Cheats, liars and criminals may resist every blandishment while respectable gentlemen have been moved to appalling treasons by watery cabbage in a departmental canteen.

It's a principle of mine to come into the story as late as possible, and to tell it as fast as you can.

Agents of disruption, subversion, sabotage and disinformation tunnelers and smugglers, listeners and forgers, trainers and recruiters and talent spotters and couriers and watchers and seducers, assassins and balloonists, lip readers and disguise artists.

What else has a journalist to do these days, after all, but report life's miseries?

Cheats, liars and criminals may resist every blandishment while respectable gentlemen have been moved to appalling treasons by watery cabbage in a departmental canteen.

During the Cold War, we lived in coded times when it wasn't easy and there were shades of grey and ambiguity.

More particularly, having a largely German-oriented education has made me very responsive to 19th-century German literature.