Not so Sparkling
The Diamond Smugglers. By Ian Fleming. (Cape, 12s. 6d.) THE substance of Mr. Fleming's book is a series of reminiscences by a pseudonymous 'John Blaize,' describing his experiences as an official of the International Diamond Security Organisa- tion. This organisation was established by the Diamond Corporation—the company which con- trols the marketing of almost all the diamonds mined in every territory in Africa—as part of its campaign against the smugglers. The trade in
there racket in the world'; and it is clear `"cre are many people and a great deal of money involved in the business.
c. When we get down to cases, however, the diffi- culty is—as Mr. Fleming himself admits—that realistic writing about such matters is likely to be ,1111 of loose ends, and drabness and despair'; and the reader who goes to the book in search of high adventure may find that the malefactions of Stnmy Silberstein' and 'Henry Orford' and the tmmy are no more necessarily thrilling to read about than a place like Kimberley, say, is to visit. On me other hand, Mr. Fleming has not given him- nearly enough space to individualise—and tails make interesting, for another reason—the very drabness and shabbiness of the people and the operations he describes. The author does try hard to generate the thriller atmosphere, with many significant asides, and even more significant reficences; but the material he has gathered to- gether is recalcitrant. (It should be said that the Publishers try hard too : they include one photo- graph of 'Frau X trying on the "iron brassiere"' and another of 'Mrs. Y—caught !' though there is no mention of either of these ladies in the text.) The most interesting section of the book is that dealing with the situation in Sierra Leone. Ap- parently there are hundreds of square miles of bush 'n that country being cheerfully worked by gangs of illicit African diggers, though the rights to the ground belong to the Sierra Leone Diamond Cor- poration. At the time when Mr. Fleming wrote, conditions in the bush made it impossible for these illegal squatters to be turned out of the area, and there was nothing that the Diamond Corporation could do but to surrender some of its rights, legalise the squatters—and then buy the diamonds from them, as it was already doing with those diamonds
smuggled by the squatters across the border into Liberia. This is the stuff for a large-scale farce . . . or for some serious political reflection; but Mr. Fleming's book seems to indicate that there really isn't much in it for a writer of thrillers.
DAN JACOBSON
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