Was there a real Miss Moneypenny?

Hubbard-Hall, Claire.  Secret Servants of the Crown: The Forgotten Women of British 

          Intelligence.  New York: Citadel Press, 2025.  ISBN: 9780806543710

 You know the scene from the James Bond movies - Bond enters or leaves M's office and interacts with Miss Moneypenny.  But was Miss Moneypenny based on a real person?  That is what Secret Servants of the Crown seeks to answer along with a number of other questions regarding the role of women in MI5 and MI6 during World War I and II.

 

Hubbard-Hall opens the book with Kathleen Pettigrew who was most likely the inspiration for Miss Moneypenny.  She was the secretary for three heads of MI6 before she retired in 1958.  She had witnessed the apprehension of Mata Hari during World War I, World War II, and the unmasking of Kim Philby.  

Hubbard-Hall then spends several chapters dealing with the roles played by women during World Wat I and the birth of MI5 and MI6 as separate entities.  There were the Lunn Sisters who spied for England in Russia and then one spied for Russia in England after the war.  Then there was the case of Olga Gray who went undercover to prevent Soviet agents from obtaining plans for a top secret weapon.  During World War II, women served in both MI5 and MI6 in England and overseas.  They were part of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) with various female agents dying during operations in occupied territories.  Then there were Rita Winsor and Ena Molesworth who traveled from Geneva across France during the German invasion to the Spanish border and then on to their new post in Lisbon.  After the war the pair set up a travel agency - International Services -  that would take high-end tourists to a variety of countries especially Soviet Union, and China.  Besides the exploits of individual members of MI5 and MI6, Hubbard-Hall outlines the behind-the-scenes work played by many in running the various indexing systems crucial to the organizations, the code-braking and the training of agents.  

So if the reader is interested in a behinds the screen look at British intelligence during the first half of the Twentieth Century, he or she should pick up Secret Servants of the Crown and find out what was actually happening!

 

The Decisive Year - Spring 1864-Spring 1865

Ellsworth, Scott.  Midnight on the Potomac: The Last Year of the Civil War, The Lincoln 

        Assassination, and The Rebirth of America.  New York: Penguin Random House, 2025.  

        ISBN: 9780593475614

 

Are you interested in American history, especially American Civil War history?  Can you name in detail what all happened during the the last 12 months of that war?  How much do you know about all the conspiracies, plots, and personalities involved on both sides?  If you do not, Scott Ellsworth has a deal for you with his book Midnight on the Potomac!

 

Scott Ellsworth organized Midnight on the Potomac in the style of a play with three acts, two intermissions, and an afterword.  Act One covered Grant's move south to The Wilderness and on to Spotsylvania and then Petersburg, the Jubal Early invasion that almost took Washington, a look at President Lincoln, the growing number of contrabands around Washington, and the nadir of Lincoln's chances for reelection.  The First Intermission was a visit to Richmond (VA) with a look at the morale and fighting spirit of the South.  Act Two opens with conspiracies and plots being hatched around Lake Erie and in Canada and the introduction of the Booth family with their conflicted loyalties.  Atlanta falls to Sherman and he heads east to the sea.  Plots are hatched and activated to kidnapped President Lincoln before Election Day (November 8, 1865) and to to burn down New York City.  The Second Intermission was a look at Christmastime in Washington and Richmond.  Act Three opens with Lewis Powell who hailed from Florida in Washington trying for a shot at Lincoln while blacks joined the Union army and others pushed for basic civil rights such as education.  Booth was still trying to kidnap Lincoln when Lincoln gave his 2nd Inaugural Address on a rainy March day.  Then there was the visit by Lincoln to City Point  (VA) to confer with General Grant which led to April 2, 1865 with the final assault on Petersburg followed quickly by the fall of Richmond and the chase of  the Army of Virginia that ended at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.  Then Booth got his shot at eternal infamy when he assassinated Lincoln on April 14, 1865.The Third Act ends with a summary of the end of the Civil War and the chase for Booth and his co-conspirators. The Aftermath opens with an interview of D. W. Griffith and Walter Huston on the making of The Birth of a Nation  and then goes on to highlight the twisting of historical events in the service of The Lost Cause, the legacies  of John Wilkes Booth and Abraham Lincoln along with all who served and died to preserve the Union and set the country free.

 

So if you want to learn about the end of the American Civil War with all its warts and triumphs, pick up Scott Ellswoth's Midnight on the Potomac and dive in!