The Moneypenny Diaries [Hardcover]

Kate Westbrook (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 13, 2008

My heart breaks for James---so begin the explosive, true, private diaries of Miss Jane Moneypenny, personal secretary to Secret Service chief M and colleague and confidante of James Bond. Bound by the Offcial Secrets Act not to reveal anything about her work, Miss Moneypenny is forced to lead a secretive, clandestine life. But, contrary to popular belief, she was not simply a bystander while James Bond saw all the action.

Miss Moneypenny’s experience with mystery stretches all the way back to her childhood in Africa, when her father inexplicably disappeared in action during World War II. Now, as a young woman in 1960s London, Miss Moneypenny unknowingly stumbles upon her father’s trail. In a position like hers, there’s no file she can’t access, and no document she can’t read. Yet Miss Moneypenny is forced to decide whether it’s worth risking everything---her job, her safety, and even international security---for the possibility of finding her father alive.

A life of espionage has personal as well as political ramifications. For Jane Moneypenny, the price is high. Romantic relationships with outsiders are necessarily built on lies, and she automatically questions the motives of every man she grows close to. For as her diary quickly reveals, Miss Moneypenny is involved in far more than office politics.

Guarding so many secrets and with no one to confide in, she finds herself breaking the first rule of espionage. Unbeknownst to anyone, she keeps a diary charting her innermost thoughts and state secrets.

These diaries should not have been written. They were never supposed to be read. . . .

Praise for The Moneypenny Diaries:

“Beats pretend-Flemings hands down.”
–Literary Review (UK)

“Brilliant…Bridget Jones’ Diary crossed with Spooks, but set in the 60s.”
–The Mirror (UK)

“There is more to Moneypenny than meets the GoldenEye, as she embarks on her very own secret mission…Read her riveting account in this explosive, page-turning diary.”
–OK Magazine (UK)

“Thrilling”
--Joanna Lumley

“A thoroughly enjoyable romp”
--The Guardian (UK)

“A damned good read”
--Roger Moore

“A compelling tour de force”
--Jeffrey Deaver

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hardcore Ian Fleming fans and Cold War historians will best appreciate the initial installment of Miss Moneypenny's diaries, edited by Kate Westbrook (the pseudonym of British author Samantha Weinberg), the niece of the iconic James Bond supporting character, who was introduced in the first Bond book, Casino Royale. Covering the year 1962, the diary entries center on personal issues important to Jane Vivien (for the first time readers learn Moneypenny's full name), like her search for information about her father's mysterious disappearance in 1940. The Cuban missile crisis eventually looms large in a narrative slowed by copious footnotes. James Bond, still in mourning for his bride, Tracy, who died in a tragic car accident, acts surprisingly wimpy, except during a Cuban adventure when some much needed heat between Moneypenny and 007 is briefly generated. Two more volumes, hopefully more thrilling, will follow from the woman many revere as the first Bond girl. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* There are so many things to love about this book, it’s difficult to know where to start. It’s a dead-on simulacrum of a published diary, complete with copious footnotes and editorial commentary. The diarist, Jane Moneypenny, the “Miss Moneypenny” of the James Bond stories, is one of spy fiction’s most interesting and underexplored supporting characters. The period covered by the book, the year 1962, is an important one in the life of Mr. Bond (it’s the year he marries and soon thereafter becomes a widower). And the book provides fans of Ian Fleming’s most famous creation with a fresh and insightful new angle on the life and career of 007—not to mention a glimpse into the life of Miss Moneypenny herself, who emerges as a charming woman with her own secret adventures. This is the first of a series of Moneypenny Diaries, some of which have already been published in the UK, where the series initially prompted speculation that the diaries were real and that Miss Moneypenny and Bond himself actually existed. The book’s so-called editor, Kate Westbrook, eventually admitted that the diaries were a spoof and that she was the author (Westbrook is a pseudonym for Samantha Weinberg). Even without controversy over their provenance, Miss Moneypenny’s diaries will delight American readers who still enjoy the mix of fantasy, adventure, and comedy that made the Bond books such fun. --David Pitt

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; First Edition edition (May 13, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312383185
• ISBN-13: 978-0312383183
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #756,913 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Oh, Jane...", May 16, 2008

By 

John Cox (Studio City, CA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Moneypenny Diaries (Hardcover)

The Moneypenny Diaries is the first in a trilogy of books by Samantha Weinberg (a.k.a. Kate Westbrook) chronicling the heretofore untold adventures of M's popular personal secretary. Until now, Miss Moneypenny has only been a figure behind a desk with a particular fascination for an agent with the number 007. But now she has a first name (Jane), a rich past (colonial Africa), and quite a few "Bondian" tales to tell of her own. The Moneypenny Diaries also reveal exactly what happened to 007 during those dark days between the books 'On Her Majesty's Secrete Service' and 'You Only Live Twice.' We even get to see Bond and Moneypenny join forces and play a major role in the real-life Cuban Missile Crisis!

I've now read the entire series (via the already released UK editions) and I highly recommend getting this excellent first book and getting hooked. It is a VERY good series and a must for Bond fans. Fans of the films might be a bit surprised to see their super agent in such a poor mental state after the murder of his wife, Tracy...but that's what makes the Bond books such a different (and, IMO, a far more rich) experience. The Moneypenny Diaries is a great way to start that experience.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An entertaining book, May 11, 2007

By 

M. Haddad (Cairo, Egypt) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Moneypenny Diaries : Guardian Angel (Paperback)

I thought this book would be full of laughs and "behind-the-scenes" giggles at the expense of Bond (all in good fun, of course). It isn't, not at all, but it is, nonetheless a really good book! It is well written, with details that correspond to the Ian Fleming series, and even to Ian Fleming himself. I look forward to the next in the series.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Really Moneypenny!, July 9, 2008

By 

Jeanne Tassotto (Trapped in the Midwest) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Moneypenny Diaries (Hardcover)

Imagine that Miss Moneypenny of James Bond fame was a real person, as was Bond himself and that all the Bond adventures were based on fact. Astonding right? Now imagine that your quiet aunt Jane, was in fact Moneypenny and not the just the career civil servant you had always thought. This is the premise of the series (three books to date) of novels drawn from the secret diaries kept by Moneypenny and delivered ten years after her death to her niece, Kate, a Cambridge lecturer.

Kate has decided that the diaries should be brought to the public's attention to reveal what really happened behind the scenes of some of the most significant events of the late twentieth century. She has chosed to release the volumes, one year at a time with the events and people depicted therein properly documented and footnoted in a scholarly manner. The year she has decided to begin with is 1962, the year of the Cuban Missle Crisis and the year Bond was married and left a widower in a few hours time. Through Moneypenny's diaries we are returned to London of the swinging sixties, into the shadowy secret realm of MI6 to meet the real M, see the shiny new gadgets developed by Q and learn there is more, much more to the efficient Moneypenny than we had ever guessed.

This is a delightful take on the Bond saga. The author manages to remain true to the original stories and characters while intruducing new threads into the Bond universe. Soon the reader is caught up into the on going questions of what really had happened to Moneypenny's father during the waning days of WWII, to whether or not she could really trust her enigmatic 'R', who the mole in MI6 really was and whether or not Bond ever did keep that long promised dinner date. Hopefully more will be revealed in the next installment of Moneypenny's secret diaries.