27-04-2025
How Bond illustrator tackled a toad for 007 book cover
Ian Fleming's illustrator tried to catch a toad while drawing one of the amphibians for the James Bond series.
Richard Chopping designed covers for the 007 books, including You Only Live Twice, which featured a toad sitting beneath a chrysanthemum.
A first edition of the 1964 novel that includes a lengthy inscription detailing his artistic methods and how he believed he was being scammed by the author has now emerged.
It revealed that he insisted on reading the novels before deciding on a theme, despite an impatient Fleming telling him: 'You don't want to do that, it's all rubbish.'
Chopping, who chose the symbolic image of a large toad, wanted to sketch from a live model, and tried and failed to catch one of the creatures at a nature reserve near his home in Wivenhoe, Essex.
After the failure, a friend said he could borrow her daughter's pet toad as long as it was returned to its vivarium when he had finished.
Chopping wrote: 'Fleming had very little to do with this cover, I chose the objects and dispersed them as I wanted.
'He used to tell me what he wanted but I got fed up with that and said, 'I must read the book first'. He said, 'Oh you don't want to do that, it's all rubbish'.
He continued: 'The chrysanthemum was difficult but I had a dragonfly.
'But the toad did present difficulties. Eventually I found one by asking around. It came from a friend's daughter who taught school in London.
'She left the key hidden of her flat and I had to pick it up from her vivarium and return it when I'd finished. It did tend to sit fairly still but every once in a while I would look up and it had lumbered off my drawing board.
'I had to catch flies for it as I am such a slow worker. For all I know the model still lives.'
Chopping also claimed that Fleming did not pay him enough for his work, complaining that the author was 'rather mean' and offered him 'peanuts' for his work.
He wrote: 'Fleming was rather mean. When I asked him if I could have a 'ROYALTY' on the books instead of him buying my pictures outright for peanuts... He said, almost before I finished my sentence, 'No – my company wouldn't wear it' so I upped my fee thereafter but they were still cheap.'
The inscription was found in a first edition of You Only Live Twice, which was given to a friend of Chopping's as a gift and has been put up for auction for £300.
Daniel Wright, the auctioneer, said: 'It is a very interesting item and gives us an insight into the relationship between Fleming and Chopping.
'I don't think they really got on and certainly Chopping thought he was being scammed by Fleming over a lack of royalty payments for his work.'
