James Bond First Editions

Len Deighton's London Dossier.

DEIGHTON, Len (born 1929).

London: Jonathan Cape, 1967. [Counter-culture] UNCORRECTED PROOF COPY. Octavo (20 x 13cm), pp.328. Publisher's pictorial lime-green softcovers. Contents clean, brown spot to top edge, some toning to extremities of covers, spine wrinkled. A very good copy. In our experience, this is one of the most elusive Deighton proofs. Amusing guide to swinging London; where to get a sixpenny shave at two in the morning; where to buy snake steaks, where to hire a barrel organ and where to find the nearest nudist colony. Only 5600 copies of the hardcover were published, the proof print run would have been a fraction of this. Scarce. In the 60's, Len Deighton was the chief rival of fellow Cape-published spy writer Ian Fleming, who had championed his first novel 'The Ipcress File'. From the comprehensive Fleming bibliographical archive assembled by bibliographer Jon Gilbert, with his pencilled ownership. Item #65100

Book Collector No.287 (pp.32-62) 'The Sixties'. Milward-Oliver; Len Deighton Annotated Bibliography p.29. Gilbert: Ian Fleming The Bibliography, p.632.

Price: £350.00