麻豆社

Most people, at some point in their life, will have been a willing or reluctant member of a team. Whether it was a college year, an army regiment, a business team, a cricket match, am dram theatricals, the pub quiz or the Girl Guides, group photos are our souvenirs - fond or grim reminders of a previous way of life and the people who shared it. In this series, five writers take out a team photograph from their past and take a forensic and philosophical look at the shared strangeness of a moment preserved.

Stella Rimington considers a photograph commemorating a cricket match between the Ladies team from the British High Commission and the Ladies of the Roshanara Club in Delhi, 1966.

Stella Rimington lived in India between 1965 and 1969, having travelled out there with her husband John Rimington, when he was appointed First Secretary (Economic) for the British High Commission in Delhi. She joined the Security Service (MI5) in 1965 and was appointed Director-General in 1992. She was the first woman to hold the post and the first Director-General whose name was publicly announced on appointment. Following her retirement from MI5 in 1996, she became a non-executive director of Marks and Spencer and published her autobiography, Open Secret (Arrow 2002). Her first novel, At Risk, was published in 2004.

Produced by Emma Harding.