This first edition of Ian Fleming’s 007 novel From Russia With Love is signed and inscribed to Una Trueblood – Fleming’s secretary and real-life Miss Moneypenny.
The book, priced at £30,000 from specialist dealer John Atkinson, is inscribed on the front endpaper: To Una/Who will at last/get to the end!/from/Ian Fleming.
Known as a ‘demon typist’, Trueblood worked for over 10 years as Fleming’s secretary at The Sunday Times, typing the manuscripts of his Bond novels on his return from Jamaica each year.
![img_29-5.jpg](https://gazette-eu-west2.azureedge.net/media/69493/img_29-5.jpg?width=700&height=500&mode=max&updated=07%2f26%2f2021+10%3a01%3a09)
The inscription to the first edition of Ian Fleming’s 'From Russia With Love', priced at £30,000 from John Atkinson.
She also gave her name to Mary Trueblood, a character in Doctor No, and once remarked that Fleming wrote his first novel Casino Royale because he was on the plane to Jamaica and “read such a bad, boring thriller that he thought he could do better himself”.
The book is one of several inscribed first edition 007 novels from Trueblood’s collection for sale at John Atkinson.