The reappearance, almost eighty years after it was banned, of the uncensored version of Greek Memories, Compton Mackenzie’s memoir of his time as MI6 – then MI1(c) – head of station in Athens in the middle of the First World War, is something of a literary event. Its original publication in 1932 led to Mackenzie's conviction under the Official Secrets Act. 

Among Mackenzie’s alleged offences was to have revealed the identity of the first Chief of MI6, Sir Mansfield Cumming. When Mackenzie was posted to Athens, even he did not know Cumming’s identity and was told to refer to the Chief simply as ‘C’ (a designation still used by today’s