Scala Radio Book Club: The Devil’s Bargain by Stella Rimington
A brand-new spy thriller from the former Head of M15
Last updated 17th Aug 2022
In the Scala Radio Book Club this week, Mark Forrest chatted to author and former Head of M15, Stella Rimington on her brand-new spy thriller The Devil’s Bargain.
Harry Bristow: policeman, father, chauffeur, fraud. In 1988, Harry made one mistake: he took a bribe, letting a man he knew as Igor into Britain - and he's regretted it ever since. So when he recognises Igor many years later as his newly-elected MP, he knows he has to come clean. But the MP recognises him too - and Harry fears what he might do next.
Peter Robinson, MP: salesman, politician, bachelor, spy. It was easy to get into Britain in 1988 as an illegal, working deep undercover, but the break-up of the Soviet Union cut Robinson off from his homeland. He's inching closer to Britain's levers of power - but now the one man who knows his secret has reappeared. With no way to contact Moscow, he must act fast to preserve his position and reap its rewards - at any cost.
Manon Tyler, CIA analyst, has just boarded a plane to London - with a report on Russian illegals to read.
From the author of The Moscow Sleepers, The Devil’s Bargain sees CIA analyst Manon Tyler arrive in London investigating illegal Russians and hitting on a web of corruption and deceit right at the heart of Westminster.
Mark began the interview asking, ‘Your main character worked her way through MI5, much like you had done. Here we have the CIA, MI5 and the police. It is fascinating as an outside observer to look at the relationship between those various agencies and the way they play out because they are all supposed to be working toward the same goal. What sort of tensions do exist and did exist when you were Director-General?’
‘In my experience, relationships were very good between the British intelligence services and the Americans,’ said Stella. ‘When I first started working at MI5, in the beginning of the 70s, relations between MI5 and the police were a lot more strained than they are now. Nowadays, they all work very closely together. The main target for many years has been countering terrorism, and the police play an enormous part in that because the police are the only ones who have the power to arrest. Our intelligence services are all civilian.’
Mark asked, ‘The security information that was being shared, certainly by MI5 in this country, was all about homegrown far-right terrorism, as well as the threat from Al-Qaeda and its sympathisers. We were consistently told that those groups are the biggest worry for the intelligence services and therefore for the country. I wonder as a former MI5 chief, how worried are you that we took our eyes off Russia?’
‘Well, I do wonder whether we did,’ said Stella. ‘The difficulty, of course with intelligence services, like every other part of the government, is that you don't have an infinite amount of resource. Obviously, you have to put your resource where you assess that the most serious threat is, and it well may be that during the period after I left, I think there was a very great increase in the threat from terrorism.’
Mark then turned his attention to Stella’s personal life. ‘You spent your whole professional life, keeping secrets, it's what you were paid to do. How easy is it to get more openness into your personal friendships and relationships, when you've had such a strict professional background?’
Stella said, ‘It's not easy, that's quite true. I mean, particularly when I first joined the service, everything was very, very secretive. We were told, you mustn't tell anybody where you work, not even your closest relatives. I think it does have a long-term effect on one's attitude to making friendships and relationships. It’s something you come to live with really.’
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