The discovery of a rare pink diamond can make a hard man burst into
tears. Diamonds, bought mainly by men for women, symbols of
infinity, light, treachery and covetousness, were formed long
before the earth and solar system came into being. Diamonds are
abundant in the universe - 'If more light were present, one might
see the long reaches of space glittering with jewels.' Read this
book on their brilliant story and you'll become hooked on the magic
of these sparklers - it's like a door opening onto a mysterious,
exceedingly glamorous world. There's something about diamonds which
makes humans go mad in pursuit of them, from the poor garimpeiros
in Brazil, home to alluvial diamonds, to the prospectors in South
Africa and NW Canada, where every square foot of land thought to
contain them is staked out in a claim. De Beers alone saw #6
million worth found on their farm in 100 years. Diamonds are mainly
found in formations in the earth's crust known as 'pipes'. The book
tells how diamonds are made, where and how they are found, how they
are cut (it can take three years to polish a diamond, to the
detriment of family life, so great is the focus of the skilled
polisher), and details the manoeuvrings of the entrepreneurs,
diamond brokers and cartels. Histories of famous diamonds including
the fist-sized Cullinan (it was thrown out of a window in disbelief
when it first appeared) the Koh-i-Nor, and the Hope diamond, also
feature. Recently a woman discovered in Canada the highest grade
cluster of diamond pipes in the world. Everyone tries to smuggle
and steal diamonds, from miners to those who work in the diamond
capitol, Charterhouse Street, London, where tens of millions of
carats a year pour into two ugly, anonymous buildings, and where
employees' every move is closely watched. In 1948 a copywriter came
up with the slogan 'diamond is forever'. This book quickens the
pulse, too, and has a nice lustre all of its own. (Kirkus UK)
Diamonds are almost completely useless but prized above all other gems. Historically they have attracted crimes of passion and awful cold-blooded efficiency, have bedazzled the greatest filmstars and the most opulent courts, and provided the incentive for adventure, destruction and greed on a monumental scale. No one company is more identified with diamonds than the South African based De Beers.
Until the collapse of the Iron Curtain they controlled the diamond market. After the collapse, they still controlled it – once they had bought up most of the diamonds emerging from the former Soviet Union. They are secretive, discreet and very, very powerful. A strike in Northern Canada could hardly seem to trouble them. Except that it prefigured a diamond rush in a territory over which they had no influence by prospectors they did not own. And the strike promised enormous riches.
Here is the true story of the strike that upset the diamond kings, and with it the history of the world’s most acclaimed diamonds, the process by which they are cut, fashioned, smuggled and stolen, the legends and superstitions that are attached to them, the characters who comprise the great diamond prospectors and, above all, of the shadowy hand of De Beers for whom diamonds are forever.
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