FLEMING, Ian 'Thrilling Cities' together with 'Passage of Arms'

INSCRIBED BY IAN FLEMING TO HIS FRIENDS, ‘THE KING AND QUEEN OF HONG KONG’

FLEMING, Ian. 

Thrilling Cities. 

London: Jonathan Cape, 1963 

8vo., publisher’s original green paper wraps, decorated with the repeat pattern of the publisher’s Cape device in white; lettered in black to both covers and spine; pp. [vii], 8-221, [iii]; with 48 pages of black and white captioned and numbered photographs in two sections of 12 leaves; a few damp marks and spots to covers; spine a little rubbed and creased; with some light spotting to the fore-edge occasionally extending onto prelims; no dustwrapper, otherwise an excellent survival. 

Uncorrected proof copy, printed in a run of just 175 copies as noted by Gilbert.

[together with] 

AMBLER, Eric. 

Passage of Arms.

London: Heinemann, 1959

Small 8vo., pale yellow card wraps, lettered and lined in black to upper cover and spine, with two publisher’s devices to the head and foot of backstrip; pp. [viii], 253, [iii]; with mild shelf lean, rubbing to the edges of covers, particularly affecting spine, which has some short splits to head and foot; previous owner’s pen annotation to upper cover [Customer’s copy?]; and some finger marks, possibly Fleming’s, to the upper cover; internally clean, save some spotting to the fore-edge, just slightly extending to endpapers. A very good, scarce example. 

Uncorrected proof copy, this example inscribed by Ian Fleming to the front free endpaper in pencil: ‘To the King & Queen of Hong Kong’ and signed ‘Ian Fleming Nov. 1959.’   

Both books are now housed in a custom-made mustard yellow clamshell case with black card interior and division with ribbon pull, lettered in black to the backstrip. 

It was in 1957 that Ian Fleming, hot on the heels of ‘The Diamond Smugglers’ (in which he investigated a smuggling ring operating out of South Africa), began his research for a new non-fiction series. Originally titled ‘Round the World in Eight Adventures’, the concept was one of treasure hunting. “I have the adventures more or less mapped out”, he wrote at the time, “a real treasure hunt that is going on in the Seychelles, the Great Cave of Niah in North Borneo, gold-smuggling in Macao, and so forth, and I shall take a Leica”. The resulting journey, which took in Hong Kong, Macao, Tokyo, Honolulu, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Chicago and New York, was completed with a motor tour across Europe in the Summer of 1960, when Fleming set out in his Thunderbird through Hamburg, Berlin, Vienna, Geneva and Monte Carlo. It was published in two separate series in The Sunday Times before being collected together in book form in 1963, and included an ‘Incidental Intelligence’ section for each chapter, in which Fleming listed notable hotels, restaurants, clubs and night life.

Fleming’s first stop on his tour was Hong Kong, and as part of his journey he writes to page 15 of Thrilling Cities: “I had armed myself for the flight with the perfect book for any journey - Eric Ambler’s wonderful thriller Passage of Arms, a proof copy which had been given to me by Mr Frere of Heinemann’s for the trip. I had only been able to read a few pages and I was now determined to get back to it.” He further remarks to a fellow passenger that he “was sorry but I simply must read my book as I had to review it. The lie was effective and my companion went off to sleep hogging more than his share of the arm-rest.” Passage of Arms follows Girija Krishnan, an Indian clerk, who after discovering a cache of arms in the Malaysian jungle, attempts to improve his fortunes by finding a buyer. Drawing in a host of characters including American tourists (who act as sellers), a trio of Chinese brothers and a sleazy British former soldier, the novel was indeed the perfect choice for Fleming’s journey, being set in Malaya and other Asian countries including Hong Kong, Sumatra and Singapore.   

Fold the Corner has this precise copy Passage of Arms available for sale here. With finger marks likely to belong to Fleming himself to the upper cover, he has inscribed the book to his friends, ‘The King and Queen of Hong Kong’ who are almost certainly Mr and Mrs Hugh Barton, friends with whom Fleming stayed during his time in the city. Barton was a British Hong Kong businessman who served as chairman and managing director of Jardine Matheson from 1953 to 1963. Rising from the rank of tea taster to one of the most important and powerful figures in Hong Kong, Barton presided over a time in which  Jardine Matheson was at the peak of its economic and political height.  “Hugh Barton is perhaps the most powerful surviving English taipan (big shot) in the Orient” Fleming here offers by way of explanation. “They say that in Hong Kong…power resides in the Jockey Club, Jardine Mathesons, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, and Her Majesty’s Government  in that order. Hugh Barton, being a steward of the Jockey Club, Chairman of Jardine’s, Deputy Chairman of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank and a member of the Governor’s Legislative Council, has it every way”.  

It is therefore perhaps unsurprising that Fleming would refer to the Bartons as Hong Kong’s ‘King and Queen’, and that he would inscribe Ambler’s proof to a couple he not only admired, but would put him up during the first leg of his world tour. It is likely that he did so as a parting gift to them, before continuing his tour on to Macao. 

A rare opportunity to own these two proof copies, scarce in and of themselves, but with this inscription and association, unique thus.  

SKU: 1800320