The Diamond Smugglers

The Diamond Smugglers (1957) is true-crime reporting, not a Bond story. Fleming describes the illegal diamond trade through a security investigator he calls John Blaize.

By Does Your Duck QuackUpdated 29 September 2026

Type

Non-fiction

First published

November 1957, Jonathan Cape

Suggested age

14+

Audiobook

Barnaby Edwards

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Read by Barnaby Edwards, 3 hours 38 minutes

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An illustrated scene inspired by The Diamond Smugglers

AI-generated illustration inspired by The Diamond Smugglers; not a book cover.

The story, without spoilers

The book grew out of articles for The Sunday Times, serialised from 15 September 1957. Fleming's main source is an investigator given the alias John Blaize, who had worked on tracing stones that slipped out of legitimate channels.

Through him, Fleming explains how a small, valuable object crosses borders, why the trade tempts people, and how hard a stone becomes to follow once it has changed hands. He writes it with a thriller writer's instinct for conversations and leads.

Can I start here?

Read it any time, but it is most rewarding next to Diamonds Are Forever, which came out of the same interest.

What stands out

It shows Fleming applying his fiction skills to journalism. Treat its picture of policing and the diamond business as a 1950s view, not a current account.

Serialised in The Sunday Times from 15 September 1957.
The Audible UK recording is read by Barnaby Edwards.

Content notes

Suggested age 14+. Real-world crime, colonial-era framing and dated economic and political assumptions.

Adaptations

No film was made. Ian Fleming Publications notes that a film version came close to happening.

Where it is set

Southern Africa and international trade routes