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'''On Her Majesty's Secret Service''' is the tenth novel in Ian Fleming's James Bond series. First published by Jonathan Cape on April 1, 1963, it is the first novel to be written after the start of the official film series by EON Productions.
''On Her Majesty's Secret Service'' is considered the second book in what is known as the "Blofeld trilogy", which resumes from ''Thunderball'' after the interlude novel ''The Spy Who Loved Me'', and concludes with ''You Only Live Twice''.
In 1969 it was adapted as the sixth film in the EON Productions James Bond series and was the first and only film to star George Lazenby as British Secret Service agent Commander James Bond.

Contents

Plot summary

Differences from Movie

Characters in ''On Her Majesty's Secret Service''

Trivia

Publication history

Comic strip adaptation

Plot summary

For more than a year, James Bond, British secret agent 007, has been trailing the private criminal organization SPECTRE and its leader, Ernst Stavro Blofeld, in 'Operation Bedlam'. This pursuit is partially described in ''The Spy Who Loved Me'', where Bond explains to Vivienne Michel the aftermath of 'Operation Thunderball' and the escape of Blofeld. By the time of ''On Her Majesty's Secret Service'', Bond is convinced SPECTRE no longer exists. Frustrated by his inability to find Blofeld, Bond composes a letter of resignation for M. Meanwhile, Bond encounters a suicidal, beautiful, young woman named Teresa di Vicenzo and interrupts her attempted drowning. He is then captured.
Contessa Teresa di Vicenzo ('Tracy' to her friends) is the daughter of Marc-Ange Draco, head of the Unione Corse, the biggest European crime syndicate. Draco believes the only way to save his daughter is for Bond to marry her. To facilitate this, he offers Bond a great dowry—as well as Blofeld's whereabouts; Bond refuses the offer, but agrees to continue romancing Tracy while her mental health improves.
Draco informs Bond that Blofeld has been hiding in Switzerland; upon further investigation, Bond discovers he has assumed the title and name Comte Balthazar de Bleuville. Blofeld has undergone plastic surgery to physically pass as heir of the de Bleuville bloodline—to the degree that he has asked the London College of Arms to declare him the reigning count. Impersonating a College of Arms representative, Sir Hilary Bray, Bond infiltrates Blofeld's lair atop Piz Gloria and finally meets Blofeld.
At Piz Gloria, Bond learns Blofeld has been curing a group of young British and European women of their livestock and food allergies. In truth, Blofeld and his homely aide, Irma Bunt, have been brainwashing them into carrying biological warfare agents back to Britain and their home countries in order to destroy Britain's agriculture economy, upon which post-World War II Britain depends.
Believing himself discovered, Bond escapes by ski from Piz Gloria and encounters Tracy, who helps him escape SPECTRE. Smitten by the resourceful, headstrong woman, he proposes marriage, and she accepts.
Helped by Draco's Union Corse, Bond mounts an air assault against the clinic and Blofeld, who escapes; Blofeld later avenges himself on James and Tracy Bond by killing Tracy moments after their wedding.

Differences from Movie

★ In the book, Bond didn't save Tracy from suicide until after they had met at the casino.

★ In the book, Blofeld, not Irma Bunt, pulled the trigger killing Tracy.

★ Bond only slept with one Piz Gloria patient in the book, not two (or, as implied, three).

★ The literary Bond fled Blofeld's lair before being found out. In the movie, he was caught, then escaped.

★ Ruby Windsor became Ruby Bartlett.

★ Blofeld's alleged title went from Comte de Bleuville to Comte de Bleuchamp.

★ Tracy was not kidnapped in the book and so was not involved in the Piz Gloria assault.

★ In the book, Bond wanted to be relieved of Operation Bedlam and when he wasn't, he contemplated resignation. By contrast, in the movie, Bond was forced off the case and contemplated resignation because of not being allowed to search for Blofeld.

★ Further, in the book, Bond had believed that Blofeld must be dead and SPECTRE gone. In the movie, SPECTRE still existed (though not as big, about the size of Blofeld's new SPECTRE in the novel) and Bond knew that Blofeld was very much alive somewhere.

★ The novel ''You Only Live Twice'' follows ''OHMSS'' (concluding the trilogy begun with ''Thunderball''). The 1967 movie ''You Only Live Twice'' precedes the 1969 movie ''OHMSS'' (and necessarily as a result, that previous film was a far looser adaptation of Fleming's work).

★ In the novel, Blofeld only threatened the United Kingdom where in the movie, he threatened the entire world.

Characters in ''On Her Majesty's Secret Service''

★ 'James Bond' - British Secret Service agent, Commander James Bond 007, is the protagonist of the story. Since the events of ''Thunderball'', he has been tracking Ernst Stavro Blofeld to no avail. One day he meets and saves Teresa di Vicenzo. Later he meets her father who offers Bond her hand in marriage. Bond accepts only if her father, Marc-Ange Draco, a powerful criminal boss helps him track down Blofeld. Draco accepts and ultimately aids Bond in finding Blofeld at Piz Gloria.

