| 2) PAN BOOKS - OCTOPUSSY The Ian Fleming "Octopussy" variation from the Still Life Series by Pan is most probably a printing error with one brown and one green. The green colour on the copy on the right wraps around the entire book suggesting that the brown ink used on this 1976 edition differed from the 1973 edition on the left and over time has gradually changed colour. In this case fading caused by sunlight is unlikely as the entire cover is affected and not just the spine, however I'm now aware of some collectors having editions of this book half brown and half green so who knows ! | |
© PAN 1973 |
© PAN 1976 |
| 3) CORONET - NOBODY LIVES FOR EVER The John Gardner "Nobody Lives For Ever" variation from Sniper Series by Coronet is deliberate with the light blue/teal cover from the UK and the red Coronet-General cover from Canada. Another notable difference are the gold foil gun crosshairs on the left cover, which are black on the right. | |
© CORONET 1986 |
© CORONET-GENERAL 1986 |
| 5) CORONET-GENERAL - LICENCE RENEWED The John Gardner "Licence Renewed" variation from the Masterspy Series by Coronet-General Books differ in both colour (light brown versus dark brown) and also the gold text on the cover on the left compared to the yellow text on the right. Both of these editions are from Canada. | |
© CORONET-GENERAL 1982 |
© CORONET-GENERAL 1982 |
| 6) CORONET - LICENCE RENEWED Another John Gardner "Licence Renewed" variation from the Masterspy Series are these two covers from Coronet Books. Both are first edition paperbacks from 1981 however the copy on the left is rarer and many believe the reason for this is the James Bond logo (the 007 digits with the "7" forming the handle of a gun) was an unauthorised addition to the cover and no permission had been sought from the copyright owners prior to printing. So the cover on the right was a replacement for this oversight. | |
© CORONET 1981 |
© CORONET 1981 |
| 7) SIGNET - OCTOPUSSY The Ian Fleming "Octopussy" variation from the Black Signet Series differs in the colour of much of the text on the cover. For a start the cover on the left shows the text "James Bond" in red and "Octopussy" in white. The cover on the right shows the text "James Bond" in white and "Octopussy" in orange. | |
© SIGNET 1970 |
© SIGNET 1967 Cover Artist: Paul Bacon |
| 8) BERKLEY/CHARTER VARIATIONS The John Gardner "No Deals, Mr. Bond" and "Nobody Lives Forever" variations below from the Three Images Series differ in the text at the top of the covers. Also the covers on the right, published by Charter, have a facsimile of Ian Fleming's signature which is absent from the covers on the left, published by Berkley. | |
© BERKLEY 1987 |
© BERKLEY 1987 |
© BERKLEY 1987 |
© BERKLEY 1987 |
| 10) BERKLEY - ICEBREAKER The John Gardner "Icebreaker" variations from the Silhouette Series published by Berkley Books differ in the colour of the text that reads "James Bond". The cover on the left with the gold text is the **th edition from 198? while the cover on the right is the 5th printing from 1986. The red colour variation between the two books is probably caused due to fading. | |
© BERKLEY 1983 |
© BERKLEY 1986 |
| 12) PAN BOOKS - DR. NO (MOVIE TIE-IN) These two variations of Ian Fleming's UK "Dr No" movie tie-in published by Pan Books in 1962 were pointed out to me by Tim K. at Tikit and Alan T. The cover on the left was published by Great Pan with the older logo in the top right corner while the cover on the right (9th printing) was published by Pan with the newer logo. For those completists there are actually two versions of the "Dr No" Great Pan movie tie-ins with different book codes: X335 (6th printing) and G335 (7th printing). For more information have a look at the excellent Collecting Fleming website. | |
© GREAT PAN 1962 |
© PAN 1962 |
| 13) PAN BOOKS - ON HER MAJESTY'S SECRET SERVICE These two variations of Ian Fleming's "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" published by Pan Books in 1964 and 1965 respectively differ in the colour of the title text. The cover on the left was published by Pan Books with blue/purple text (3rd printing) while the cover on the right was published by Pan with light green text (5th printing). The blue/purple text apparently appeared on most 1st to 3rd printings of this cover while 4th to 6th printings have green text. And if you're fortunate enough to have a 1st printing of this paperback congratulations because it's worth much more than you'd expect. For more information about this colour variation have a look at the excellent Collecting Fleming website. | |
© PAN 1964 |
© PAN 1965 |
