Ian Fleming Rebinds - The continuing story: Thunderball

It's been a long wait, but rebind number 9 out of 14 is now done. With Thunderball complete, there's now just five more books to go before I complete one amazing set...

It’s quite literally been one of the longest books I’ve waited-on to get finished.

It’s certainly one that tested the binding skills of my book binder the most.

And I don’t even want to reveal how many discarded hides of leather he got through trying to make this perfect (it was many).

But finally, the latest addition to what has become a five-year (and counting) journey to rebind all of the James Bond books into a single, uniform set is here.

May I present to you: Thunderball.

It might only be book number nine out of 14 (for my previous blog on the re-bind journey so far, click here) – but for the first time, I feel like I’m finally moving closer towards being within touching distance of completing this set ambitious set.

It all started pre-Covid. Having acquired a beaten-up, barely held together first impression of Casino Royale (most collectors’ dream book, yes?), I was actually quite underwhelmed.

Yes, I bought it pretty cheaply, but that’s because it was so damaged, so distressed (the boards were soiled, damp-stained, split, moldy and in just such an awful state, with the hinges broken and internal pages in danger of getting lost completely), that keeping it as it was didn’t seem to be option.

That’s when I had the idea that it should be saved.

My big idea was to have it rebound exactly how I would want it done myself – with the cover art faithfully reproduced on the book.

My other aim was to have it housed in a similarly-adorned luxury slip case. I just needed to find a bookbinder who could do it.

Cost wasn’t an issue. At that point, the plan was just to rebind Casino Royale – to make it beautiful again, but also to preserve one of these very rare books from deteriorating completely.

And so it was, the Casino Royale was eventually produced (above), and – it must be said, to much acclaim from people I knew.

But of course… when the chance then came for me to buy a dog-earned first impressions of Live and Let Die (but with great internal pages), and then the same again for Moonraker, things suddenly began to get a lot more serious.

Three books in, I was on a roll now – surely, I needed to finish the set!

And so, at the same time as launching www.jamesbondfirsteditions.co.uk, I decided to go all out on an ambitious aim of making a set all 14 books.

It's a vanity project, I know. An investment for the future? Hopefully. Fun thing to do though? Definitely.

The rules for my rebinds are few and simple:

-       Don’t rebind a first impression donor book that doesn’t have terrible-condition outer boards. If the outers are awful but the inner pages are in superb condition still, it’s fair game to be rebound

-       Reproduce the covers exactly as they are – to keep the set uniform

Because the first three books all had largely typographical overs, there were pretty easy to do.

The books after this, however, have become successively harder, as the cover art became more detailed (see my previous blog explaining this more), and more time-intensive.

When the intricacies of the covers increase, so too does the process of designing the metal blocks to press the foil onto the leather. The key skill is no longer reproducing the cover image, but is as much about transferring the design onto the leather in a way that maintains the crisp image required. (Tricky because I use a grained leather too).

Along the way, I’ve also experimented with a special edition Casino Royale (see above) – picking out the red hearts of the jacket artwork with brand new blocks, as well as introducing a single red-heart that mimics the front board (instead of me needing to repeat the artwork of the slipcase on the book itself).

This went down so well, that (because I wasn’t too far into the set), I decided I could repeat having a second colour foil on future rebinds, and still maintain the look of a single coherent set.

And so, the prominent red rose on the jacket of Goldfinger was the next design picked out for also having the red foil treatment. It also shown above. And yes, I might well go back, and get a similar red rose done for From Russia With Love too (that one had already been done).

Thunderball smashes it! (in my opinion!)

Because I was rebinding the books in publishing order, I was excited to see how Thunderball would come out - it being the next prime candidate for a little red foil extra detailing – picking out the red of the playing card from the famous Richard Chopping DJ design.

I’m pretty happy with all my books, but I was particularly impressed when I carefully discarded the brown paper and bubble-wrap surrounding my newest arrival.

I’d known that for some time my binder was having tremendous difficulty getting such a detailed image transferred in gilt. As he explained to me - you get one go at it. If it doesn’t fix, you can’t try again, and a ‘lot’ of wasted leather starts to be got though.

With this already difficult gold design-work in place, adding just the tiniest amount of red foil detailing from the playing card is what adds additional jeopardy.

When you’ve already toiled over getting just the gold right, having to then add just the red – in exactly the right place – so that it stamps into where there is space left for it is 'incredibly' hard.

Ruin this (I think one attempt did go wrong), and the binder literally has to start all over again – redoing the gold gilt on a brand new piece of leather, then hoping the red ‘sticks’ again the next time. The foil plates are heated, and then pressed down under considerable pressure from of antique iron press. Everything has to be meticulously lined up – and to the millimeter. This isn’t easy when the plates are all upside down!

As per all my other rebinds, Thunderball is housed in the same, sturdy (and very plush, I feel), slipcase, with the spine lettering repeated along the back of the slip-case box. As ever, it’s precisely measured to allow to book to pull out without too much friction, but not be so loose that it’s not securely supported once put back in.

Have a look at all of the images above. I would love to know what you all think.

And it’s not going to get any easier…

The quest to finish my set is now entering the final few laps, but things are not going to get any easier!

Up next is The Spy Who Loved Me – also with a bright red carnation that I intend to detail out in red too.

After this, are perhaps the four most complex covers of the series to do – On Her Majesty's Secret Service (with the tricky crest and hand/pencil); followed by You Only Live Twice (this ‘will’ be a nightmare) and then the final two books.

I think The Man With The Golden Gun may offer my binder and I a slight reprieve. But that's not before the hideously-difficult Octopussy & The Living Daylights becomes my final challenge.

Thank heavens this book’s the last one, and not the first – otherwise I might now have got as far as I have.

Stay tuned for the next ones that will start to complete the set…

PS Want your own book rebound? Get in touch, we'd be happy to help...