The tenth novel in Fleming’s James Bond series was first published in the UK by Jonathan Cape on 1 April 1963. The initial and secondary print runs sold out, with over 60,000 books sold in the first month. Fleming wrote the book in Jamaica whilst the first film in the Eon Productions series of films, Dr. No, was being filmed nearby. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service is the second book in what is now regarded as the “Blofeld trilogy”, beginning with Thunderball and concluding with You Only Live Twice.
The plot concerns Bond’s ongoing search to find Ernst Stavro Blofeld, after the Thunderball incident. Through contact with the College of Arms in London, Bond finds Blofeld based in Switzerland. After meeting him and discovering his latest plans, Bond attacks the centre where he is based, yet Blofeld escapes in the confusion. During the story, Bond meets and falls in love with Contessa Teresa “Tracy” di Vicenzo and they are married, though Blofeld’s subsequent actions will result in disastrous events.
Fleming makes a number of revelations about Bond’s character within the narrative, adding an emotional depth to Bond that is not present in the previous stories. In common with Fleming’s other Bond stories, he uses the names and places of people he knew or had heard of and Blofeld’s research station on Piz Gloria was based on Schloss Mittersill, which the Nazis had turned into a research establishment, where they examined the Asiatic races.
The novel went on to receive mostly positive reviews in the British and American press and it was adapted to run as a three-part story in Playboy in 1963 and then as a daily comic strip in The Daily Express newspaper from 1964–1965. In 1969 the novel was adapted as the sixth film in the Eon Productions film series and was the only film to star George Lazenby as Bond. The director Peter R. Hunt, along with producers Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman, decided to produce a more realistic film that would follow the novel closely. It was shot in Switzerland, England and Portugal from October 1968 to May 1969. Although its cinema release was not as lucrative as its predecessor You Only Live Twice, it was still one of the top performing films of the year. Critical reviews upon release were mixed, but the film’s reputation has improved over time, although reviews of Lazenby’s performance continue to vary. During the making of the film, Lazenby had decided that he would never play the role of Bond again.