| 15) CORONET-GENERAL - ICEBREAKER Both of these covers were published by Coronet - General Books in Canada in 1983. The "Icebreaker" cover on the left is almost identical to the same title published by Coronet in the UK. These covers are part of the Masterspy Series. Like the UK edition the cover on the left also features the title in a metallic silver like text. However the cover on the right has the title in light blue instead. I wasn't aware this variation existed until Ian S., a frequent visitor to this website, pointed it out to me. Thanks Ian. Further variations of this cover can also be found below on this page. | |
© CORONET-GENERAL 1984 |
© CORONET-GENERAL 1984 |
| 16) CORONET - FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE Here's two cover variations of Ian Fleming's "From Russia With Love" published by Coronet in 1996. Both covers were illustrated by David Scutt. Similar to The Three Faces Of Dr No the colour of the text of the author's name differs; in this case the cover on the left has embossed grey text while the cover on the right has non-embossed metallic silver like text. This is also the same on the spine (sans any embossing). These covers are part of the James Bond 007 Series. I'm yet to find other covers in this series with metallic silver like text but who knows ?! John F., a visitor to this site, pointed out these variations in an email back in 2012, and it's taken 10 years but I finally managed to find the metallic silver copy. Thanks John. | |
© CORONET 1996 |
© CORONET 1996 Cover Artist: David Scutt |
| 22) SIGNET - THE SPY WHO LOVED ME Three different copies of Ian Fleming's "The Spy Who Loved Me" published by Signet in the 1960's with Barye Phillips' cover art. The copy on the left is the standard copy that's part of the James Bond Thriller Series, the centre copy features a arrow with the text "The smashing new James Bond!", while the copy on the right that's part of the James Bond Thriller 007 Series features a review in the arrow with the text "Sparks fly in this one". | ||
© SIGNET 1965 Cover Artist: Barye Phillips |
© SIGNET 1965 Cover Artist: Barye Phillips |
© SIGNET 1965 Cover Artist: Barye Phillips |
| 24) BERKLEY/CHARTER - FOR SPECIAL SERVICES Below are four U.S. editions of John Gardner's "For Special Services" from the Silhouette Series. Three were published by Berkley Books, while the fourth in the bottom right, was published by Charter Books. The top left edition features a silver foil silhouette of James Bond, whereas the other three use a black silhouette. Additionally, the end of the gun barrel in the top left silhouette aligns with the letter "L" in "Special," while on the other covers the barrel extends beyond the "L". Both editions in the top row were released in 1982, with the top right edition labelled as an "International Edition". The blurb at the top of both books differ too with one reading "The New York Times Bestseller" and the other "The International Bestseller - Now In Paperback". The Berkley edition in the bottom left was published in 1986, and the Charter edition bottom right followed in 1987. Aside from the different publisher logos, the covers in the bottom row are otherwise identical, so I have only included the Charter version for completeness. | |
© BERKLEY 1982 |
© BERKLEY 1982 |
© BERKLEY 1986 |
© BERKLEY 1987 |
| 26) CORONET - ICEBREAKER FANGS Below are four different versions of "Icebreaker" from Coronet. The first row are UK versions while the second row are Coronet-General from Canada. The story of the two UK covers belongs to John Cox and Dan Gale at The Book Bond. The mistake versions with white "fangs" (right column) are the most difficult to find. | |
© CORONET 1983 |
© CORONET 1983 |
© CORONET-GENERAL 1984 |
© CORONET-GENERAL 1984 |
| 27) PENGUIN - CASINO ROYALE Below are six different versions of "Casino Royale" from Penguin. Top left is the UK edition, the other five are US editions. The bottom three covers are movie tie-in versions, the cover featuring text explaining "Now a major motion picture" in a circle is relatively easy to find, while the other two are very uncommon. There are also two prototype covers similar to these which you might be interested in seeing on the Prototypes page of this website. And just as a bit of trivia there is a hardback omnibus titled "The Bond Files Volume 1 - Three James Bond Novels By Ian Fleming" that features the same cover image, however as it's a hardback it's not included on this site. Penguin certainly liked this cover image from Richie Fahey ! | ||
© PENGUIN 2002 Cover Artist: Richie Fahey |
© PENGUIN 2006 Cover Artist: Richie Fahey |
© PENGUIN 2008 Cover Artist: Richie Fahey |
© PENGUIN 2006 Cover Artist: Richie Fahey |
© PENGUIN 2006 Cover Artist: Richie Fahey |
© PENGUIN 2006 |