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First edition, first impression, presentation copy inscribed by the author "To Noël, In exchange for the copy of P & C he didn't send me! With love Ian" on the front free endpaper. The inscription refers to Noël Coward's first and only novel, Pomp and Circumstance (1960), at the centre of which is a thinly-veiled account of Fleming's affair with Ann. Set on the fictional island of Samolo – a close match for Jamaica – it concerns the secret relationship between the aristocratic Eloise and her lover, Bunny, whose character mirrors Fleming's almost exactly. "In the character of Bunny... we have a remarkably unflinching portrait of Ian Fleming's time on the island in 1949-51, the years immediately preceding his marriage to Ann and the simultaneous launch of James Bond... It's astonishing how little Coward bothered to make up" (Parker, p. 91). Noël Coward (1899-1973) was one of Fleming's closest friends. In 1948 Coward visited Jamaica where he rented Goldeneye from Fleming for a week: "On arrival, a boyish, teasing friendship and good-natured rivalry over Jamaica began between Coward and Fleming. During his visit, Coward celebrated Goldeneye with a song that complained about the airless rooms and the hardness of Fleming's furniture... Sardonically he referred to his host's home as 'Golden Eye, Nose and Throat' because it reminded him of a hospital. Fleming, too, enjoyed the sparring and wrote about the outcome of Coward's first visit... 'He [Coward] then went. First edition, first impression, presentation copy inscribed by the author "To Noël, In exchange for the copy of P & C he didn't send me! With love Ian" on the front free endpaper. The inscription refers to Noël Coward's first and only novel, Pomp and Circumstance (1960), at the centre of which is a thinly-veiled account of Fleming's affair with Ann. Set on the fictional island of Samolo – a close match for Jamaica – it concerns the secret relationship between the aristocratic Eloise and her lover, Bunny, whose character mirrors Fleming's almost exactly. "In the character of Bunny... we have a remarkably unflinching portrait of Ian Fleming's time on the island in 1949-51, the years immediately preceding his marriage to Ann and the simultaneous launch of James Bond... It's astonishing how little Coward bothered to make up" (Parker, p. 91). Noël Coward (1899-1973) was one of Fleming's closest friends. In 1948 Coward visited Jamaica where he rented Goldeneye from Fleming for a week: "On arrival, a boyish, teasing friendship and good-natured rivalry over Jamaica began between Coward and Fleming. During his visit, Coward celebrated Goldeneye with a song that complained about the airless rooms and the hardness of Fleming's furniture... Sardonically he referred to his host's home as 'Golden Eye, Nose and Throat' because it reminded him of a hospital. Fleming, too, enjoyed the sparring and wrote about the outcome of Coward's first visit... 'He [Coward] then went off, and. During his time in Jamaica, Coward penned his play, Volcano, which featured characters based on his expat friends, including Ian and Ann Fleming; it was never produced in Coward's lifetime. Coward was a witness at Fleming's wedding to Ann in 1952 and became godfather to their son Caspar. Ann wrote to Cecil Beaton of the occasion: "I dare hardly admit it but Noël is a godfather, an act of treachery on my part as we thought he would be offended if not asked as he considers himself responsible for the whole thing. When he appeared last Sunday he was quite delightful for the first hour... and then so vulgar and dull that I longed to cancel the G-parent arrangement and be frightfully rude to him." Coward owned a holiday house in Dover until 1951, when he sold it to the Flemings, which inspired Fleming to set Moonraker in Kent. This copy is from the significant Ian Fleming collection of Martin Schøyen (b.1940), with his bookplate. Schøyen's private collection of manuscripts, which span all cultures and all time periods, is one of the largest and most comprehensive of its kind. READ MORE Octavo. Original dark grey boards, spine lettered in gilt, skeletal hand motif blocked on the front cover in blind (Gilbert's A binding). With first issue dust jacket (priced at 15s.) Housed in a black quarter morocco solander box by the Chelsea Bindery. Head and foot of spine very slightly bumped; a fine copy. Minor stain to a small portion of the front panel, short closed tear to the foot of the rear panel, extremities very slightly rubbed; else a near-fine and bright jacket. Matthew Parker, Goldeneye, Where Bond Was Born: Ian Fleming's Jamaica, 2015; Gilbert A9a(1.1); The Schøyen Collection No. 70.

Thunderball is the ninth book in the James Bond series, and the eighth full-length James Bond novel, written by Ian Fleming. It is famous for introducing the criminal organization SPECTRE and the character Ernst Stavro Blofeld.