Disappointing to discover that what has been described as one of the world's largest James Bond collections (apparently mentioned in the Guinness Book of World Records) was up for auction at the end of September, and judging from the Omega Auctions results page, there were some bargains to be had. However, all is not lost. As it also says, this was only part 1 of auctioning off a very large collection, and a call to the auction house today revealed that there are several more parts of the sale still to come (and there should be more of everything, including books, to be had). The next part of the auction is expected to be in March, so the key thing is to start keeping an eye out in February for details of lots ...
During our visit to Boston last week, I picked up a copy of Ian Fleming's Thrilling Cities at the Harvard Bookstore in the recently published William Morrow imprint. Given that it was written more than a lifetime (in Fleming's case) ago, it is remarkable that it is still in print, particularly given some of the views espoused within it, combined with the 'incidental intelligence' telling readers where to find five-star hotel rooms around the world for around £15 per night. Still, when there is a new run of the 14 Bond books, it seems like publishers know that if they tag on copies of this and the Diamond Smugglers, there will be enough nutjob Fleming completists (like me) to make it worth their while. The only challenge for the bookstores is to know where to shelve it to attract sales. Should they deliberately misfile it at put it with the Bond books, or do they take a chance of it languishing in what can be fairly haphazard travel sections. Thankfully the Harvard store...