London: Jonathan Cape, 1961. First Edition, first issue, Binding A. Original black cloth with skeletal hand in blind on the upper board. In original dust-wrapper illustrated by Richard Chopping with printed price 15s. Backstrip of jacket stained in places, not price-clipped, slightly chipped at ends. Without old inscriptionsm etc. A VG+ copy. Thunderball is the novel in which Fleming first introduces arch Bond villain Ernest Stavro Blofeld. Though Bond and Blofeld never actually meet here, it is in this book that Bond first battles the schemes of SPECTRE, Blofeld's criminal organisation. Thunderball Is the first part of the so-called 'Blofeld' trilogy, followed by On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1963) and You Only Live Twice (1964).