`Casino Royale` by Ian Fleming makes the top 10 most valuable first editions list

08-Sep-2003 • Bond News

The Herald have reported that an old Ian Fleming novel lurking in your attic could be worth a small fortune.

Catherine Porter, a consultant in illustrated and children`s books for Sotherby`s auction house in London, believes books worth tens of thousands of pounds are lying gathering dust in the nation`s attics.

Ian Fleming`s first James Bond adventure "Casino Royale" makes the top 10.

The very best prices are paid for those in immaculate condition and with their original dust jackets, and those with handwritten inscriptions by the author are worth more.

Top 10 UK adult fiction first editions (all prices quoted in Pounds Sterling

Arthur Conan Doyle The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902): 80,000 with dust jacket; 5000 no dust jacket

James Joyce Ulysses (Paris 1922): 40,000 for 150 large-paper copies; 2000 for first edition UK 1936

Virginia Woolf Jacob`s Room (1922): 25,000 with dust jacket; 1000 no dust jacket

J R R Tolkien The Lord of the Rings (1954-55): 25,000 with dust jacket; 3000 no dust jacket

Graham Greene Brighton Rock (1938): 20,000 with dust jacket; 700 no dust jacket

Ian Fleming Casino Royale (1953): 15,000 with dust jacket; 1000 no dust jacket

Evelyn Waugh Vile Bodies (1930): 15,000 with dust jacket; 500 no dust jacket

D H Lawrence Lady Chatterley`s Lover (Florence, 1928): 15,000; 500 first UK edition 1929

Agatha Christie Death on the Nile (1937): 13,000; 800 no dust jacket

John Le Carre Call for the Dead (1961): 8000 with dust jacket; 500 without a dust jacket

Thanks to Scorpion for the alert.