Bloomsbury to Publish Spies and Stars MI5, Showbusiness and Me by Charlotte Bingham

The wickedly funny sequel to the MI5 and Me, described by Tatler as ‘a stone cold comic classic’, following the irrepressible Lottie’s adventures in 1950s London

London in the 1950s. Lottie is a reluctant typist at MI5 and the even more reluctant daughter of the organisation’s most illustrious spy. Now she has had the bad luck to fall in love with Harry, a handsome if frustrated young actor, who has also been press ganged into the family business, acting as one of her father’s undercover agents in the Communist hotbed of British theatre.

Together the two young lovers embark on a star-studded adventure through the glittering world of theatre – but, between missing files, disapproving parents, and their own burgeoning creative endeavours, life is about to become very complicated indeed…

  • The joyous sequel to MI5 and Me, which the BBC has optioned for two six-part series and featured on The One Show’s ‘Growing up with…’ segment, reaching 4.3 million viewer. The hardback received major coverage, including a major interview with Lynn Barber in the Sunday Times, a feature interview in Tatler and a three-part serialisation in the Daily Mail
  • Spies and Stars will publish alongside MI5 and Me in paperback and a reissue of Charlotte’s blockbusting first memoir Coronet Among the Weeds, which she wrote at 19 and became an international bestseller
  • Charlotte Bingham is the author of thirty-three international bestselling novels, which have sold over 1.3 million copies TCM. With her husband Terence Brady she also wrote classic television series including Upstairs, Downstairs and Take Three Girls
  • The dream cocktail of fun, escapism and nostalgia for fans of Nina Stibbe’s Love, Nina (68,000 TCM) and Lynn Barber’s An Education (TCM 40,000)

Reviews
“Praise for MI5 and Me: ‘Astonishing … She still has all the exuberant delight of a teenager in telling stories to make herself and other people laugh. Long may she write”- Sunday Times, Lynn Barber

“The sort of light, frothy book that makes your laugh out loud on public transport” – Daily Mail, Books of the Summer 2018

Author Biography
Charlotte Bingham wrote her first book, Coronet Among the Weeds, a memoir of her life as a debutante, at the age of 19. It was published in 1963 and became an instant bestseller. Her father, John Bingham, the 7th Baron Clanmorris, was a member of M15 where Charlotte Bingham worked as a secretary. He was an inspiration for John le Carré’s character George Smiley.

Charlotte Bingham went on to write thirty-three internationally bestselling novels and, in partnership with her late husband Terence Brady, a number of successful, plays, films and TV series including Upstairs Downstairsand Take Three Girls. She lives in Somerset.

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