James Bond First Editions

Yesterday's Spy.

DEIGHTON, Len (born 1929).

London: Jonathan Cape, 1975. [Spy thriller] UNCORRECTED PROOF COPY of the FIRST EDITION. Octavo (23 x 15cm), pp.224. Bound in salmon-coloured printed wraps, with oversize proof-only dust-wrapper, which curiously lists the provisional publication date as June 12th 1973. The actual release date was January 1975 (this date being printed on the binding). The jacket artwork is by Raymond Hawkey, who designed the classic 1960s James Bond paperbacks for Pan Books. Cheap paper toned, light spotting to edges, oversized jacket crumpled to unsupported areas, spine gently sunned. Very good indeed. A 'Harry Palmer' spy novel, set in the dangerous world of Arab gun-running, featuring "Deighton's familiar hero, our bespectacled Englishman" (from the US blurb). With comparisons to Graham Greene and Ian Fleming, Deighton first arrived on the shady scene in 1962 and was described by Julian Symons as 'the poet of the spy story'. Item #71679

Milward-Oliver; Len Deighton Annotated Bibliography p.39.

Price: £85.00