From the author of Sisters of the Resistance comes the story of WWII British Naval Intelligence officer Victoire Bennett, the real-life inspiration for the James Bond character Miss Moneypenny, whose international covert operation is put in jeopardy when a volatile socialite and Austrian double agent threatens to expose the mission to German High Command.
We chat with author Christine Wells about One Woman’s War, along with writing, book recommendations, and more!
Hi, Christine! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hello! Thank you for having me. I write historical fiction and I live in Brisbane, Australia, which is a short plane flight north of Sydney.
When did you first discover your love for writing?
As soon as I could write, I loved to make up stories, but became very frustrated when my imagination outstripped my ability to print. The first creation I remember was a book I wrote and illustrated for my sixth grade teacher’s new baby. However, it wasn’t until I was working as a lawyer in my twenties that I challenged myself to write a full novel.
Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!
The first books I remember reading were the Berenstain Bears. A book that made me want to become an author was Anne of Green Gables. A book I have never been able to get out of my head is The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. It had a profound effect on me.
Your new novel, One Woman’s War, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Meet the real Miss Moneypenny. (Or if you want superlatives: gripping, intriguing, eccentric, witty, glamorous.)
What can readers expect?
One Woman’s War is the story of the real woman who is generally thought to have been the inspiration behind the James Bond character of Miss Moneypenny. In World War II Britain, Victoire “Paddy” Bennett works at the Directorate of Naval Intelligence for Ian Fleming before going on to participate in one of the most eccentric and effective wartime deceptions of all time: Operation Mincemeat.
Where did the inspiration for One Woman’s War come from?
I’m a bit obsessed with spies and I had been reading biographies of Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond novels. Fleming himself worked for the intelligence arm of the British Royal Navy during World War II and it’s where he gleaned the inspiration for James Bond. Some of the less likely plots in those novels were based on real events, such as when Bond emerges from the Mediterranean in scuba gear, strips off to reveal a dinner suit and then swans into a casino in Thunderball—that actually happened in WWII! Researching further, I stumbled across a newspaper article about the women in Fleming’s life—most of them strong, witty, and clever—quite different from the stereotype of the “Bond girl” he wrote about.
Quite a few different women have been touted as inspiration for Miss Moneypenny and the truth is that of course, probably more than one woman did inspire that character, but because Fleming took so much Bond-lore from his time in Naval Intelligence, where Paddy worked for him as a secretary, she seemed to best fit the bill. And Paddy was such a clever, forthright, strong woman in her own right with such an interesting story, I couldn’t resist writing about her.
Can you tell us a bit about the challenges you faced while writing and how you were able to overcome them?
History has largely ignored women like Paddy Bennett—she was not even mentioned in most of the literature around Operation Mincemeat—so there was a paucity of information about her role at the Admiralty and the only statements about what she had done for Operation Mincemeat seemed to come from newspaper articles and obituaries.
Another challenge was devising an external conflict for Paddy. After the team in London set up Operation Mincemeat on their side, all they could do was wait to see whether it worked. All of the “opposition” to their plan happens in Spain and Germany. So I introduced an antagonist who could be present in London at the time Operation Mincemeat was taking place and travel to Lisbon and Berlin to be on the spot to see how German High Command reacted to the deception. I had to use my imagination for that story thread—enter Austrian double agent Friedl Gärtner who throws a spanner into the works. Friedl was a real person but I fictionalized her involvement in Mincemeat.
Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I love Paddy’s forthrightness and efficiency (perhaps because I’m a bit lacking in those areas myself). She is very much a “take charge” kind of person and I enjoyed writing the scenes where she does exactly that. Friedl was a glamorous socialite and fun to write because she had such a wayward personality. There is a scene where she is walking home in a very daring evening dress at night and gets rounded up by the police along with the local prostitutes and spends the night in a jail cell. This actually happened to her on more than one occasion!
Can you tell us a bit about your research process? Were there any interesting tidbits you discovered?
There were so many interesting pieces of James Bond trivia that emerged from my research. The origins of the code name “M,” for example, and the real-life Bond figure, Duško Popov and his “Casino Royale” gamble with MI-6 money. More poignantly, I learned about the tragic death of one of Ian Fleming’s girlfriends, which probably informed the scenes where he writes about the death of Tracy Draco, James Bond’s wife in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.
I was able to read Friedl Gärtner’s MI-5 file, which is in the British National Archives. That was pure research gold. And a very special part of the research for this book was when a fellow author and friend, A.M. Stuart, told me that her uncle, Pen Slade, had worked with Fleming at the Directorate of Naval Intelligence (Room 39 of the Admiralty). She sent me a memoir filled with excerpts from Pen’s letters home at that time and his amusing cartoons and poems about Room 39.
What’s the best and the worst writing advice you have received?
The worst was not advice, as such, but I belonged to a critique group early on in my writing life that made me so anxious about certain writing “rules” that must not be broken that it hampered my creativity for quite some time. These days, I advise writers I mentor to be very careful about choosing critique partners and groups.
The best writing advice I’ve ever received is to focus on writing as your number one priority. At the end of the day, publishing is a fickle business and all that is within your control are the words that go on the page. And of course, it’s only by actually writing that you can improve your craft.
What’s next for you?
My next book is about an orphan who grows up in the luxurious Shepheard’s Hotel in Cairo. When she goes in search of her parents in England and Paris as an adult, she is told that she’s the illegitimate daughter of Edward VIII (who later abdicated the British throne and became the Duke of Windsor) and an infamous French courtesan called Princess Marguerite Fahmy.
Lastly, what have been some of your favourite reads this year? Are there any upcoming releases you’re looking forward to reading in 2023?
I have so many favourites, but I’ll pick two: One is Mick Herron’s latest book in the Slow Horses series, Bad Actors. I think he is such a terrific writer and his cast of misfits from MI-5 is so dysfunctional and delicious. Another powerful book I loved was Kate Quinn’s The Diamond Eye about a female Russian sniper in World War II who becomes friendly with Eleanor Roosevelt.
In 2023 I’m looking forward to Stephanie Marie Thornton’s Her Lost Words, which is about early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft and her daughter, Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein.
