It has often been said that the intelligence services of the major powers present observers with a “wilderness of mirrors”. That is demonstrated, yet again, in Paul Monk’s otherwise intelligent and carefully drawn article “Christopher Andrew and the Strange Case of Roger Hollis” (Quadrant, April 2010). First an admission. Christopher Andrew is an old personal and academic friend of mine and is well able to respond himself, if he wishes. Furthermore, I have not yet read his Defence of the Realm and can therefore not comment directly on it. But a few words on the background of matters that exercise…