', Anthony Sampson thought the book had "sparkle", adding that "it is often difficult to remember that we are not listening to his old hero Mr. James Bond." Sampson noted that the book included "several yarns which are worthy of the best spy-stories". The reviewer for ''
The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econo ...
'' enjoyed the book, but considered that while many of the stories "make good reading ... they are not new". For ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'', John Barkham thought that Fleming's foray into non-fiction produced "mixed results". Although he found the subject interesting, the basis in interview resulted in a "choppy book" that was "no more than an interim report".


Attempted film adaptation

Shortly after publication, The Rank Group offered £13,500 (£ in pounds) for the film rights to the book, which Fleming accepted, telling them he would write a full story outline for an extra £1,000. Several contemporary newspaper reports referred to the project as "The Diamond Spy". British producer George Willoughby subsequently obtained the rights for the book from Rank and tried to make a film with the actor Richard Todd, eventually commissioning a screenplay from Australian writer
Jon Cleary Jon Stephen Cleary (22 November 191719 July 2010) was an Australian writer and novelist. He wrote numerous books, including '' The Sundowners'' (1951), a portrait of a rural family in the 1920s as they move from one job to the next, and '' The ...
, who finished a script in October 1964 that remained faithful in spirit to Fleming's book while also featuring elements familiar from the
James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...
films.
Kingsley Amis Sir Kingsley William Amis (16 April 1922 – 22 October 1995) was an English novelist, poet, critic, and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, short stories, radio and television scripts, and works of social an ...
was also hired as a story consultant; in a letter to author Theo Richmond on 20 December 1965 Amis wrote he was having 'a horrible time' of writing an outline for Willoughby. W.H. "Bill" Canaway, co-author of the screenplay for '' The Ipcress File'', was also hired to work on the script. At one point, film director
John Boorman Sir John Boorman (; born 18 January 1933) is a British film director, best known for feature films such as ''Point Blank'' (1967), ''Hell in the Pacific'' (1968), ''Deliverance'' (1972), ''Zardoz'' (1974), '' Exorcist II: The Heretic'' (1977), ...
was involved. Despite interest from Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors and Anglo Embassy Productions in early 1966, the project was shelved later that year. Fleming's 1956 Bond novel, '' Diamonds Are Forever'', also dealt with diamond smuggling, albeit from
Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...
rather than South Africa; however, the Diamonds Are Forever (film), 1971 film adaptation of the novel featured a diamond-smuggling operation shipping out of South Africa.


References


Bibliography

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External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Diamond Smugglers, The 1957 non-fiction books Books by Ian Fleming Diamond industry Jonathan Cape books