★ 'M' - M is the codename of Bond's boss in the Secret Service. Since ''Thunderball'', he assigns Bond to ''Operation Bedlam'', a large secret service operation to track and kill Ernst Stavro Blofeld. He is frequently helped by his secretary Miss Moneypenny and his Chief of Staff Bill Tanner.

★ 'Ernst Stavro Blofeld' - With SPECTRE virtually destroyed, Blofeld has hidden himself away at Piz Gloria under the name Comte Balthazar de Bleuville. There he has started a treatment clinic for women with allergies. Instead of helping to cure these allergies, however, he is actually brainwashing them into carrying biological agents back to England to destroy it's agriculture economy.

★ 'Countess Teresa di Vicenzo' - The daughter of Marc-Ange Draco, she married the Italian Count Giulio di Vicenzo who, during their marriage, got a hold of a large portion of her money before eventually leaving her. During this marriage, Teresa had a child, who later died of spinal meningitis. These two events drastically affected her life and caused her to become suicidal, however, during one attempt she was saved by James Bond. When her attitude towards life improves due to this encounter, her father offers Bond her hand in marriage.

★ 'Ruby Windsor' - A young woman staying at Piz Gloria believing that treatments performed by Blofeld are helping to cure her allergy to chicken. She aids Bond by helping him ascertain the names of all the women staying at Piz Gloria that are secretly being brainwashed.

★ 'Irma Bunt' - Blofeld's mistress and secretary. She helps him set up his clinic at Piz Gloria.

★ 'Marc-Ange Draco' - The caporegime of the Union Corse, a criminal organisation, he is the father of Teresa di Vicenzo and eventually offers Bond her hand in hopes of making her happy and preventing further attempts at suicide. Bond accepts, but requests Draco's help in tracking down and putting an end to Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

★ 'Sir Hilary Bray' - A friend of Sable Basilisk, the junior officer of arms of the College of Arms, Bond uses his name to infiltrate Piz Gloria.

★ 'Shaun Campbell' - Campbell is an agent of the British Secret Service, stationed at station Z. He makes his way to Piz Gloria where he is caught and tortured. He eventually reveals that James Bond is actually impersonating Sir Hilary Bray.

Trivia

★ The book was the first James Bond novel published after the start of the film series. In tribute, Fleming mentions ''Dr. No'' co-star Ursula Andress by name in one chapter describing her as a beautiful movie star. It is usually believed that Ian Fleming also paid tribute to the first official James Bond, Sean Connery, by stating that 007's surname is of Scottish heritage. While this may be true, Bond is largely based on Ian Fleming whose grandfather, Robert Fleming, was also from Scotland.

★ The character Sable Basilisk whom Bond meets at the College of Arms is a play on the title Rouge Dragon. ''Draco'', another name for Dracula, is etymologically linked to ''dragon''. At the time, Fleming was aided by Robin de la Lanne-Mirrlees in doing heraldic research for this novel. Robin de la Lanne-Mirrlees's own line can be traced back to the Pyrigne de la Lannes family in Spain whose members were said to be typically born without earlobes, a feature Fleming used for Ernst Stavro Blofeld's cover in this novel.

★ It is revealed in this book that Bond makes an annual pilgrimage to Royale-les-Eaux, to visit the grave of Vesper Lynd, the first 'Bond girl' he fell in love with.

★ This is when the novels started having Bond sleep with more than one girl. In previous novels, he usually only sleeps with the main "Bond girl".

★ The original title was to be ''The Belles From Hell''.

Publication history

★ April 1, 1963, Jonathan Cape, hardcover, first British edition.

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★ Cover by Richard Chopping.

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★ 45,000 total regular first edition copies were printed.

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★ Cape also released a limited edition that was signed by Ian Fleming. The edition was said to total 250 copies, however, Cape records that 293 copies were actually printed.

★ September 1963, New American Library, hardcover, first American edition.

★ August 1964, Signet Books, paperback, first American edition.

★ 1964, Pan Books, paperback, first British edition.

★ November 1977, Triad/Panther, paperback, British, ISBN 0-586-04491-4.

★ 1982, Triad/Granada, paperback, British, ISBN 0-586-04491-4.

★ June 1989, Coronet Books, paperback, British, ISBN 0-340-42565-2. Introduction by Anthony Burgess.

★ April 4, 2002, Viking/Penguin, hardcover, British, ISBN 0-670-91043-0

★ September 2003, Penguin Books, paperback, American, ISBN 0-14-200325-5.

★ October 26, 2006, Penguin Books, paperback, British. Introduction by Val McDermid

Comic strip adaptation

Main articles: James Bond comic strips

Ian Fleming's 1963 novel was adapted as a daily comic strip published in the British ''Daily Express'' newspaper, and syndicated worldwide. Possibly the longest James Bond novel adaptation, the strip ran for nearly a year, from June 29, 1964 to May 17, 1965. The adaptation, which revived the comic strip after a two-year hiatus, was written by Henry Gammidge and illustrated by John McLusky; it was reprinted by Titan Books in 2004.