# The Diamond Smugglers

The Diamond Smugglers is a non-fiction book by Ian Fleming that was first published in the United Kingdom by Jonathan Cape on 29 November 1957. The book is based on two weeks of interviews Fleming undertook with John Collard, a member of the International Diamond Security Organisation (IDSO), which was headed by Sir Percy Sillitoe, the ex-head of MI5 who worked for the diamond company De Beers.
The IDSO was formed by Sillitoe to combat the smuggling of diamonds from Africa, where, it was estimated, £10 million worth of gems were being smuggled every year out of South Africa alone. The book expands upon a series of articles Fleming wrote for The Sunday Times in 1957.
Fleming was better known as the author of a series of books about James Bond; The Diamond Smugglers is one of two non-fiction books he wrote. It received mixed reviews, although critics thought the subject was an interesting one and that the fact was as interesting as a work of fiction. There was interest in turning the book into a film, but the plans did not come to fruition.

## Synopsis

The Diamond Smugglers is the account of Ian Fleming's meeting with John Collard, a member of the International Diamond Security Organisation (IDSO). The book takes the form of narrative by Fleming of where the two men met, interspersed with the interview between Fleming and Collard, the latter of whom is introduced under the pseudonym of "John Blaize".
Collard relates how he was recruited into the IDSO by Sir Percy Sillitoe, 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, Sir Philip Oppenheimer, after an Interpol report stated that £10 million of diamonds were being smuggled out of South Africa each year, as well as additional amounts from Sierra Leone, Portuguese West Africa, the Gold Coast and Tanganyika (now part of Tanzania).
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

By 1954 Ian Fleming had published two fictional novels featuring the character James Bond: Casino Royale in 1953 and Live and Let Die in 1954. He wrote his third novel, Moonraker, in January and February 1954. When not on holiday or dealing with his novels, Fleming was on the staff of The Sunday Times as both a writer and the foreign manager. That year he read a story in The Sunday Times about diamond smuggling from Sierra Leone; he considered this topic as the possible subject for a new Bond novel. He contacted Philip Brownrigg, an old friend from Eton and a senior executive of the diamond-trading company De Beers. Brownrigg arranged for Fleming to visit the London Diamond Club to see diamonds being sorted and polished. Brownrigg also arranged for Fleming to meet Sir Percy Sillitoe, the former head of MI5, the UK's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency, and then the head of the IDSO. Much of the research was used as background material for Fleming's 1956 Bond novel, Diamonds Are Forever. The Diamond Smugglers was one of only two non-fiction books published by Fleming; the second was the 1963 travelogue Thrilling Cities.
Fleming retained an interest in diamond smuggling and when Sillitoe suggested to Denis Hamilton, the editor of The Sunday Times, that the paper may want to write a story on the IDSO, Hamilton offered the story to Fleming. Sillitoe also offered his deputy, the retired MI5 officer John Collard, as liaison for Fleming to interview. During the Second World War Collard had assisted in the planning of Operation Overlord as part of MI11, the department of the British Directorate of Military Intelligence, responsible for counter-intelligence. At the war's end he joined MI5 under Sillitoe and played a major role in the capture and conviction of the atomic spy Klaus Fuchs. In 1954 Sillitoe asked him to work for the IDSO.
Fleming and Collard met in Tangier, Morocco, on 13 April 1957. Fleming considered Collard to be a "reluctant hero, like all Britain's best secret agents" who
   ... had common sense, a passion for accuracy and a knowledge of men and how to use them which would have brought him to the top of, for instance, the Civil Service. But he also had a taste for adventure and a romantic streak which in the Civil Service would have been sublimated into mountain climbing and amateur theatricals.
Fleming spread a story around the English-speaking society at Tangier that Collard was an expert on the coelacanth and that they were writing a news story about the fish. The pair spent two weeks discussing the issue of diamond smuggling, with Collard explaining what happened in South Africa and Sierra Leone, using a series of notes he had written beforehand. Fleming would then dictate an average of 5,000 words a day to a secretary.
In April 1957 Fleming sent the manuscript to the writer William Plomer for proof-reading, as he did with all the Bond novels. In his correspondence with Plomer he referred to the book by its provisional title, The Diamond Spy, and said it was 40,000 words, but the final work would also include maps and photographs. Bip Pares made the maps for the work and one of them was also published in The Sunday Times. Plomer's made several comments on the manuscript, including marking two passages he thought needed to be reworked because they may have included a potential libel.
Fleming worked on the manuscript over the summer of 1957. He sent proof copies to the chairmen of De Beers and Selection Trust—the owner of several West African mining companies. Some minor changes were requested but they were generally happy with the results. Sillitoe telephoned Fleming shortly afterwards, as he had been contacted by the diamond companies and come under pressure for changes to be made. De Beers objected to a number of areas and threatened an injunction against Fleming and The Sunday Times, which resulted in much material being removed. Sillitoe provided an introduction to the book, but as this was not sanctioned by The Anglo American Corporation, it was not published and Collard wrote one instead. Fleming was disappointed in the final product and in his personal copy of the book, he wrote "It was a good story until all the possible libel was cut out. ... It is adequate journalism but a poor book and necessarily rather 'contrived' though the facts are true".
The Sunday Times serialised the book over six weeks, running illustrated articles between 15 September and 20 October 1957. The book contains more content than the articles and none of the material from chapter eight, "The Heart of the Matter", was included in the newspaper.

