I grew up in a completely bookless household. It was my father's boast that he had never read a book from end to end.

The monsters of our childhood do not fade away, neither are they ever wholly monstrous. But neither, in my experience, do we ever reach a plane of detachment regarding our parents, however wise and old we may become. To pretend otherwise is to cheat.

We have learned in recent years to translate almost all of political life in terms of conspiracy. And the spy novel, as never before, really, has come into its own.

Never trade a secret, you'll always get the short end of the bargain.

I worked for MI6 in the Sixties, during the great witch-hunts, when the shared paranoia of the Cold War gripped the services.

But there is a big difference in working for the West and working for a totalitarian state.

All men are born free: just not for long.