Dame Stella Rimington joined the Security Service (MI5) in 1968. During her career she worked in all the main fields of the Service: counter-subversion, counter-espionage and counter-terrorism. She was appointed Director General in 1992, the first woman to hold the post. Now the author of the bestselling Liz Carlyle series of espionage thrillers as well as two books in the Manon Tyler series, she lives in London and Norfolk.