Product Description

Jane Moneypenny is the perfect example of chic sophistication and unflappable poise. She handles her cohort of unruly 00 agents with good-humoured grace. Yet, behind her polished perfection, she exudes a certain aura of mystery.

Indeed there is more to Miss Moneypenny than meets the eye. When she hears that her favourite agent James Bond’s secret Cuban mission is jeopardised and his life in danger, she impulsively plunges into the glamorous, dangerous world of espionage to save his skin.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #173358 in Books
• Published on: 2006-05-08
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

Review

'Thrilling'

(Joanna Lumley )

'A damned good read'

(Roger Moore )

'A tour-de-force'

(Jeffrey Deaver )

'A thoroughly enjoyable romp'

 

(Guardian )

Synopsis
Jane Moneypenny is the perfect example of chic sophistication and unflappable poise. She handles her cohort of unruly 00 agents with good-humoured grace. Yet, behind her polished perfection, she exudes a certain aura of mystery. Indeed there is more to Miss Moneypenny than meets the eye. When she hears that her favourite agent James Bond's secret Cuban mission is jeopardised and his life in danger, she impulsively plunges into the glamorous, dangerous world of espionage to save his skin.

About the Author
Kate Westbrook and Miss Moneypenny are pseudonyms for Samantha Weinberg, frustrated spy and author of the best-selling A Fish Caught in Time – the Search for the Coelacanth, and Pointing From the Grave, which won the CWA Gold Dagger for Non-fiction.

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Customer Reviews

A worthy addition to the Bond canon
A very clever and entertaining novel, the first of a planned trilogy, that manages to fill in the gaps around Fleming's James Bond books convincingly. Written as diaries edited after Moneypenny's death by her niece, we get a realistic backstory of Moneypenny's childhood in Africa; her recruitment into the secret service; and her relationships with boss M, the 00 agents and other MI6 employees.
The starting point is Bond's return to work after the death of his wife Tracy Draco (at the end of OHMSS), and coincides with the real events of the Bay of Pigs debacle and the Cuban Missiles Crisis. The use of real events alongside Fleming's fictional ones gives some gravitas to the novel, and explanatory footnotes on all the people involved - real and imagined, and the workings of the secret service all add to this pseudo-realism.
A brilliant and worthy addition to the Bond-lover's reading list - I can't wait until the next one!
(NB: Retitled as 'The moneypenny diaries: Guardian Angel' for its paperback edition).

Bond revisited
And it's done well. Kate Westbrook finds the diaries of her aunt Jane Moneypenny and delivers them for our delicitation. Each month has an introduction with some of the documents of the period and some notes about the background research Kate has done for the book. It's filled with footnotes and is a great fun read.

It's a licenced James Bond book and happens between On her Majesty's Secret Service and You Only Live Twice. You meet again some of the characters from the series and get to know some more of the backgrounds. You also get to see some of Moneypenny's activities and some of the pain that Bond suffered when his wife died in On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

It's a fun read, almost overdone but it does capture a lot of what it must have been like to be in the intelligence service in the 60's. Westbrook almost slips into having Moneypenny as too involved and with too many adventures but not quite.

I liked the book and will be passing it on to my Husband (at his request!) and although it's being billed more as a Chick-lit novel I think it will appeal to fans. Then again I've always been facinated by Moneypenny as a character, so I started out a little biased.

The thinking person's Bond girl...
The premise of The Moneypenny diaries is that Kate Westbrook is the real- life niece of Miss Jane Moneypenny and that she has inherited diaries kept by her aunt during the time she was working at MI6. The diary has then been 'verified' and annotated by Westbrook.

The diary in question is from 1962 and deals with Bond and Moneypenny's involvement in the Cuban Missile Crisis. It brings Moneypenny vividly to life and explores her history and also her search for her father, who went missing in action.

This is a really enjoyable novel, which ties in closely to Ian Flemming's Bond novels and includes cameos from some of the original characters.

It does include quite a lot of footnotes which might be off-putting for some, and although it seems to be packaged as 'chick-lit', it certainly isn't!

Highly recommended, can't wait for the next instalment!