Ian Fleming had a long fascination with diamond smuggling, and his investigation into the illicit trade in 1950s Africa yielded both a well-received nonfiction book, The Diamond Smugglers, and the James Bond novel Diamonds Are Forever. In it, Bond investigates a diamond-smuggling pipeline which begins in French Guinea and ends in Las Vegas. The title calls for a drink that is clear to the centre, but with remarkable depths of flavour. Against the backdrop of an excellent vodka, subtle notes of pear and citrus complement a light and floral Champagne, and the aromatized wine (Lillet Blanc) adds enough complexity to make this cocktail an enduring classic. A chunk of clear ice keeps the drink chilled with minimum dilution and provides a smart visual reference to the name of the drink.
15ml (½fl oz) Belvedere vodka (or other premium vodka)
½ teaspoon pear eau de vie
15ml (½fl oz) crème de poire
15ml (½fl oz) Lillet Blanc
2 dashes of lemon bitters
Brut Champagne, to top up
strip of lemon peel
Measure the vodka, eau de vie, crème de poire, Lillet and bitters into a frosted mixing glass and top up with ice. Stir until very cold, then strain into a frosted coupette over a single large chunk of ice, preferably moulded or carved into a diamond shape. Top with the Champagne, spritz the lemon peel over the glass to express the oils and discard.
NOTE: ice chunks are the next level up from a cube. Many cocktail bars now buy huge blocks of clear ice, which they saw or pick into the right size.
DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER
This time, he thought, there could be no doubt about it. This stone also had the thirty-two facets above and the twenty-four below of the brilliant-cut, and it was also about twenty carats, but what he now held had a heart of blue-white flame, and the infinite colours reflected and refracted from its depths lanced into his eye like needles. With his left hand he picked up the quartz dummy and held it beside the diamond in front of his glass. It was a lifeless chunk of matter, almost opaque beside the dazzling translucence of the diamond, and the rainbow colours he had seen a few minutes before were now coarse and muddy.
Bond put down the piece of quartz and gazed again into the heart of the diamond. Now he could understand the passion that diamonds had inspired through the centuries, the almost sexual love they aroused among those who handled them and cut them and traded in them. It was domination by a beauty so pure that it held a kind of truth, a divine authority before which all other material things turned, like the bit of quartz, to clay. In these few minutes Bond understood the myth of diamonds, and he knew that he would never forget what he had suddenly seen inside the heart of this stone.
DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER
CHAPTER 2. GEM QUALITY
Fleming developed his ideas for Diamonds Are Forever while staying with his old friend Ivar Bryce, in his house, Black Hole Hollow Farm, in Vermont’s Green Mountains – the book takes Bond to the nearby Saratoga Springs. The landscape was also the inspiration for the setting of The Spy Who Loved Me, and provided the backdrop for Fleming’s short story For Your Eyes Only.
During his research, Fleming was introduced to Sir Percy Sillitoe, a former head of MI5, who was working for De Beers investigating the illegal diamond business. Sillitoe gave Fleming much real-life material about the black market.
Renowned American-British crime writer Raymond Chandler said of Diamonds Are Forever, “The remarkable thing about this book is that it is written by an Englishman. The scene is almost entirely American and it rings true to an American. I am unaware of any other writer who has accomplished this.”
After he was diagnosed with heart disease, the doctors warned Fleming not to drink or smoke. Fleming was horrified at the suggestion, and rather than give up drinking altogether he compromised by switching from gin to vodka, which he believed to be better for him.
