Re-writing the spy in the age of jihadi terrorism: Stella Rimington's <i>At Risk</i>

Abstract

This article examines a historically unique text, the first novel by former British spy chief Stella Rimington. Published after 9/11 but before the London bombings of 2005, At Risk describes a new and as-yet unquantified threat, home-grown jihadi terrorism. Rimington was Director General of MI5 at a time of profound change, fighting hard to re-sell it as an agency committed to the doctrine of security-in-democracy. By the time the novel was published in 2004, however, counter-terrorism and the policies and practices surrounding the US ‘War on Terror’ had become an immensely contentious area. How possible is it to address the threat of home-grown extremism, the novel asks, while continuing to respect the human and legal rights of terror suspects? In 2004 there had never been a successful jihadi terrorist attack on British soil. The novel attempts to foresee the path that such an attack might follow and also to delineate two possible models of the would-be jihadi terrorist. At the time she was writing, we now know, actual terrorist plans were also being developed that would lead to the devastating London bombings of 2005. The essay compares Rimington's imagined scenario with the events she sought to anticipate, offering a rare insight into the thought process of Britain's most successful woman spy.