James Bond 007 - You Only Live Twice - First edition novel - Published 1964

You Only Live Twice is the eleventh novel in the Ian Fleming, James Bond series and cost sixteen shillings to buy. There were 62,000 pre-orders for the book which sold out quickly. This is a first edition which was published by Jonathan Cape in the United Kingdom on 26 March 1964, with the cover designed by Richard Copping. The book was the last novel to be published in Ian Fleming’s lifetime, and sadly Fleming died of a heart attack the year this was published. You Only Live Twice was set 8 months after the death of his wife ‘Tracy Bond’ and was a novel obsessed with decline and mortality. With Bond suffering, what we know today to be Mental Health issues. Ian Flemings subsequent works were published posthumously was commissioned to design the cover of the book. The title “You Only Live Twice" comes from a Haiku (or poem); "You only live twice. Once when you are born. And once when you look death in the face." In the novel, the poem is written by James Bond for his friend Tiger Tanaka.