## Publication and reception
### Publication history

The Diamond Smugglers was published in the UK on 29 November 1957 by Jonathan Cape; it was 160 pages long and cost 12 shillings 6d. There were 9,600 copies in the first print run. In February 1960 Pan Books published a paperback version of The Diamond Smugglers in the UK; it cost 2s. 6d. and the print run was 50,000 copies. A second print run of 125,000 copies was needed by October 1963. The book was published in the US on 13 May 1958 by Macmillan and cost $3.50; there were very few changes from the British version. A paperback version was released in the US in 1964 by Collier Books.

### Critical reception

The Diamond Smugglers received mixed reviews. Several reviewers thought the subject one of interest, including Michael Crampton, writing for The Sunday Times, who thought it an "exciting and richly fascinating account" and John Barkham, who reviewed the book for The New York Times, who thought that although the subject was interesting, the result was "a choppy book". The Times Literary Supplement 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". 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". The reviewer for The Economist also thought the subject was interesting, but considered that while many of the stories "make good reading ... they are not new" and that many had already appeared in the courts.
Several reviewers thought that Fleming had authored a book that, while "ringing true as fact, is at the same time as highly entertaining as any fiction", as Crampton described it. Reviewing for The Observer, Anthony Sampson thought that the book included "several yarns which are worthy of the best spy-stories". The writer Dan Jacobson, who reviewed the book for The Spectator, thought that Fleming had struggled to make the dull operations interesting and this resulted in a work that attempted the atmosphere of a thriller but with material that did not lend itself to high adventure.

## Attempted film adaptation

Shortly after publication The Rank Group offered £13,500 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". The producer George Willoughby and the actor Richard Todd obtained the rights for the book from Rank and tried to make a film with. Todd and Willoughby commissioned a screenplay from the writer Jon Cleary, who finished writing a script in October 1964 that remained faithful in spirit to Fleming's book while also featuring elements familiar from the James Bond films. Kingsley Amis was also hired as a story consultant; in a letter to the author Theo Richmond in December 1965 Amis wrote that he was having "a horrible time" writing an outline for Willoughby. Bill Canaway, the co-author of the screenplay for The Ipcress File, was also hired to work on the script. At one point, the film director John Boorman was briefly involved. Despite interest from Anglo-Amalgamated Film Distributors and Anglo Embassy Productions in early 1966, the project was shelved later that year.