Mickey J. Corrigan

Stella Rimington: Housewife Superspy

The first female
Director General
of Security Service MI5
the first to be outed
the first to openly pose
for official photos
for the world to see
her private life
ruined by exposure
she later re-exposed
in her memoir, novels.

Stella Whitehouse of London
frightened child in hiding
from bombs and blitzes
during World War Two
took English at Edinburgh
Archive Admin in Liverpool
then fell into work
for British Intelligence.

After she married
she worked in London
for the Foreign Office
as an archivist
in the India Office Library
until her husband got promoted
to a diplomatic post
in India she was bored
as a diplomat's wife
hosting, volunteering
serving tea with a smile.

So she took on a job
as a part-time typist
for the British Embassy
in New Delhi

her new boss: MI5.

Stella Rimington: The Female James Bond

Back in London, new mother
a baby daughter
and a low-level job
junior desk officer
MI5 restricted women
to clerical work, no sharp-end
no street work, no spying
women left their desks
only to refill coffee
or tidy safe houses.

She noted the need
for updating the Service
as she worked her way up
through counter espionage
during the Cold War
counter subversion
the fear of communism
then, counter terrorism
the extremists
a long line of nannies
au pairs, family time
juggling, always juggling
anxiety her constant companion
an ever-present shadow.

First woman at the top
not asked, just handed
what she later called
a poisoned chalice
the world expecting James Bond
not a middle-aged single mom
balancing girls with global crises
her identity immediately revealed
by Ministerial decree
the news exploding
her long secret life

as the veils began to fall
the Service not so secret
threats and ugly nicknames
reporters stalked her home
she was forced underground
her daughters in tow.

Reckless Rimington

All those years alone
pushing up the glass ceiling
pushing to do active work
to run agents, to recruit
to be out in the streets
a mobile spy, or static
in flats, houses, cars
observing, reporting
so in her new position
she hired young men
right out of university
and women with skills
as good or better.

She oversaw the move
from scattered secret spots
all over London
to a modern building
by the dark river
often swollen with rain
Thames House now famous
on TV, in interviews
standing firm under fire
in the harsh glare
of the public eye.

By the time she retired
MI5 had transformed:
no longer stuffy, old-
school not all-male
but young men and
women on active work
eavesdropping, phone tapping
running agents and sources
"M" played by Dame Judy
in the new Bond films.

Her memoir was vetted
by an outraged MI5
but readers loved it
how she changed Security Service
their cult of excessive secrecy
how she shared stories
as active agent Liz Carlyle
in her spy novels too.

 

Originally from Boston, Mickey J. Corrigan hides out in the lush ruins of South Florida. She writes pulp fiction, literary crime, and psychological thrillers. Her poems have appeared in literary journals and chapbooks. A collection of biographical poems on 20th century poets is in press with Clare Songbirds Publishing.