Penney reverses her Madoff losses

One of the victims of Bernie Madoff's get-rich-quick investment schemes, Alexandra Penney (pictured), has secured a lucrative book deal off the back of a series of blogs she has written for the US gossip website The Daily Beast in which she whinges about her ordeals after losing her life savings.

As reported here, Penney, a well-heeled denizen of New York, self-styled artist and the former editor of Self magazine, became the figure of public ridicule when she began writing about the privations she was suffering as a result of Madoff's fraud. To the glee of Daily Beast readers, she openly worried about whether she would have to fire her maid, Yolanda, saying that in order survive she needed someone to press her 40 white shirts.

The response to this was not generous. "Get in line with the rest of us at WalMart," wrote one Beast reader. "I'm glad you lost your money," said another. She also revealed how she had taken her first subway ride in 30 years, and how Dennis [her 'consort' as she calls him] had to show her how to get a MetroCard. "Boo hoo. I'll cry all night," responded a reader.

But this has not stopped Penney, who writes under the byline the 'Bag Lady on The Daily Beast', charming the US publisher Hyperion into giving her a book contract. "I think she's really struck a nerve," said Ellen Archer, her publisher. "There are a lot of us, even those of us with paychecks, who are worried that we can end up on the streets.

“Even those of us who haven't invested with Bernie Madoff have taken a lot of financial hits and watching her navigate these difficult waters provides a lot of people with reassurance."

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