FLEMING, Ian [191] pp. 1961 The Book Club 7 1/2" x 5 1/4" Thunderball is the ninth book and the eighth novel in Ian Fleming's James Bond series. It was published in the UK by Jonathan Cape on 27 March 1961. The first novelisation of an unfilmed James Bond screenplay, it was born from a collaboration by five people: Ian Fleming, Kevin McClory, Jack Whittingham, Ivar Bryce and Ernest Cuneo. The first edition was published under Fleming's name, after which a legal case brought against him by McClory and Whittingham led to them being given writing credits. The story centres on the theft of a pair of nuclear weapons by the crime organisation SPECTRE and the subsequent attempted blackmail of the Western powers for their return. James Bond of the Secret Service travels to the Bahamas to work with his friend Felix Leiter, who had been seconded back into the CIA for the investigation. Thunderball introduces SPECTRE's leader Ernst Stavro Blofeld, in the first of three appearances in Bond novels, with On Her Majesty's Secret Service and You Only Live Twice; the three novels are now known as the "Blofeld trilogy".
