“Kate Westbrook” (Samantha Weinberg)
Moneypenny Diaries (2005): Kate Westbrook, a lecturer at Cambridge, is mailed her aunts (Jane Vivian Moneypenny) diaries ten years after her death, they came from 3 different solicitors offices. Kate initially decides not to publish them as they cover the whole of her life but decides if she can verify the details she will publish them. She starts with 1962 covering the Cuban missile crisis. In 1962 Ms. Moneypenny was M’s secretary and saw everything going on in MI6 cross her desk. She is approached by unnamed, but probably East German or Russian, representatives offering her information on what happened to her father after he was captured by the Germans in WWII in return for information, Moneypenny initially doesn’t tell anyone at work even though this contravenes the contract she signed, as well as keeping the diary, eventually she tells Bill, M’s chief of staff and they work together with Dorothy Field as the information they spies are giving her infer they have a leak. As this is going on Moneypenny is worried about Bond as he recovers from the death of his wife Tracy, she flies out and retrieves him from a mission after he disappears. After heading to Miami with M to update the Americans on their intel regarding the Cubans she ends up heading to Cuba to rescue Bond, later they return to Cuba to take photos of the missiles for the Americans. During the year Moneypenny has fallen in love with an architect who she thinks might be linked to her blackmail, it turns out he is an MI6 agent who saves her from her blackmailers”Colonel Boris” when she refuses to give them any information. [MPEN1n]
For Your Eyes Only, James (2006) (short story): Moneypenny is ordered by M to accompany Bond on his annual trip to Royale-Les-Eaux and act as his alibi, Bond’s mission is to eliminate an MI6 Afghan agent about to defect to the KGB. Bond and Moneypenny set up an elaborate scene using gadgets from Q so that no one can prove Bond was absent from their room, he arrives back just in time. [MPENss1]
Secret Servant (2006): Kate Westbrook is determined to publish her aunt’s diaries even after she is fired from her job, she continues to verify her aunts details by meeting with Bill Tanner in England, traveling to Colditz and Russia and finally moving to Kenya where she meets Miles Pitman. The second installment to be published is January 1963 to April 1964. MI6 is still reeling with the uncovering of spies in Kim Philby and Prenderghast and 007’s possible death. Moneypenny continues to see the architect and they both realize they are now marked for death by the Russian; he goes undercover to solve the problem but is killed in East Berlin. 007 returns dramatically by attempting to assassinate M in his office after being brainwashed by the Russians. He is rehabilitated and sent off after Scaramanga. M requests that Moneypenny become friends with Eleanor Philby and when she requests help in Russia Moneypenny heads to Moscow to see how she can help, “Colonel Boris” discovers who she really is and sets her up by Kim Philby acting like he wishes to leave Russia, the main plan being Boris captures Moneypenny and convinces her to take him to England as a defector. Bill Tanner helps Moneypenny escape Russia and they take Boris to London where after interrogation they swap him with an MI6 agent. Moneypenny finally finds out what happened to her father during WWII. [MPEN2n]
Moneypenny’s First Date With Bond (2006) (short story): Moneypenny’s first morning as M’s private secretary leads to her calling Jame Bond to M’s office where he is promoted to the OO Section. Bond invites Moneypenny out to sinner at Scott’s and plies her with champagne and oysters. They have a lovely evening and Bond leaves her with a kiss on the cheek. Later in the week in the Powder Vine she hears a few of the typists comparing dates with Bond. Moneypenny lets Bond know she isn’t jealous just picky. [MPENss2]
Final Fling (2008): Kate Westbrook continues to research her aunts diaries. Things are going wrong at the office, a new deputy chief has been appointed from the Foreign Office and a representative has been sent from the Ministers Office to oversee the Office after the Prenderghast and Philby defections. M is adamant there is still a mole in the office. Moneypenny is sent to Jamaica to clear the clerical backlog as there is still no section chief. She feels like she is being sidelined. 009 disappears in Vienna after a failed contact with a possible KGB defector, when news of his being found and deathly ill Moneypenny joins Bond in flying back, M is not happy to see her and refuses to take her back as his private secretary. She works for the new deputy chief who she hates and decides to resign after 009’s death and 007 being fired. She discovers he was fired so he could work with M from the outside and she agrees to join them and work for the representative from the Ministers Office, he is cleverer than they think and uncovers Moneypenny meeting Bond when they had all been told he was off limits. Moneypenny explains what they were doing and Bond is reinstated but M is ousted and replaced by Sir Jack Gavascon, Moneypenny accepts his offer to be his private secretary. Kate Westbrook is still trying to uncover the mole and also why her aunt died sailing when she was an excellent sailor and the sea was calm. She discovers that her aunt had discovered who the mole was after receiving a dossier from M on his death, she summons the mole to North Uist and takes him sailing, both their bodies are washed up on the beach the next morning. Kate has become close to Ferdy McIntyre from the SIS and they decide, now she has found out what she needed to know, that they will go to Kenya. [MPEN3n]
The James Bond Lexicon 