Samantha Weinberg

Educated at St Paul's Girls' School and Trinity College, Cambridge, she is the author of books such as A Fish Caught in Time: The Search for the Coelacanth and the James Bond-inspired trilogy The Moneypenny Diaries under the alias Kate Westbrook.

In 2023, she wrote and narrated Trace of Doubt, an eight-part true crime podcast series for Audible.

[1] In 2003, she won the CWA Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction for her book Pointing from the Grave: a True Story of Murder and DNA (ISBN 0241141362), about the murder of biotechnologist Helena Greenwood in California in 1985 and the pioneering use of DNA profiling in tracing her killer 15 years later.

When Weinberg's agent, Gillon Aitken, was appointed the literary adviser to Ian Fleming Publications, she and Aitken pitched their idea for a series of James Bond novels centred on the character of Miss Moneypenny, M's personal secretary.

[2] In 2010, Weinberg became the Green Party candidate for the new seat of Chippenham in Wiltshire, standing under her married name.