October 12, 2003

THE cover of Stella Rimington’s book has all the ingredients to attract readers fond of true espionage stories. The title of the book Open Secrets, her spooky photo on the cover, her credentials as the Director General of MI5, the British counter-intelligence organization, all lure the reader with the promise of real life cloak and dagger adventures. However, as one leafs through her early life, spent in modest circumstances, and then on to her late formal career, starting at 34, in 1969, it becomes evident that it is a very interesting book indeed, but in a different way.

“I am not and never was ‘housewife super-spy’, but a 20th century woman who by chance found herself at the centre of some great national events and some big social changes. My story illustrates, in a sometimes extreme form, the balancing act that many modern women have to perform between the requirements of home, career and family. Most women don’t resolve the conflict to their own satisfaction and neither have I.”

Open Secret is more about an energetic and ambitious single mother climbing a career ladder in a male dominated environment. A career journey which begins as an obscure ‘assistant officer’ in hidden offices of an out of sight organization, and gradually builds up to her becoming its boss, grabbing international headlines. It is revealing to learn about the gender bias she had to confront in one of the most advanced countries of the world.

The book starts when the author is four. It gives a detailed account of the author’s parents and brother and her life in the 1930s and 40s, including the hardships she faced due to the war, as well as, the financial limitations of Rimington’s family. Almost one third of the book covers the period before she formally embarks on her illustrious career in the MI5. It includes the leisurely period spent in India where her husband worked as First Secretary in the British embassy. The account of their road journey from Delhi to Kabul during this period and their adventurous encounters with the tribals (one of them due to her scanty dress) is an interesting episode.

“This is a straightforward and honest account of my life so far, as I remember it. That life includes 27 years spent working in the Security Service (MI5). But I have not set out to write a history of British counter-espionage or counter terrorism during that period, just a recollection of what now, in retrospect, seem to me to be personal highlights. It has been written without access to any papers of official information and I have never kept a diary.” The names of Sophie and Harriet, her daughters, seem to pop up after every few pages, illustrating the tug between the demands of her career and home. Something you don’t expect in a book by a male spymaster. However, she does offer a sort of a solution she calls ‘compartmentalizing’ her life.

It is interesting to note how gender biased the British public service has been until recently and perhaps continues to be so.

“The policy was that men were recruited as what were called ‘officers’, while women had their own career structure, a second-class career, as ‘assistant officers’. They did all sorts of support work — collating, indexing, ensuring the papers were filed in the right place and simple, straight forward enquiries, but not the sharp-end intelligence gathering operation.”

From working in a secretive organization where even the neighbours did not know what she did, nor for that matter her own family, the name Stella Rimington exploded into the headlines and tabloids as an intriguing celebrity when she became the first woman Director General of MI5. She had her share of fan mail as well as hate mail after becoming a public figure. This experience is narrated in some detail and forms a good read.

Later on after her retirement and her involvement with private organizations and their way of working, the writer draws illuminating comparisons between the manner in which public and private services are run. That includes their management styles and approach towards career development of their respective employees.

“As the first publicly named Director-General of MI5 and the first woman to hold that post, my career has generated much interest, particularly among other women. It was in response to that interest that I decided to try to write an autobiography, though I realized that it would be difficult to strike the balance between readability and the necessary discretion when I came to write about my time in MI5.”

Nevertheless, Stella Rimington did have her share of the sharp-end of spy work in the field as a ‘spotter’, ‘recruiter’ and ‘agent-handler’. She was actively involved in debriefing of defectors from the opposite camps. In fact she has very frankly narrated how she squeezed quick trips home to attend to her daughters between her duties at safe-houses. Her visits, meetings and professional work with her counterparts in the US, Soviet Union, New Zealand, Germany, Ireland and other countries also features in the book.

The first edition of this book was published three days before 9/11. This later edition was published in 2002, and includes a preface in which the author has contributed her views about the global terrorism based on her experience in the United Kingdom as well as in other regions of the world.

Stella Rimington has an impressive list of accomplishments as the first women in a male dominated profession and the British establishment. To make it from modest beginnings and without a family name or title to go by, to become adviser and companion of two British prime ministers is, indeed, remarkable. The book has sufficient material to keep both, the spy buffs and professional working women, pleasantly engrossed.

 

Open Secret

By Stella Rimington

Arrow Books, London, UK

ISBN 0099436728

296pp. £7.99

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