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.
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.
