Read by Rose Giles: Team Leader, Reader Services Desk

Cover Design by Ian Fleming (1908-1964)

Casino Royale (Ian Fleming)

London, 1953

This was Fleming’s first Bond novel and the only one to feature his own artwork. The relatively small initial print run (4,750 copies) and the fact that Fleming himself designed the dust jacket means that first edition copies have changed hands for tens of thousands of pounds. Subsequent dust jackets for James Bond titles, all published by Jonathan Cape in the UK, featured jackets by the artist Richard Chopping. These were often credited as ‘devised by the author and executed by Richard Chopping’.

1953.7.813