Churchill was appointed prime minister on 10 May. On the morning of 11 May Sir Horace Wilson (now referred to by all and sundry as Sir Horace Quisling), clean-shaven and impeccably dressed as usual, came to 10, Downing Street and, as if nothing had happened, proceeded to his room next to the PM’s office (under Chamberlain, Wilson had offices both in the Treasury, where he is permanent undersecretary and Head of the Civil Service, and in 10, Downing Street). However, when he opened the door, he found ‘German paratroopers’ inside, who had descended and occupied his room at night: red-headed Brendan Bracken was sitting at his desk and Randolph Churchill had made himself comfortable on the couch. The two ‘paratroopers’ looked meaningfully at Wilson, and Wilson looked meaningfully at the ‘paratroopers’. Not a single word was uttered. Sir Horace withdrew.

Then Wilson was invited to see the new prime minister. Churchill asked him to sit down and said: ‘Sir Horace, I’ve heard you have plenty of work in the Treasury.’

Churchill paused and added even more emphatically: ‘Yes, Sir Horace, plenty of work!’

Wilson kept a respectful silence, studying his fingertips.

Churchill sighed and continued with a threatening note in his voice: ‘If I learn that you, Sir Horace, are engaged in anything other than Treasury business, …a different job will be found for you, say, …as governor of Iceland!’

The audience was over. And Wilson’s career as the British prime minister’s ‘chief adviser’ on all matters, particularly matters of foreign policy, was over, too.

Does this signify the end of Wilson’s career as a whole? Has he left the historical stage? Who knows?…