One of Fleming's few books that did not feature his superspy creation, James Bond, The Diamond Smugglers tells the true story about a huge diamond smuggling operation responsible for smuggling 10 million pounds sterling worth of gems out of Africa every year. The novel expands upon articles Fleming wrote for the London Sunday Times in 1957.
The book is often erroneously listed in some sources as a Bond novel, in part because it was published by the same company. It was, in fact, the first Fleming work to carry the Glidrose Productions copyright. This company, which later became known as Ian Fleming Publications, holds the publishing rights to all official James Bond novels.
Around the time of Fleming's death, there were plans to produce a movie based upon this book, but it never materialized.
Fleming's fascination with the world of diamond smugglers also manifested itself in his James Bond novel, Diamonds Are Forever, and formed the basis of a story Fleming and author Geoffrey Jenkins allegedly collaborated on in the 1950s, which formed the basis of Jenkins' unpublished James Bond novel, Per Fine Ounce.
There were still unofficial channels, however, that the diamond cartel did not control: the smuggling routes that led from the diamond mines and diggings in southern and western Africa to entrepots such as Monrovia and Beirut.
Sillitoe realized that the illicit diamond traffic could not be ended decisively as long as the smugglers had high rewards for their goods and only minimal risks of being captured.
Accordingly, the division of Sierra Leonean diamonds was suddenly revised in early 1970.
Diamond buyers at marketing centres in Belgium, Israel and India are being encouraged to refuse diamonds unless they are accompanied by certificates of origin.
Although conflict diamonds account for a tiny percentage of the more than $7bn in trade each year, their contribution to the war chests in Africa's civil wars is substantial.
While efforts to stop the trade in conflict diamonds are commendable, analysts believe they will be ineffective unless governments in countries affected by war have full control over the areas where the richest diamond mines are situated.
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