The Dolly Dolly Spy

Title: The Dolly Dolly Spy

Author: Adam Diment

Year of publication: 1967, Pan edition 1968

Back cover blurb: '"The most modern hero in years... He's hip, he's hard, he likes birds, and, sometimes, marijuana..."  Daily Mirror
   PHILIP McALPINE
   "The latest Instant Hero of Fiction.  He is the contemporary Bond... McAlpine is a Secret Service agent, too.  He also has the same obsessive interest in sex.  But about there they part company..."   Sunday Mirror
   THE DOLLY DOLLY SPY
   "There is any amount of violence and almost everybody is threatened with torture or rape or both... very efficient, not too jagged and extremely easy to read"   The Bookman
   ADAM DIMENT
   "is twenty-three; his hero, Philip McAlpine, is based on himself.  That is to say he's tall, good-looking, with a taste for fast cars, planes, girls and pot... One of the most interesting characters in the book is his loathsome British secret service chief, Quine, who talks camp and calls McAlpine 'luv'.  'Quine', says Diment, 'is God.  A sort of non-caring vicious God.  He's the Establishment rolled into one.  He's all authority."  Atticus, The Sunday Times'

Quick flick reveals: Diment's Austin Powers-esque take on Bond was very popular in its day, but his star faded quickly, and he himself disappeared off the face of the planet at some point in the seventies, possibly to the extra-terrestrial body known as Switzerland.  Quite looking forward to reading a book whose hero 'is based on himself'.

Random paragraph:  'I have a fifteen-year lease on a three-roomed bit of real estate in Hampstead. A number of modish knick-knacks like expensive record players, deep foam, leather hide, swivel, wing-backed chairs, a wall-to-wall white Chinese carpet, floor-to-ceiling bookcases and a small but very good wine stock.'


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