Other editions of book The Diamond Smugglers

‘One day in April 1957 I had just answered a letter from an expert in unarmed combat writing from a cover address in Mexico City, and I was thanking a fan in Chile, when my telephone rang…’The Diamond Smugglers is the true story of an operation responsible for smuggling millions of pounds worth of precious gems out of Africa. Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, drew on interviews with the reluctant hero of the diamond companies’ counter-attack to explore the world of the real master criminals of his time.The result rivals Fleming’s greatest spy novels.

The Diamond Smugglers is a non-fiction work by Ian Fleming that was first published in 1957 in the United Kingdom and in 1958 in the United States. 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-chief of MI5 who worked exclusively 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 (£179,484,201 in 2013 pounds[1]) worth of gems were being smuggled out of South Africa alone every year. The book expands upon articles Fleming wrote for The Sunday Times in 1957. Fleming was better known as the author of a series of books about his super-spy creation, James Bond; The Diamond Smugglers this is one of two non-fiction books he wrote. It was broadly well-received, although some reviewers commented on the stories not being new.